Hashnote’s USYC Token Powers DeFi Protocol Usual to New Heights
Hashnote’s USYC token has become a driving force behind the rapidly growing decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Usual, whose USD0 stablecoin has surged past a $1 billion market capitalization in just a few months. This growth has shifted the balance in the $3.4 billion tokenized Treasuries market.
Over the past three months, Hashnote’s USYC token has experienced explosive growth, with its market cap soaring to over $1.2 billion—five times its previous size, according to data from rwa.xyz. This meteoric rise has allowed USYC to surpass BlackRock’s BUIDL, a $450 million token issued in partnership with tokenization firm Securitize, which had held the top spot since April.
USYC represents the Hashnote International Short Duration Yield Fund, which invests in reverse repurchase agreements on U.S. government-backed securities and Treasury bills, held in custody at the Bank of New York Mellon, according to Hashnote’s website.
The rapid success of Hashnote highlights the increasing importance of integrating tokenized products with DeFi platforms. By making tokens available for use as building blocks in other DeFi products—known as composability—Hashnote is tapping into the growing demand for yield-generating stablecoins, which are increasingly supported by tokenized assets.
USYC, in particular, has benefited greatly from the rise of the DeFi protocol Usual and its yield-generating stablecoin, USD0. Usual aims to capture market share from centralized stablecoins like Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC by redistributing a portion of the revenue generated from its backing assets back to holders. Currently, USYC is the primary backing asset for USD0, but Usual plans to diversify its reserves with more real-world assets (RWAs). Recently, the protocol added Ethena’s USDtb stablecoin, which is built on top of BUIDL.
“The bull market sparked a massive influx into stablecoins, but the issue with the largest stablecoins remains: they don’t offer rewards for end users or access to the yield they generate,” said David Shuttleworth, a partner at Anagram. “Additionally, users of USDT or USDC don’t get ownership in the protocol.”
“Usual’s appeal lies in its ability to redistribute yield and ownership in the protocol back to users,” he added.
The protocol and its USD0 stablecoin have attracted $1.3 billion in recent months, as crypto investors flock to on-chain yield opportunities. Another catalyst for growth was the airdrop and exchange listing of the protocol’s governance token, USUAL, which debuted on Binance on Wednesday. Since then, USUAL has seen a significant price increase, outperforming the broader crypto market and appreciating around 50%, according to CoinGecko data.
Earlier this year, BlackRock’s BUIDL also saw rapid growth, fueled by DeFi platform Ondo Finance, which made BUIDL the key reserve asset for its yield-generating Ondo Short-Term US Government Treasuries (OUSG) token.DeFi Protocol Usual’s Growth Propels Hashnote’s Tokenized Treasury Past BlackRock’s BUIDL.
