Can Usual, the rising star in stablecoins, successfully challenge USDT?
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
Can Usual, the rising star in stablecoins, successfully challenge USDT?
Usual officially launched its mainnet on July 10 and simultaneously initiated a points campaign. Users can earn积分凭证 Pills by providing liquidity or holding USD0++. These Pills can later be converted into $USUAL token airdrops.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Crush, Core Contributor of Biteye
Community: @BiteyeCN
01 Project Introduction
Usual Labs is a startup focused on stablecoin technology. Its founder, Pierre PERSON, is a French politician and member of parliament, and a leading figure in France's cryptocurrency legislation.
Usual has secured $7 million in seed funding led by IOSG Ventures and Kraken Ventures, with notable Layer 2 projects Starkware (developer of Starknet) and Mantle also participating in the round.
The core product of the Usual Protocol is the USD0 stablecoin. Unlike traditional stablecoins such as USDT and USDC, USD0 is backed 1:1 by short-term RWA assets and government bonds, offering higher security and stability while reducing the risk of being liquidated at a discount during asset runs.
Throughout its materials, Usual frequently references and contrasts itself with Tether—the issuer of USDT—arguing that after issuing stablecoins like USDT, Tether does not return the generated revenue back to users.
https://x.com/momir_amidzic/status/1812120424521822369
Tether generates nearly $10 billion in annual revenue, yet distributes it among only a small group of individuals, with fewer than 100 employees, making it one of the most profitable tech companies globally.
What Usual aims to do is return ownership of token issuance—and the profits it generates—back to users.
In the Usual Protocol, users deposit assets to receive USD0, which serves as their deposit receipt (LDT) within the protocol.
Holders of USD0 can choose to lock their tokens to provide liquidity or mint Liquidity Bond Tokens (LBT), converting USD0 into USD0++. This allows them to participate in the DeFi ecosystem and earn corresponding yields—including potential airdrops of the protocol’s governance token $USUAL and deposit interest.
In its design, Usual cleverly represents reward points as purple pills and uses the phrase “Break free from the banking matrix,” evoking strong associations with the 20-year-old sci-fi classic *The Matrix*.
In *The Matrix*, the Matrix is a simulated reality system that controls and entraps humanity after their defeat in a war against machines, preventing them from perceiving the real world.
Usual's concept of the “Banking Matrix” appears to metaphorically describe today’s traditional banking systems or centralized stablecoin issuers, suggesting these structures are akin to the virtual reality in *The Matrix*—binding people and limiting their access to the true potential and freedom offered by decentralized finance.
The purple pill used as a reward token echoes the red and blue pills from the film, where the protagonist faces a pivotal choice:
Red Pill: Represents escaping the simulation—even if reality is painful—to learn the truth.
Blue Pill: Represents choosing to remain in a comfortable illusion, maintaining the status quo.
Usual’s purple pill—a blend of red and blue—emphasizes balance. It may signify a revolutionary approach to breaking free from traditional banking or centralized institutions, while still providing a safe and reliable alternative in the form of its stablecoin, USD0.
This design thoughtfully combines the "red pill" meaning of awakening and transformation with the "blue pill" connotation of safety and stability—an intriguing and innovative concept.
Currently, Usual announced the official mainnet launch on July 10 and simultaneously initiated its points campaign. Users can earn Pills (points) by providing liquidity or holding USD0++, which will be convertible into future $USUAL token airdrops.
The total airdrop allocation will account for 7.5% of Usual’s total supply. The campaign began on July 10, 2024, at 22:30 and will last for four months. Next, let’s walk through the specific steps for interacting with Usual.
02 Project Interaction
1. Points Campaign
https://app.usual.money/#SJYPG
First, open the link above or directly enter the referral code "SJYPG" in the bottom-left corner.
Follow the instructions: follow their official Twitter account and connect your wallet.
Continue following the prompts until you reach the deposit interface. At this stage, you can choose to deposit assets and convert them into USD0.
All deposit operations occur on the Ethereum mainnet. If gas fees are high at the moment, you can click "skip" in the top-right corner to temporarily bypass this step and complete deposits later.
Rewards rules are shown in the image above:
Holding USD0++ directly: Users can purchase USD0++ using USD0. Each USD0++ grants 5 Pills (one-time), plus 3 additional Pills per day thereafter.
Providing liquidity: Users can add LP to USD0/USDC or USD0/USD0++ pools on Curve, earning 1 or 3 Pills per dollar of LP provided per day.
You can skip this step for now and return later if needed.
Once completed, users can view their current number of Pills and daily accrual rate on the project homepage.
If you skipped depositing earlier, you can go to the left sidebar and click “Drugstore” to access options for holding USD0++ or adding LP.
Additionally, a multiplier displayed at the top of the page increases over time based on how long you’ve deposited or provided LP.
It grows by 2% daily, up to a maximum of 10x. Users can withdraw assets at any time, but doing so resets the multiplier back to 1—meaning earlier participants earn more Pills over time, until the campaign ends.
In addition to earning Pills via deposits, users can also participate in referrals. For each friend invited, the referrer receives 10% of the friend’s total earned Pills as a bonus.
2. Galxe Campaign
https://app.galxe.com/quest/usual
In addition to the Pills collection campaign on its official site, Usual has launched a new “Pills Campaign” on Galxe.
These tasks involve common social actions and are relatively simple. Interested users are encouraged to participate.
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
@BiteyeCN
