Not by a mile. USDC are emitted by a consortium which the HN unicorn Coinbase is a major part of. They have something like 73% of USDC in actual USD and the rest are corporate bonds / money markets and things like that. It's not 100% USD, but they're 100% backed.

Coinbase is a reputable US company ran by US citizens.

USDT is operated by shady people with an history of fraud from shady micro countries on the dark list of fiscal havens.

They are nothing similar.

I do believe there are actual people wiring a lot of real USD / EUR to Coinbase's bank accounts to buy crypto. I'm really not so sure there are people actually wiring lots of money to Tether's bahamas bank accounts. I'm not sure many ever did.

I really don't get this: Coinbase is a HN unicorn. Do you think it's a gigantic fraud / scam and there aren't a shitload of real people putting a shitload of freaking real money to Coinbase's very real bank accounts?