Usual's Innovative Breakthroughs in Stablecoin Development

The stablecoin market has long been dominated by traditional players like USDT and USDC, but Usual, as an emerging participant, is attempting to carve out a new path through differentiated design. Supported by institutions such as IOSG Ventures and BlackRock, this project aims to redefine the value capture mechanism of stablecoins.

Usual Labs’ innovative approach involves three tiers of product design: USD0, a government bond-backed stablecoin; USD0++, a yield-distributing liquidity staking token; and USUAL, a native governance token designed to break the hollowing out of governance tokens. The project has accumulated a TVL of $355 million and has attracted 50,000 active users.

Core Competitiveness of Stablecoins: From USD to Government Bonds

Traditional stablecoins like USDT and USDC are backed by USD reserves. For every USDT issued, Tether holds an equivalent amount of fiat currency, forming the basis of a one-to-one collateralized stablecoin. However, this design has hidden risks: commercial bank reserves can be affected by monetary policy fluctuations, and bank risks directly threaten the security of stablecoins.

Usual’s innovation lies in breaking through this traditional model. USD0’s collateral is not cash USD but government bonds—assets closely linked to central bank currency (M0), allowing bypassing the risks associated with commercial banking systems. Economic theory generally considers government bonds the optimal collateral for stablecoins, offering high liquidity and being regarded as risk-free assets. The value of this design logic is in decoupling stablecoins from commercial risks and directly connecting them to the central bank monetary system.

How Usual’s Three-Tier Product System Operates

USD0++: Yield Sharing for Stablecoin Holders

In 2023, USDT and USDC generated over $6 billion in revenue for their issuers, but these profits are monopolized by a few shareholders. Usual’s solution is USD0++, a liquidity staking derivative based on USD0.

Users lock USD0 for four years and receive USD0++ tokens, with the yield distributed in USUAL tokens. This design draws inspiration from ve-tokens in the Curve ecosystem, but the key innovation is liquidity: unlike point-based tokens, USD0++ has real trading value in secondary markets, allowing users to earn protocol yields without being locked. Additionally, USD0++ has integrated with multiple DeFi protocols like Pendle, expanding its use cases and liquidity depth.

USUAL Governance Token: Breaking the Hollowing Out with a Deflationary Design

Most governance tokens in the crypto market are essentially “air tokens”—lacking sufficient value support, with tokenomics often benefiting insiders through dilution, leaving retail investors as liquidity providers.

Usual’s response to this dilemma is aggressive:

Supply linked to ecosystem scale: The issuance of USUAL is correlated with the TVL of USD0 and USD0++ lockups. As new TVL enters, new USUAL tokens are minted accordingly, rewarding early participants with more tokens. As the ecosystem grows, the USUAL rewards per unit of TVL gradually decrease. This design naturally creates scarcity and incentivizes early contributions.

Community-centered distribution mechanism: About 90% of USUAL supply is allocated to the community, with internal team and investor holdings never exceeding 10% of total circulation. This sharply contrasts with traditional projects where insiders hold 50%, significantly reducing the risk of dilution for retail holders in later stages.

In terms of value capture, USUAL holders can earn additional tokens through staking (accounting for about 10% of new issuance) and exercise governance rights. This ties the governance token’s value directly to the fundamental health of the stablecoin, rather than leaving it as an empty promise.

Market Position and Ecosystem Outlook

As of February 2026, Usual’s real-time metrics are:

• Current Price: $0.02
• Circulating Market Cap: $24.77 million
• 24-hour Change: +5.80%

Although Usual has completed recent funding rounds and gained support from heavyweight institutions like BlackRock and Starkware, competition in the stablecoin sector remains fierce. The inertia of USDT and USDC users is deeply rooted. To capture market share, USD0 needs to make breakthroughs across three dimensions:

First, at the product level, the differentiated advantage of government bond backing must translate into recognized yields and security guarantees for users. Second, at the community level, scaling education efforts to help ordinary users understand USD0’s mechanism and benefits requires long-term investment. Third, at the ecosystem level, deeper integration with DeFi applications determines the practical scope of USD0’s use.

The Practical Significance of Usual’s Innovation Experiments

Whether Usual ultimately disrupts the stablecoin landscape or not, its attempts already hold demonstrative value. By directly integrating government bonds into crypto finance, introducing ve-token incentive models, and strictly controlling internal equity, Usual redefines how stablecoin projects should treat their communities and users.

In an era where retail investors are increasingly aware of the hollow or overhyped nature of many governance tokens, Usual offers a model that links the fundamental (actual yields of USD0) with governance rights. Whether this approach can break the industry’s vicious cycle remains to be seen and will require market validation over time.