What is Usual (USUAL)?

By CMC AI
05 August 2026 12:44AM (UTC+0)
TLDR

USUAL is the governance and rewards token for the Usual Protocol, a decentralized ecosystem focused on creating transparent, real-world asset-backed stablecoins and distributing their yield directly to the community.

  1. Governance & Ownership – USUAL grants holders voting power over protocol decisions and ownership of its treasury, aligning incentives for long-term growth.

  2. Revenue-Sharing Model – The protocol distributes up to 70% of its revenue to buy back USUAL tokens and pays 30% weekly to users who lock their tokens, creating a direct yield stream.

  3. Stablecoin Ecosystem – It powers a suite of products including USD0 and EUR0, which are stablecoins backed by short-term government debt, and yield-generating variants like USD0a and sUSD0.

Deep Dive

1. Purpose & Value Proposition

Usual Protocol addresses centralization and opacity in traditional stablecoins. Unlike issuers like Tether or Circle that retain profits from reserve assets, Usual is built as a permissionless, decentralized system. Its core mission is to create stablecoins backed by verifiable, real-world assets (like U.S. Treasury Bills) and to redistribute the revenue generated from those assets directly to the protocol's community and token holders (Bitrue). This model shifts value from centralized intermediaries to participants.

2. Tokenomics & Governance

The USUAL token is the centerpiece of this community-owned model. It serves a dual purpose: governance and rewards. Holders can vote on key protocol parameters and guide the ecosystem's future. Uniquely, 90% of the token supply is allocated to the community. The protocol's revenue—generated from fees and yield on its stablecoin reserves—is used to buy back USUAL tokens from the market (up to 70% of revenue) and to pay weekly USD0 rewards to users who lock their USUAL for set periods (the remaining 30%) (Usual). This creates a tangible link between protocol performance and tokenholder value.

3. Ecosystem Fundamentals

The protocol's utility is delivered through several interconnected products. USD0 and EUR0 are the primary stablecoins, pegged to their respective fiat currencies and backed by sovereign debt. USD0++ is a liquid staking derivative, allowing users to lock USD0 to earn USUAL rewards while maintaining liquidity. The ecosystem also includes Savings Vaults (sUSD0/sEUR0) for passive yield and Alpha Vaults (USD0a) for more advanced strategies (Usual). This structure offers users a range of options from simple stability to optimized yield generation.

Conclusion

Fundamentally, Usual is a community-governed financial primitive that merges the safety of real-world asset collateral with the transparent, incentive-aligned mechanics of DeFi. Will its model of direct revenue distribution become a new standard for how stablecoin value is shared?

CMC AI can make mistakes. Not financial advice.