The archive · Subject catalogue
Backing and custody | Numiscue subject catalogue
Read the questions on either side of holding a token: what stands behind it, who holds the assets and what the holder can actually do. The stablecoin records and backing guide sit alongside the first-purchase guide, whose final step is deciding where the coins will live.
Tether (USDT): what an attestation actually says
Tether publishes quarterly assurance opinions, not audits. What the difference means in practice, what the reports cover, and what they do not tell you.
USDC: how its backing differs from Tether's
USDC and USDT hold the same peg through different structures. Issuer, reserve vehicle and redemption path all differ, and each difference matters.
Stablecoins: what actually backs the big ones
Fiat-reserved, overcollateralised and algorithmic designs fail differently. What one-to-one backing means depends on who holds what, and who can redeem.
Buying your first token: account to storage
You have read about a coin and decided to buy it. Here is the whole path: where it trades, opening an account, verification, the pair, and afterwards.
Wrapped tokens: who actually holds the original coin
WBTC, WETH and bridged coins all say one-to-one. The difference is whether a contract, a custodian or a bridge holds the original, and how each one fails.
What stETH, rETH and other liquid staking tokens are a claim on
How stETH, wstETH, rETH and Solana stake pool tokens represent staked coins, why a stETH balance is recalculated after oracle reports and can fall as well as rise, and how each one is redeemed or loses value.