Organization Name – Usual Money
Category –
Banking & DeFi
Usual (Usual Money) is a stablecoin protocol that blends tokenized real‑world assets—mainly on‑chain representations of U.S. Treasury bills—with composability and value redistribution via its …native governance token USUAL. At its core, users convert USDC into USD0, a fiat‑pegged stablecoin fully backed by RWA, then optionally stake it into USD0++—a locked four‑year liquid staking token. Unlike traditional stablecoins where revenue accrues to centralized issuers, Usual funnels yield into a treasury controlled by USUAL holders; 90 % of revenue is allocated to protocol operations, stakers, and liquidity providers, while 10 % rewards token holders themselves. An early incentive system called Pills—purple points earned during a multi‑month pre‑launch campaign starting July 2024—determined USUAL airdrop allocations and turbo‑charged early liquidity. The public launch occurred mid‑July 2024 when the mainnet went live, USD0 minted and USD0++ deployed, and TVL surged above $90 million within days. Shortly after, in November 2024, Usual listed on Binance Launchpool; Pills campaign ended, USUAL reward emissions began daily and airdrops were distributed to early participants. Expansion continued with a deployment on Arbitrum in October–November 2024, making Usual cross‑chain, integrating with oracle providers like Chainlink and Pyth and partner DeFi protocols such as GammaSwap and Avalon Labs. By mid‑2025, stable growth and security audits allowed a relaunch of incentives, borrowing/vault layers, vault farming across integrated protocols (e.g. TAC vault), gas optimizations, multi‑chain core‑asset availability, and a governance proposal (UIP‑9) realigning token issuance toward conviction and value, not extraction. The architecture now resembles a user‑owned yield engine akin to a community Blackrock streaming net revenue to depositors. Both USD0 and USD0++ remain interoperable across chains, earn yield (with layer‑specific rewards in TAC vaults up to ~35 % APY early on), and feed revenue into the treasury which then backs the intrinsic value of USUAL as ownership shares in the protocol. While USD0++ lock‑ups present liquidity constraints for retail holders, the disinflationary emission schedule and lock‑based rewards programs are designed to encourage long‑term participation. Usual promotes transparency through on‑chain reserves, deflationary token release, and community governance. Its innovation lies not only in bringing real‑world asset collateral fully on‑chain, but in flipping the stablecoin revenue model to reward users rather than centralized issuers. Since launch, the protocol has added vault layers, cross‑chain reach, yield distribution mechanisms, security hardening, and a path toward broader leverage and synthetic products—building toward a composable, community‑owned financial primitive that rewards participation with both yield and ownership. Read More