Usual Money Under Fire For Altering Asset Floor Price

Usual Money, a real-world asset (RWA) backed stablecoin issuer is under scrutiny after manually dropping its USD0++ product’s redemption price by 13% with minimal warning.

USD0++ is a four-year staked version of USD0, the protocol’s stablecoin, which operates as a liquid staking token (LST). USD0++ is sold as a staked stablecoin with a four-year maturity period, that unlocks yield for holders, while also being pegged to the dollar like its parent asset, USD0. According to the Usual documents, 1:1 early unstaking was promised for Q1 2025, at the cost of lost $USUAL rewards.

The protocol launched its early unstaking feature on Jan. 9. While unstaking was initially set at a 1:1 rate, it was manually set to $0.87 per token after implementation, but is set to evolve into an automated on-chain process, according to the documents.

Some users are even claiming that previous versions of the documents have been edited.

USD0++ holders quickly watched their yield-bearing positions plummet, and as a result USUAL, the protocol’s native token is now down 10% today, and 40% over the last week.

Despite the anger voiced by USD0++ holders, some traders and DeFi farmers say the price change should have been anticipated.

A user known as DCF God, who invested in Usual said on X, “They always said that after the points program, in q1 they would stop buying it back at $1….They could’ve communicated that they’d lower their floor, but maybe that would’ve caused mass panic”.

DCF God says that the $0.87 floor makes sense due to the lending market’s 86% LTV, which means a $0.87 floor prevents bad debt in the face of a liquidation cascade.

While DeFi savvy individuals could have potentially seen this coming, others are reporting that USD0++ can still be minted for $1 despite its backing being dropped to $.87.

DeFi farmer known as CBB posted “So... You can still mint USD0++ on @usualmoney website for $1 while backing is now at 87 cents and USD0++ is trading at 93 cents.They are basically selling a 4-year locked bond at face value.”

Usual Money did not immediately respond to The Defiant’s request for comment.