Usual USD usd0

Usual USD, commonly identified by ticker USD0, is the first stablecoin issued by Usual Protocol. It is a permissionless, fully collateralized, USD-pegged ERC-20 designed to connect tokenized real-world assets with DeFi. Usual describes USD0 as a Liquid Deposit Token whose reserves are backed by tokenized US Treasury Bills and repurchase agreements.

USD0's backing is intended to be visible on-chain in real time rather than disclosed only through periodic attestations. The protocol aggregates eligible collateral from multiple institutional providers, including Hashnote USYC, M by M0 and USTBL by Spiko, creating a deconcentrated collateral base.

As a stablecoin, USD0 is the foundational asset in the Usual product suite. It is designed for payments, trading, liquidity provision, cross-chain transfers, and use as collateral in DeFi markets such as Curve, Morpho, Aave and Pendle. Yield-oriented products such as bUSD0 and sUSD0 are built on top of it.

Usual targets the concentration of stablecoin economics and control in centralized issuers. Its documentation argues that users provide the capital backing traditional stablecoins while issuers retain the resulting Treasury yield and users receive no ownership or revenue share.

It also seeks to reduce dependence on opaque commercial-bank reserves and associated counterparty risk. USD0 instead applies a collateral policy centered on short-duration US Treasuries and overnight repos, with no leverage or fractional reserves, while using community governance to manage collateral, parameters and treasury decisions.

Eligible tokenized RWA collateral can be deposited directly into Usual's DaoCollateral contract to mint USD0 1:1. Permissionless users can alternatively deposit USDC; the SwapperEngine matches the order with a collateral provider that supplies eligible RWA collateral. Smaller orders may be routed through secondary DEX liquidity when that is more efficient.

USD0 is fully transferable and composable as a standard ERC-20. It can be traded on DEXs, supplied as collateral to lending markets, or used in Usual's own products. The protocol's Multi Collateral Controller manages collateral composition, exposure limits and reward adjustments across accepted assets.

Redemption can be made directly through DaoCollateral for underlying tokenized Treasury collateral at a stated 1:1 rate, subject to the relevant access/partner requirements, or indirectly by selling USD0 for other stablecoins on secondary markets. Arbitrage between minting/redemption at par and DEX prices is intended to support the peg.

Usual describes additional safeguards including reserve transparency, strict duration and credit/FX risk criteria, and an insurance fund that can help preserve per-unit backing during stress. Protocol value is redistributed through the separate USUAL governance token: locked USUALx holders receive weekly USD0 distributions and the DAO treasury receives the remaining governed share.