This article introduces @usualmoney, a RWA decentralized stablecoin, explaining its mechanism and specific participation methods. We welcome your likes, subscribe, and shares.

Why Usual?

Stablecoins can be considered the foundation of the cryptocurrency industry. People need stablecoins for large-scale payment use cases, and they play a crucial role in the industry’s mass adoption. As of July 30, 2024, the total market value of stablecoins is $168B. From the stablecoin market value overview chart below, we can see that the two major centralized stablecoins, USDT and USDC, together account for about 90% of the total stablecoin market value.

Source: Defillama, data as of July 30, 2024

Stablecoins are the money-printing machines of #Crypto. The two giants, Tether and Circle, generated over $10 billion in revenue in 2023, with valuations exceeding $200 billion. Tether even set a record profit of $4.52 billion in Q1 2024. Such enormous profit monopoly clearly contradicts the crypto spirit, which is why various decentralized stablecoin projects keep emerging. Based on collateral ratios, decentralized stablecoins can be categorized into over-collateralized (represented by MakerDAO’s DAI), fully-collateralized (represented by Ethena’s USDe), and under-collateralized (currently no projects with large market capitalization).

While there have been successful decentralized stablecoin projects, their collateral is typically crypto assets, requiring a sophisticated mechanism to counter price volatility. However, by introducing #RWA (Real World Assets), this problem can be easily solved. RWA is growing and emerging, with over 800% growth on blockchain in 2023. http://usual.money introduces U.S. Treasury bills as collateral, while providing transparency and security through Ethereum smart contracts, returning profits to the community and contributors. This design can be described as tether-on-chain, combining the 1:1 RWA characteristics of centralized stablecoin protocols with on-chain security and transparency.

Image source: https://docs.usual.money/start-here/why-usual…

Background

On April 17, 2024, Usual Labs completed a $7 million funding round, led by IOSG and Kraken Ventures, with participation from GSR, Mantle, Starkware, Flowdesk, Avid3, Bing Ventures, Breed, Hypersphere, Kima Ventures, Psalion, Public Works, and X Ventures.

The founder, Pierre Person, is a former French politician and member of the National Assembly. He recently served as the vice-president of the presidential party and led the push for crypto asset legislation in the country.

Usual announced its mainnet launch on July 10. As of August 6, the project’s TVL (Total Value Locked) was $146M.

According to Coinmarketcap data from August 6, nearly 95% of USD0 trading occurs in the USD0/USDC pool on Curve, with $11.33M in liquidity. Additionally, there’s a liquidity pool (LP) for Aave’s stablecoin GHO and USD0 on Maverick Protocol, currently with a TVL of $100k.

Currently, USD0 has a vault on the lending project Morpho, curated by MEV Capital, with USD0USD0++/USDC and USD0++/USDC liquidity pools. These pools have a total collateral of nearly $30M at an 86% LLTV (Liquidation Loan-to-Value ratio). Through this pool, users can earn both Usual’s Pills rewards (detailed in the interaction section at the end) and Morpho token rewards.

The $USUAL Token Generation Event (TGE) is expected in Q4 2024, with 90% of USUAL tokens allocated to the community.

Mechanism Analysis

Collateral and Minting

$USD0 is the first RWA stablecoin that aggregates various U.S. Treasury bill tokens. It can be minted on Usual in two different ways:

1. Direct RWA deposit: Users deposit eligible RWA into the protocol and receive an equivalent amount of USD0 at a 1:1 ratio.

2. Indirect USDC/USDT deposit: Users deposit USDC/USDT into the protocol and receive USD0 at a 1:1 ratio. This indirect method involves third-party collateral providers who supply the necessary RWA collateral. This allows users to obtain USD0 without directly handling RWA.

While RWA growth has been significant, it still represents only a small portion of the crypto market’s underlying assets. The main challenges lie in liquidity issues, including difficulties for institutions in liquidating RWA holdings in secondary markets, and retail investors’ inability to access RWA returns in core DeFi ecosystems. Through USD0, Usual can seamlessly integrate RWA token liquidity from platforms like Hashnote.

Yields

· $USD0++ is an appreciating Treasury bill, a wrapped and locked version of USD0.

· $USUAL is the governance and reward token for the Usual protocol.

· Yields come from staking: Users lock their USD0 in USD0 Liquid Bond (USD0++) for a period of time. Yields can be chosen from two options:

1. USUAL yield: Liquid Bond holders can claim their yields daily (calculated per block) in the form of USUAL tokens.

2. Base interest guarantee: This ensures USD0++ holders receive at least the yield equivalent to USD0 collateral (risk-free yield). To achieve this, users must lock their USD0++ for a specified period (currently designed as a 6-month cycle). At the end of this period, users can choose to claim the base interest guarantee in the form of USUAL tokens or USD0’s risk-free yield.

It’s important to note that USD0++ holders are automatically entitled to claim USUAL tokens, regardless of whether USD0++ was obtained through primary issuance or secondary markets.

Interaction

Pills Activity Overview

· The pre-launch phase starts from July 10 at 0:00 UTC and lasts for 4 months.

· Airdrop amount: 7.5% of the total $USUAL supply minted at the Token Generation Event (TGE).

· Users can earn $USUAL airdrop allocation through a referral program and TVL contributions. This is similar to Ethena’s pill farming activity.

· Linear distribution: The more you deposit, the more you get.

Detailed Interactive Guide

1.Open Usual Money dApp: https://app.usual.money/#ZHWQS. Or enter through the official website and enter the early access code: ZHWQS

2.Deposit USDC, USDT, ETH to mint USD0 (Ethereum mainnet). Click on the link to mint: https://app.usual.money/counter/deposit

3.How to earn pills:

a. By minting and holding USD0++

· Minting: Users can earn 5 pills each time they lock USD0 into USD0++.

· Holding: Users holding USD0++ can get 3 pills per day.

b. By providing liquidity

· USD0/USDC Pool: Users who provide liquidity in Curve’s USD0/USDC pool can earn 1 pill per day.

· USD0/USD0++ Pool:

*Users who contribute USD0 to the pool can receive 3 pills per day.

*For each USD0++ minted, you will also receive 5 pills, distributed proportionally to the USD0 LP in the pool.

*Note: Contributing USD0++ to this pool will not generate any pills.

Also, there is a time multiplier that starts at 1 and increases by 2% every day. Reset to 1 if a user exits their location.

4.Add liquidity to get pills: Select the USD0/USD0++ option and enter the USD0 amount. Link: https://app.usual.money/desk/liquidity

Pills Event Second Phase

On August 4, Usual released the second phase of the event, where you can earn Pills by completing tasks on Galxe. Event link: https://app.galxe.com/quest/usual/GCsgvtvTNA

Disclaimer：

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2. Liability Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute any investment advice.
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