The New Wave of Stablecoins in the Encryption Field: The Rise of Yield-Generating Stablecoins

The cryptocurrency market has always given the impression of high volatility, but the stablecoin sector has developed into a relatively mature area of the market, with a total market capitalization exceeding $200 billion. Currently, centralized stablecoins like USDT and USDC dominate the market, holding nearly 90% market share. However, the development of decentralized stablecoins has never ceased, with continuous innovations in anchoring mechanisms and types of collateral throughout the history from DAI to UST.

The USDe launched by Ethena has pioneered a model that generates returns through futures arbitrage and staking, bringing new imaginative possibilities for yield-bearing stablecoins. The market value of USDe has jumped to third place globally, reaching $5.9 billion. Ethena has recently also partnered with BlackRock to launch USDtb, which provides stable returns through real-world assets (RWA), further enhancing its product line.

Inspired by the successful case of Ethena, more interest-bearing stablecoin projects have emerged in the market. This article will focus on three emerging protocols: Usual, Anzen, and Resolv, analyzing their anchoring mechanisms and sources of yield.

Usual: Strong team background, unique token economic model

The USD0 issued by Usual is a RWA interest-bearing stablecoin, backed by short-term government bonds. Users can stake USD0 to earn USD0++, while also receiving $USUAL as a staking reward. This project aims to return 90% of the value to users, creating an ecosystem owned collectively by users.

The project team has a distinguished background, including former French parliament members and presidential advisors, and possesses a good network of relationships in the French political and business circles. This advantage is crucial for the RWA project and helps facilitate the transfer of real-world assets onto the blockchain.

The tokenomics design of Usual is quite distinctive. The issuance of $USUAL is linked to the staked USD0 (USD0++) TVL, utilizing an inflation model, but the issuance will be adjusted based on the growth of protocol revenue to ensure that the inflation rate is lower than the growth rate of the protocol. This mechanism aims to reward early participants and create token scarcity in later stages.

The market value of USD0 has rapidly increased recently, rising by 66% within a week, reaching $1.4 billion, and the APY of USD0++ is as high as 50%. Usual has also reached a strategic partnership with Ethena to further expand its ecosystem.

Anzen: Tokenizing Credit Assets

The USDz issued by Anzen currently supports multiple chains, including ETH, ARB, MANTA, BASE, and BLAST. Its underlying assets consist of a private credit asset portfolio, and users can stake USDz to earn sUSDz and enjoy RWA yields.

Anzen has partnered with the U.S. licensed brokerage firm Percent, primarily investing in the U.S. market with a high level of asset diversification, where no single asset accounts for more than 15%. The current APY is approximately 10%. The project has also established partnerships with traditional financial giants such as BlackRock and JPMorgan.

In terms of financing, Anzen has received support from several well-known investment institutions, completing a $4 million seed round and a $3 million public offering. Its ANZ coin adopts a ve model, allowing holders to lock up and stake to obtain veANZ and share in protocol revenue.

Resolv: Delta Neutral Stablecoin Protocol

Resolv offers two products: USR and RLP. USR is an over-collateralized stablecoin backed by ETH, with its price pegged by RPL. RLP, on the other hand, is supported by the over-collateralized portion of USR and is not a stablecoin.

Resolv uses a Delta neutral strategy to manage collateral. Most of the ETH collateral is staked directly on-chain, while a portion is held by institutions as futures margin. On-chain collateral is 100% deposited in Lido, and short collateral margin uses 3.3 to 5 times leverage, distributed across multiple trading platforms.

The sources of income include on-chain staking and funding rates. 70% of the base rewards are allocated to stUSR and RLP holders, while 30% of the risk premium is given to RLP. This design allows RLP to receive more profit sharing, but also entails higher risks.

Resolv recently launched on the Base network and introduced a points activity to prepare for future coin issuance. Currently, the APY for stUSR is 12.53%, RLP is 21.7%, with a total TVL of 183 million dollars and a collateralization rate of 126%.

The booming development of the yield stablecoin market showcases the infinite possibilities of encryption financial innovation. These emerging projects offer users a diverse range of yield options through different mechanisms and strategies, while also exploring how to achieve a balance between stability and yield in decentralized finance. As the market matures further, we can expect to see more innovative stablecoin solutions emerge.