Usual (USUAL): A New Model of Collateralized Stablecoin Ownership

More than a decade ago, in mid-2014, the first stablecoins arrived on the stage of the crypto market. These cryptocurrencies were designed to provide stability in the typically volatile world of crypto, and to serve as a bridge between the traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystems. At the core of their functionality is a mechanism that maintains a close peg to some traditionally valued asset, be it the U.S. dollar, euro or Bitcoin (BTC).

Stablecoins have proved to be tremendously popular, with the leading asset in this niche, Tether (USDT), routinely attracting higher trading volumes than any other cryptocurrency — including the mighty Bitcoin. The second most popular stablecoin in the market, USDC (USDC), also enjoys multibillion-dollar daily trading volumes, and ranks among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

Despite their popularity, many leading stablecoins — including the dominant USDT and USDC pair — have opaque collateral management mechanisms, are lacking in transparency, don't distribute revenues to the wider user community and are highly centralized in terms of control.

Usual (USUAL) is a DeFi solution launched on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain that aims to tackle these deficiencies of traditional stablecoins by offering a real-world asset (RWA)–backed stablecoin and redistributing protocol revenues among its users. The platform's primary stablecoin — USD0 — is backed by collateral invested mainly in short-term U.S. Treasury Bills; maintains a tight peg to the greenback via these secure investments; has a fully transparent reserve verification system; and opens up additional yield opportunities across a variety of external DeFi protocols via a liquid staking token (LST) derived from it.

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