RWA Decentralization stablecoin newcomer: Usual Money

Stablecoins, as the cornerstone of the cryptocurrency industry, play a key role in large-scale payments and industry adoption. As of the end of July 2024, the total market value of stablecoins reached $168 billion, with the two major centralized stablecoins, USDT and USDC, accounting for approximately 90% of the market share.

The stablecoin business is highly profitable, with Tether and Circle generating over $10 billion in revenue combined in 2023, and a valuation exceeding $200 billion. Tether recorded a historic profit of $4.52 billion in the first quarter of 2024. This enormous profit monopoly is contrary to the spirit of cryptocurrency, prompting a continuous emergence of various decentralized stablecoin projects.

Although decentralized stablecoins have successful cases, they mainly rely on crypto assets as collateral and require complex mechanisms to deal with coin price fluctuations. Introducing real-world assets (RWA) can effectively solve this problem. In 2023, RWA on the blockchain grew by over 800%, showing tremendous potential.

Usual Money innovatively introduces U.S. Treasury bonds as collateral, combines them with Ethereum smart contracts to provide transparency and security, and returns profits to the community and contributors. This design can be seen as "on-chain Tether," integrating the 1:1 RWA characteristics of centralized stablecoins with the security and transparency advantages of blockchain.

Project Background

In April 2024, Usual Labs completed a $7 million funding round, led by IOSG and Kraken Ventures. Founder Pierre Person previously served as a member of the French National Assembly, advocating for cryptocurrency legislation in the country.

On July 10, the Usual mainnet was launched. By early August, the total locked value (TVL) reached 146 million USD. Its stablecoin USD0 is primarily traded in the Curve USD0/USDC pool, with a liquidity of approximately 11.33 million USD.

Currently, there is a vault managed by MEV Capital on the lending platform Morpho, with total collateral in the USD0/USDC and USD0++/USDC liquidity pools approaching 30 million dollars. Users can earn both Usual's Pills rewards and Morpho token rewards simultaneously.

Usual plans to conduct the token generation event ( TGE ) in the fourth quarter of 2024, with 90% of the USUAL tokens allocated to the community.

Core Mechanism

Mortgage and Minting

USD0 is the first RWA stablecoin that aggregates various U.S. Treasury bond tokens, which can be minted in two ways:

1. Direct RWA deposit: Users deposit qualified RWA at a 1:1 ratio to receive USD0.
2. Indirect USDC/USDT deposits: Users deposit USDC/USDT, with RWA collateral provided by a third-party provider, to obtain USD0 at a 1:1 ratio.

This design allows Usual to integrate RWA token liquidity from platforms like Hashnote, addressing the issue of insufficient liquidity for RWA in the secondary market.

Yield Mechanism

USD0++ is the locked appreciation version of USD0. USUAL is the governance and reward token of the protocol. Users can earn rewards by staking USD0 to USD0 Liquid Bond (USD0++) and have the option to choose:

1. USUAL Earnings: Received daily in the form of USUAL tokens.
2. Basic interest protection: After locking for 6 months, you can receive a return equivalent to at least the yield of USD0 collateral, in the form of USUAL tokens or USD0.

Regardless of how USD0++ is obtained, holders have the right to receive USUAL tokens.

User Participation

Pills event

• The pre-launch phase starts on July 10 and lasts for 4 months.
• Airdrop 7.5% of the total supply of USUAL
• Obtain allocation through referrals and TVL contributions
• Linear distribution mechanism

Participation Steps

1. Visit the Usual Money dApp and use the early access code ZHWQS
2. Deposit USDC, USDT, or ETH to mint USD0
3. Ways to earn Pills:
   • Lock USD0 for USD0++
   • Hold USD0++
   • Provide liquidity in Curve's USD0/USDC pool
   • Provide USD0 in the USD0/USD0++ pool
4. Add liquidity to earn more Pills

Pills Activity Phase 2

Launched on August 4th, users can earn Pills by completing tasks on Galxe.

Usual Money, as a new entrant in the RWA decentralized stablecoin space, brings new possibilities to the stablecoin market through innovative mechanisms and community-driven development strategies. Its design, which combines RWA and blockchain technology, is expected to play an important role in the decentralized finance ecosystem.