Coin columns · Ethereum City (Capital)
TrueUSD (TUSD): An Early Dollar Stablecoin Shaken by Reserve Disputes
A 2018 fiat-backed coin caught up in reserve litigation
TrueUSD (TUSD) is a dollar stablecoin (a coin designed to stay at one dollar) launched in 2018 and described as backed by dollar deposits. Since 2024 it has also faced a regulatory settlement, reserve lawsuits and a bankruptcy filing by related companies.
1. Made by TrustToken, now owned by Techteryx
TUSD was launched on Ethereum in March 2018 by the US startup TrustToken. It was an early stablecoin that stressed transparency: coins were issued only against deposited money, and outside attestation reports were meant to show that the money really existed.
TUSD later came to be owned by Techteryx, a company with Hong Kong ties, and its reserves were entrusted to the Hong Kong trustee First Digital Trust. On the Crypto Nation map, TUSD stands in Ethereum City (the capital), because Ethereum is where it was first issued.
2. Deposit dollars, receive coins one for one
TUSD works like other fiat-backed stablecoins. A user who deposits dollars receives the same amount of TUSD, and returning the coin redeems dollars. The operators promised to hold the money in bank and trust accounts and short-term instruments, with attestations by outside firms.
The key question is where the reserves are and whether they can really be redeemed on demand. A smart contract (a self-running program) moves the coins in plain view, but the dollars behind them cannot be verified on-chain, so users must trust custodians and reports.
3. Where it is used, and what happened
TUSD has been used for exchange trading pairs, DeFi deposits and transfers, though its role today is narrower than that of USDT or USDC. It began on Ethereum and was later issued on blockchains such as TRON and BNB Chain.
The main dates are its launch in March 2018, a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in September 2024, a freezing order from a Dubai court in October 2025, and a US bankruptcy filing by related companies in February 2026. Details follow below.
4. Things to know
The SEC said TrueCoin and TrustToken marketed TUSD as safe and fully backed by dollars while investing a large part of the reserve in a risky offshore fund; the two companies settled without admitting or denying this and agreed to pay penalties and disgorgement. Separately, its owner Techteryx has argued in court that about $456 million of reserves became tied up in investments linked to the Dubai trade-finance firm Aria Commodities, which disputes the claims. TRON founder Justin Sun was reported to have funded TUSD to avert a liquidity crisis.
In April 2025 Sun claimed that First Digital Trust, the trustee that held the reserves, was ‘effectively insolvent’, which the firm denied. A stablecoin has no deposit insurance, so its one-dollar value depends on reserves that really exist and can be redeemed, and these cases show how hard that is to verify. Check current disclosures and exchange notices before dealing with it.
Written from information public up to October 2026. It does not recommend or rate any coin and is not investment advice. If something is wrong, please tell us through the contact page.