1. What is Usual?
USUAL is a secure and decentralized legal stablecoin issuer that redistributes ownership and governance through $USUAL tokens.
Usual is a multi-chain infrastructure that aggregates the growing supply of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) from entities such as BlackRock, Ondo, Mountain Protocol, M0 or Hashnote, turning them into permissionless, on-chain verifiable, composable stablecoins ( USD0 ).
Often built around redistributing power and ownership to users and third parties, similar to the scenario where Tether's TVL providers own the company and its associated revenue.
Why Usual?
USUAL is about redistributing power and wealth to the people who actually support the platform. With popular stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC), the companies behind them made over $10 billion in revenue in 2023, and their total valuation is more than $200 billion! But the users who contribute to their success don’t get any share of that money.
USUAL, on the other hand, allows users to share in the value and success created. This is especially meaningful because it addresses a major issue in decentralized finance (DeFi): while there are billions in assets like US Treasury Bills available on-chain, not many DeFi users hold RWAs.
For early users who are willing to take risks, USUAL’s model rewards them, giving them a fair share of the success they help create.
Usual's Vision
🔥Rebuilding Tether On-Chain: Neutrality and Transparency
Cryptocurrency requires a fully on-chain fiat-backed stablecoin, supported by an infrastructure that ensures enhanced neutrality, transparency, and security.
Usual introduces a model designed to rebuild Tether entirely on-chain. In this system, the issuer is controlled by the holders of the Usual governance token. This includes decisions on risk policy, the nature of collateral, and liquidity incentive strategies. 2. Fiat stablecoins need to stay away from bankruptcy Fiat-backed stablecoins are partially backed by reserves held by commercial banks. This makes them subject to the fractional reserve practices of these banks, which undermines the security and stability of stablecoins. The recent collapse of SVB Bank highlights the systemic risk that commercial banks pose to DeFi due to undercollateralization.
The first requirement for stablecoins is to ensure that their value remains stable relative to the currency they represent. Users must have firm confidence in the security of their capital. The collateral model provided by Usual is not linked to the traditional banking system, but directly to short-term bonds. The security provided by this prudent approach is strengthened by strict risk policies and insurance funds.
🔥End the Privatization of Profits
Tether and Circle generated over $10 billion in revenue in 2023 and are valued at over $200 billion. However, this wealth is not shared with the users who contribute to their success. Usual aims to provide an alternative to fiat-backed stablecoins that privatizes profits on customer deposits while socializing losses. The centralized players behind the major fiat-backed stablecoins replicate the problematic structures of traditional banking, which is contrary to the principles of decentralized finance.
Usual's approach aims to create a more equitable financial system by redistributing value and power more equitably among all users.
Usual's goal is to make users owners of protocol infrastructure, funding, and governance. By redistributing 100% of value and control through its governance token, Usual ensures its community is in control.
The Usual protocol distributes its governance tokens to users and third parties who contribute value, realigning financial incentives and returning power to participants within the ecosystem.
🔥Revolutionizing Stablecoin Ownership and Revenue Redistribution
Some models redistribute part of the revenue generated by stablecoins. However, Usual adopts a different model where users pool the revenue generated by stablecoin collateral. This revenue constitutes the protocol's funds. In return, users receive governance tokens that give them control over the protocol, funds, and future revenue.
This mechanism not only redistributes revenue, it also redistributes ownership of the system. It provides incentives for early adopters and offers them huge upside potential.
The transparent and public distribution of governance tokens ensures that the interests of all participants are aligned.
$USUAL Token
$USUAL token will be playing a major role in decision-making processes within the platform, for example enabling arbitrage for its tokenized Treasury Bill or other risk-management strategy improvements. Furthermore, it will be a main tool for rewarding $USD0++ holders with a yield generated from the same US Treasury Bill.
USUAL Tokenomics
Usual is community-driven, with 90% allocated for the community and 10% for insiders.
🔥Usual Labs pros in my personal opinion 🔥
👉Prospective concept & design;
👉Relatively low token inflation rate for the first 2 years after the TGE (~20%);
👉Presence of security audits from top-tier companies;
👉FDV is almost 10 times lower than its closest competitors in the niche of decentralized stablecoins, Ethena;
👉Low Initial MC ( only 12.37% of the FDV);
👉Good PR and Influencer Marketing performance;
👉Above the average Marketing Infrastructure, SEO, SMM, and Growth Marketing scores;
👉Diverse network of prominent funds and angel investors;
👉Wide network of partners, actively supporting and collaborating with the project;
👉Listing and IEO on Binance;
👉The protocol’s CEO has worked for the French Parliament.
Usual Binance Launchpool Details
The Binance Launchpool will start farming for USUAL tokens on 2024-11-15 at 00:00 (UTC). Here’s how it works:
Binance users can lock their BNB or FDUSD in designated pools to start earning USUAL tokens as rewards. The Launchpool will distribute an initial circulating supply of 300,000,000 USUAL as rewards over 4 days, which makes up 7.5% of the total token supply.
For those interested, here’s a breakdown of the reward allocation:
BNB Pool: This pool will have the majority of the rewards, with 255,000,000 USUAL (or 85% of the reward tokens).
FDUSD Pool: This smaller pool will offer 45,000,000 USUAL (or 15% of the reward tokens).
The farming period ends on 2024-11-18 at 23:59 (UTC), so it’s a short, fast opportunity to earn rewards.
Conclusion
All aspects of the crypto industry evolve continuously, with various protocols constantly innovating and implementing new ideas. This applies to stablecoins as well. Initially, there were fiat-backed stablecoins with custodial collateralization (like Tether, Circle, and others) because this was the simplest and most straightforward implementation. Then came crypto-backed stablecoins (like MakerDAO, Frax). After that, algorithmic stablecoins emerged, but they were not very stable. In late 2022 and early 2023, there was a boom in LST-backed CDP stablecoins, which quickly faded partly due to the disparity between promised yields and the actual yields, which were only slightly higher than ETH staking returns. During this time, LSDFi protocols began integrating omnichain token technologies like LayerZero and Wormhole.
Now, more sophisticated and well-thought-out stablecoin protocols with complex mechanics are emerging. These are based on extensive research and model testing, unlike the earlier LST-backed ones. Among such projects in Dewhales' focus are Tapioca and Usual, each using different approaches and cross-chain technologies. Unlike Tapioca, Usual employs two technologies—Axelar and Wormhole. Usual also has much simpler tokenomics, positioning itself on the opposite end of the spectrum from Tapioca.
Will the new generation of stablecoins secure their place and establish themselves in web3, or will they be a fleeting phenomenon like LSDFi? These protocols are being developed by professionals with meticulous approaches and an understanding of market consolidation, so the question is more about how much market share they will capture. Only time will tell.
