Original author: Biteye core contributor @viee 7227
If the theme of the first half of the stablecoin track is wild growth, then the rules of the game in the second half may be rewritten by three key variables: regulatory certainty, the compliance path of leading players, and the direction of market innovation.
First, the global regulatory framework – from MiCA in Europe to the GENIUS Act in the United States – is moving from ambiguity to clarity, delineating a clear runway for the entire industry.
It is in this context of certainty that Circles IPO road is so important. Recently, Circles IPO surged nearly 170% on the first day, which not only means that the stablecoin industry is moving towards mainstream, but also provides an anchor point for value assessment for traditional capital to enter the stablecoin market.
In the above context, the development path of stablecoins has far exceeded the single dimension of dollar anchoring. Future development may be driven by three core trends: 1) Stablecoin DeFi protocol innovation 2) Popularization of stablecoin payment tools 3) Deep integration with RWA.
1. From payment, DeFi to RWA, three major scenarios to look at the stablecoin track
Payment: The traditional financial cross-border payment system, represented by SWIFT, is inefficient, costly, and has opaque processes, making it difficult to meet the needs of the digital age. Stablecoins, with their nearly zero cost, 24/7, and programmable features, are implementing a dimensionality reduction attack on the traditional system. The integration of stablecoins by mainstream payment companies such as Stripe, PayPal, and the financial network Visa has verified the commercial potential of this trend. Stablecoins are rapidly expanding from pricing and settlement units of crypto-native exchanges to global payment and settlement tools.
DeFi: Mainstream stablecoins (USDC, USDT) have significant capital efficiency issues. The stablecoins held by users are interest-free, but the issuer obtains all interest income by investing its reserve assets (mainly US Treasury bonds) in risk-free markets. This model turns users into unpaid capital providers. Unlike traditional stablecoins such as USDT and USDC, which are just digital cash tools, yield-based stablecoins embed yield mechanisms such as US Treasury bonds, DeFi lending, and arbitrage directly into the token design, allowing holders to automatically obtain returns.
RWA: RWA (real world asset) tokenization is widely regarded as the core engine driving DeFi to the next trillion-level volume. Its core is to put assets with stable cash flow in the real world (especially US Treasury bonds) on the chain, provide DeFi with sustainable, low-risk real yields, and attract institutional capital to enter the market. If DeFi injects efficiency into stablecoins, then RWA injects value and scale into them, opening up the imagination space for stablecoins to enter the trillion-level market.
2. Introduction to the top ten unissued stablecoin projects
2.1 @PlasmaFDN
Introduction: Plasma is a high-performance blockchain designed specifically for stablecoins, dedicated to solving the problems of high handling fees, transaction failure rate and lack of functions in traditional chains when dealing with stablecoins. Its core is based on the PlasmaBFT consensus protocol and the Reth execution engine, with fast confirmation and high compatibility. Plasma supports the payment of handling fees with assets such as USDT/BTC, provides zero-fee USDT transfers, and develops confidential transaction functions.
How to participate: Users can earn income by depositing assets into Aave and Maker through audited vault contracts. After the lock-up period, the assets will be converted into USDT. Compliance procedures such as KYC identity verification and jurisdiction screening must be completed through the Echo Sonar platform. Currently, the deposit limit of US$1 billion has been fully deposited. You can pay attention to whether new deposit limits will be opened in the future.
Link: https://app.plasma.to/
2.2 @noble_xyz
Introduction: USDN is based on the M^0 architecture and is collateralized by short-term US Treasury bonds. It has an expected annualized return of approximately 4.31%, supports cross-chain transmission, and is suitable for multi-chain development environments. Users can choose to deposit USDN into the Points Vault to earn points, or deposit it into the Boosted Yield Vault to obtain higher returns denominated in U.
Participation method: USDN points incentive activity, currently has 23 days left. After users cross-chain USDC to Noble chain and exchange USDN, they can choose to deposit it into the points pool (give up interest in exchange for points) or the income pool (get 14.8% annualized income). The points pool needs to be staked for 30 days before rewards are available. The longer the lock-up time, the higher the points multiplier, and TVL milestone additional rewards can be superimposed.
Link: https://points.noble.xyz/
2.3 @OpenEden_X
Introduction: OpenEden is an institution that provides on-chain U.S. Treasury bond yield products. The TBILL tokens it issues are backed by short-term U.S. Treasury bonds and U.S. dollars. It also issues yield-generating stablecoins USDO (daily income is re-credited) and cUSDO (net value increasing), both of which are backed by short-term U.S. Treasury bonds and repurchase agreements to ensure the stability of the principal and continuous production of income.
How to participate: Users can earn BILLS points by holding USDO or participating in cUSDO’s DeFi activities (such as withdrawing LP on Curve, staking on Morpho, or depositing in a strategy vault). Different tasks have different multipliers.
Link: https://portal.openeden.com/bills-campaign?chain=mainnet
2.4 @capmoney_
Introduction: Cap issues two products: 1) cUSD, a digital dollar supported by a variety of blue-chip stablecoins (such as USDC, USDT, BUIDL, etc.) at a 1:1 ratio, which can be exchanged at any time; 2) stcUSD, which is an interest-bearing stablecoin pledged by cUSD, generating income through a decentralized operator network. Operators need to obtain restaker collateral support, execute strategies and return income after over-borrowing funds, and failure to meet the standards will trigger forced liquidation to ensure the safety of the principal of stcUSD holders. The funds behind stcUSD are managed by decentralized operators, who need to obtain collateral from others before they can lend funds for investment. If the investment fails, the guarantor will bear the loss to ensure that the principal of stcUSD holders is not affected.
How to participate: You can participate in the testnet, but there are no clear airdrop rules yet.
2.5 @0x Coinshift
Introduction: Coinshift is an on-chain financial management platform for institutions and teams, integrating payment, accounting and asset management functions. Its core assets include two stablecoins: csUSDL and csUSDC. csUSDL is a yield-generating stablecoin that generates income through Paxoss T-Bills and Morpho lending markets, without users having to pledge or lock positions; csUSDC is generated by USDC collateral, which is suitable for both borrowers and lenders to efficiently circulate and earn income in DeFi.
How to participate: Users can earn XP points by completing daily tasks (such as visiting websites, testing DApps, joining Discord, etc.), and can also invite friends to improve their rankings. The top 100 in the accumulated XP ranking will receive USDC rewards.
Link: https://campaign.coinshift.xyz/
2.6 @withAUSD
Introduction: AUSD is a stablecoin fully collateralized by cash, U.S. Treasury bonds and repurchase agreements. It follows the ERC-20 standard, has the characteristics of free tradability, openness and scalability, and supports compliance functions such as asset freezing and issuance/destruction.
How to participate: Join the AUSD-USDC liquidity pool on QuickSwap and Fluid, or lend AUSD on the Fluid Lending platform. In addition, Agora is about to cooperate with FSL to launch a new stablecoin GGUSD.
2.7 @Perena__
Introduction: Perena is a stablecoin infrastructure protocol built on Solana, issuing a yield-based stablecoin USD*, supported by blue-chip stablecoins such as USDC, USDT and PYUSD. Users can mint USD* by depositing any or multiple stablecoins through the Seed Pool, automatically compounding pool fees and obtaining unified liquidity. USD* can be used for exchange, staking or integrated into other DeFi applications.
How to participate: Users can earn Petals points for subsequent incentives by exchanging stablecoins for the first 5 times a day, providing liquidity for Seed or Growth Pool (holding for more than 15 days can earn 2-3 times Petals), inviting friends to participate in Swap or Pool, and participating in cooperative platform integration.
Link: https://app.perena.org/
2.8 @levelusd
Introduction: Level is a stablecoin protocol that issues lvlUSD fully collateralized by USDC and USDT, and earns low-risk returns by deploying it to blue-chip lending protocols such as Aave. Users can stake lvlUSD to obtain slvlUSD, and the returns are distributed weekly in the form of slvlUSD value growth. When unstaking, the original principal and accumulated returns can be obtained. slvlUSD can be unstaked after a 7-day cooling period.
How to participate: Level users can earn XP in three ways: depositing lvlUSD and Curve LP assets into XPFarm, holding LP or yield tokens from Pendle and Spectra in their wallets, and staking Level assets on Morpho. XP is used to measure the users contribution to the protocol, which can be viewed in real time and used as a basis for future rewards. Assets can be withdrawn at any time without affecting points.
Link: https://app.level.money/?welcome=true
2.9 @FalconStable
Introduction: Falcon USDf provides two minting mechanisms: Classic Mint and Innovative Mint. Users can mint USDf with stablecoins or over-collateralized non-stable assets (such as ETH, BTC) to ensure that each USDf has sufficient asset support. Innovative Mint allows users to lock non-stable assets for a period of time in exchange for liquidity and maintain over-collateralized security. The platform manages collateral through a neutral market strategy to ensure asset stability. In addition, Falcon will use the strategy income to issue additional USDf every day, and give back to users through the sUSDf Vault and Boosted Yield mechanisms.
How to participate: Users can earn Falcon Miles by minting USDf (preferentially non-stablecoin method), staking sUSDf, and completing tasks. Boost Yield has the highest reinvestment reward and the longest lock-up period is 12 months.
Link: https://app.falcon.finance/miles
2.10 @yalaorg
Introduction: Yala is a Bitcoin-native liquidity protocol that allows users to mint over-collateralized stablecoin YU by staking BTC. YU uses multiple collateral ratios (such as MCR, CCR, SCR) to ensure system stability, and has a liquidation mechanism and Peg stabilization module to maintain the anchored USD price. Users can mint YU by staking BTC, or redeem YU to get back BTC, or achieve liquidity by exchanging it with other stablecoins.
Participation method: Yala interaction mainly mints stablecoin YU by mortgaging BTC or using ETH-USDC exchange, and then participates in the stable pool or LP mining to earn income and Berries points. Zero-cost users can also accumulate points by binding wallets, completing tasks, etc., and strive for airdrop opportunities.
Link: https://app.yala.org/welcome
Conclusion: Let’s go back to the question at the beginning. In the second half of the stablecoin market, the dimensions of competition have completely changed. The 10 projects analyzed above, from Bitcoin sidechains designed specifically for stablecoins to yield-based stablecoins, may one day define the next decade of stablecoins.
