According to CoinDesk, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Angle has introduced its new U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin, USDA, which aims to provide yield from its real-world asset (RWA) backing and revenue from DeFi lending. The USDA is backed by U.S. Treasury bills and tokenized versions of T-bills. Token holders who stake their USDA on the Angle Protocol can automatically earn rewards derived from the token's reserve assets yield and revenue from the protocol's lending platform, targeting a yield of at least 5% for USDA stakers.
The launch comes as yield-bearing stablecoins have gained popularity, with new offerings aiming to attract funds from dominant stablecoins like USDT and USDC, which do not pass the yield earned on their backing assets to holders. Recent entrants such as Mountain USD and Ethena's USDe have attracted $300 million and $1.3 billion in deposits, respectively, according to rwa.xyz data. Asset management giant BlackRock has also entered the market with its dollar-pegged BUIDL token, targeting large institutional clients.
Angle also plans to establish a blockchain-based foreign currency (forex) hub, enabling seamless conversion between euro and dollar without fees and slippage. The company already offers a euro-pegged EURA token with a $22 million supply and received $5 million in venture capital funding led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) in 2021 to develop its stablecoin-focused DeFi platform. To boost liquidity for USDA, users will be able to convert Circle's USDC stablecoin to USDA and back without incurring fees or slippage. USDA will begin a beta testing phase in the next few days, pending approval by the Angle Protocol's governance, with plans for a broader roll-out in April. The offering will not be available to U.S.-based investors, the protocol said.