Usual (USUAL)

Overview

Usual is a cryptocurrency project built around a simple question: who should benefit from the assets backing a stablecoin? Its main dollar-denominated product, USD0, is backed by tokenized assets linked to short-term U.S. government debt. Those assets can earn income. Usual’s design directs that income into a system governed by its community rather than leaving it entirely with a stablecoin issuer. (docs.usual.money)

USUAL is the project’s governance token. It gives holders a role in decisions about collateral, fees, and other parts of the protocol. It can also be staked to receive USUALx, a token that represents a staking position. The names matter: USD0 is the dollar-pegged stablecoin; USUAL is the governance token. They serve different purposes and have different economic designs. (docs.usual.money)

Usual sits at the meeting point of traditional finance and decentralized finance, or DeFi. Government debt supplies the underlying income, while blockchain contracts manage digital tokens, transfers, and parts of the distribution process. This structure makes USUAL closely tied to the way Usual’s stablecoin products are used. (docs.usual.money)

History & Team

Founders and early development

Usual Labs was founded in 2022. Its publicly named co-founders are Pierre Person, Adli Takkal Bataille, and Hugo Sallé de Chou. Person, a former member of France’s National Assembly, was identified as chief executive officer in the company’s 2024 funding announcement. The same announcement named Takkal Bataille as design executive officer and Sallé de Chou as chief operating officer. (prnewswire.com)

In April 2024, Usual Labs announced a $7 million funding round as it prepared to launch USD0. Investors in that round included IOSG Ventures and Kraken Ventures. Usual’s documentation records a further $10 million Series A round in December 2024, led by Binance Labs and Kraken Ventures, with Galaxy Digital and OKX Ventures among the participants. These funding rounds supported the development of the project; they are separate from the rules governing how USUAL tokens are distributed. (prnewswire.com)

USD0 launched in 2024, followed by USUAL later that year. The project then expanded beyond its first dollar stablecoin. A major governance decision in November 2025 reduced USUAL’s planned maximum supply. Another decision in December 2025 advanced a structure in which the Usual DAO controls protocol assets and Usual Labs serves the DAO as a development provider. The DAO is the group that makes protocol decisions through its governance process. (docs.usual.money)

Technology & How It Works

Turning tokenized assets into USD0

USD0 is designed to track the U.S. dollar. Its backing consists of eligible tokenized real-world assets, chiefly short-duration U.S. Treasury instruments and related government-backed holdings. Tokenization means that a claim connected to an asset is represented by a blockchain token. Usual brings eligible tokens into its collateral system and issues USD0 against them. (docs.usual.money)

There are two main paths into the system. An eligible participant can deposit approved tokenized collateral directly to mint USD0. Alternatively, a user can deposit USDC through a process that matches the deposit with a collateral provider. Redemption reverses the direct process by exchanging USD0 for eligible tokenized collateral. USD0 can also change hands on decentralized exchanges. The link between minting, redemption, and trading helps connect its market value to the value of its backing. (docs.usual.money)

Usual describes this foundation as its Collateral Bridge Infrastructure. It handles collateral, minting, and redemption. A second layer contains products built around those functions, including bonded USD0 and staking. USD0 operates on Ethereum and other supported networks, while USUAL is an ERC-20 token whose primary network is Ethereum. ERC-20 is a common token standard that lets compatible wallets and applications recognize the asset. (docs.usual.money)

From USUAL to USUALx

A holder who stakes USUAL receives USUALx. The amount of USUAL represented by each USUALx can rise as staking rewards are added. USUALx can then be locked through a separate module to take part in distributions of protocol income. Basic staking and locking therefore have different roles: staking creates the USUALx position, while locking provides access to the Revenue Switch, Usual’s income-distribution system. (docs.usual.money)

Tokenomics & Utility

Supply, rewards, and governance

Usual’s stated maximum supply is 3 billion USUAL. That cap was reduced from 4 billion through governance proposal UIP-11 in November 2025. The same change cut the planned rate of new token issuance. Usual’s distribution plan includes incentives for people using its products, liquidity providers, stakers, and other groups defined by governance. A maximum supply describes the total that may be issued under the plan; it is different from the number already in circulation. (docs.usual.money)

USUAL’s first utility is governance. Token-based voting gives participants a way to influence which assets can back USD0, how some fees are set, and how shared protocol resources are managed. These choices affect the system’s operation. For example, approving a new type of collateral can change the assets supporting the stablecoin, while changing an incentive can affect how users take part. The token’s governance role is about protocol decisions rather than shares in Usual Labs or its associated legal entities. (docs.usual.money)

Its second role concerns rewards. Usual allocates some newly issued USUAL to staking positions. Separately, the protocol’s Revenue Switch distributes income in USD0 to eligible locked USUALx positions. Usual’s stated model assigns 30% of protocol revenue to those locked positions and 70% to the DAO treasury. This distinction between newly issued tokens and income from collateral is central to understanding the project’s economic design. (docs.usual.money)

Ecosystem & Use Cases

Usual’s products give the governance token a practical setting. USD0 is intended for dollar-denominated transfers, trading, and use as collateral in DeFi applications. Its design makes tokenized government-debt assets available in a form that can move through blockchain-based services. The income earned by the backing assets also supports the protocol’s wider reward system. (docs.usual.money)

Another product is bUSD0, previously called USD0++. A user who bonds USD0 receives bUSD0 and a separate early-exit-right token, called rt-bUSD0. The bUSD0 position receives USUAL rewards and can be transferred. Holding both tokens together allows redemption through the early-exit process; bUSD0 also has a scheduled maturity in June 2028. This structure links stablecoin deposits to the distribution of USUAL without making the stablecoin and governance token interchangeable. (docs.usual.money)

The ecosystem has grown to include sUSD0, a dollar savings-style product, and EUR0, a euro-denominated token backed by eligible European sovereign assets. Usual also lists products for euro savings and other financial uses in its development history. Across these offerings, USUAL provides a shared governance layer: proposals can address the collateral, incentives, and operating rules that connect the products. (docs.usual.money)

Advantages & Challenges

Usual’s main design advantage is the connection it creates between an on-chain stablecoin and income-producing collateral. Token holders can help govern the system, while eligible locked USUALx positions can receive a share of protocol income in USD0. Public blockchain records also make token movements and many protocol actions visible. Using a common token standard helps USUAL work with established Ethereum wallets and applications. (docs.usual.money)

The design also has several moving parts. USD0 depends on approved collateral providers and the arrangements used to hold and tokenize the underlying assets. Some redemption paths involve obtaining tokenized collateral, which an eligible participant can then redeem with the asset provider. USUAL rewards depend on distribution rules, and the amount of income available for the Revenue Switch depends on the protocol’s assets and activity. Governance must coordinate these pieces as products and collateral choices expand. These are important features of how Usual operates, rather than details of the token alone. (docs.usual.money)

Where to Buy & Wallets

USUAL is available for purchase on Kraken and on supported Binance spot markets. Platform availability depends on location and account eligibility. Kraken identifies USUAL as an Ethereum ERC-20 asset, and Binance has listed the Ethereum token for trading. (kraken.com)

USUAL can be held in an Ethereum-compatible wallet such as MetaMask. It can also be managed with a compatible hardware wallet connected to MetaMask. The Ethereum token’s contract address is 0xC4441c2BE5d8fA8126822B9929CA0b81Ea0DE38E. A wallet may display the token automatically, or the contract address can be used to add it as a custom token. For an Ethereum transfer, the wallet also needs ETH to pay the network fee. (binance.com)

Regulatory & Compliance

Usual’s legal and regulatory setting has several layers. Its published terms identify a French association, the Association de Développement de la DAO Usual, as the provider of its interface. The terms require compliance with applicable anti-money-laundering and sanctions rules and exclude U.S. persons, along with people in other listed jurisdictions, from using that interface. Exchange access follows each exchange’s separate eligibility rules. (docs.usual.money)

In the European Union, the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, known as MiCA, sets rules for crypto-asset services and certain stablecoins. In the United States, the GENIUS Act, signed into law on July 18, 2025, established a federal framework for payment stablecoins. How particular activities and products are treated depends on their structure and the jurisdiction involved; the rules for a dollar stablecoin and its issuer are distinct from the governance functions of USUAL. (eur-lex.europa.eu)

Shariah assessment also turns on the underlying structure. Usual’s collateral includes conventional Treasury instruments, and income from those instruments supports parts of the protocol’s distribution model. Islamic finance standards generally prohibit riba, or interest, and do not treat conventional interest-bearing bonds as Shariah-compliant assets. On that basis, Usual’s Treasury-income model does not meet a standard interest-free Shariah screen. The source of returns matters more to this assessment than whether a token is used for exchange or is backed by gold or silver. (docs.usual.money)

Future Outlook

Usual’s development points toward a broader set of on-chain financial products built around tokenized assets. Its work has moved from USD0 to euro-denominated products, savings-style positions, and credit services. As that range grows, governance decisions about acceptable backing assets and the use of protocol income become more important. The planned USUAL supply schedule also gives the DAO a defined framework for allocating incentives through its stated distribution period. (docs.usual.money)

The project’s longer-term direction depends on whether these products can work together in a useful way. USD0 and EUR0 provide digital balances; bonded and savings products offer different ways to use them; and USUAL connects participants to decisions about the whole system. That combination is Usual’s approach to bringing income-producing real-world assets into DeFi. (docs.usual.money)

Summary

USUAL is the governance token of a protocol that turns eligible tokenized assets into stablecoin products. It supports voting and staking, while locked USUALx positions can take part in distributions of protocol income. Its place in the crypto ecosystem is defined by that link between community governance, real-world collateral, and on-chain financial tools. (docs.usual.money)