Write $USUAL I want to start with one thing, because it shows where the risk lies better than any discussion of mechanisms.

In January 2025, Usual’s USD0++ de-anchored to $0.89 and triggered a round of liquidations. The immediate cause wasn’t a market crash or an attack—it was the team unilaterally changing the redemption rules. Users originally held this asset under one set of rules; once the rules changed, the price could no longer hold.

I put this matter right at the beginning because it reveals a kind of structural risk: when the redemption terms of a stablecoin-like asset can be modified unilaterally by the issuer, the holders bear not only market risk.

The project itself is quite sizable. Usual is a France-based RWA stablecoin issuer, founded in 2022. Among its three co-founders, Pierre Person previously served as a member of the French National Assembly. The funding was carried out in two rounds: in April 2024, the seed round raised about $7 million, led by IOSG and the venture capital arm of a U.S. exchange; in December 2024, the Series A raised about $10 million, led by Binance Labs and the venture capital arm of a U.S. exchange. The co-investors include Coinbase Ventures, Galaxy, Amber, GSR, Mantle, StarkWare, and several other institutions. In total, the two rounds raised about $17 million, with more than 200 investors.

Binance spot was launched at 11:00 a.m. on December 18, 2024. The original announcement confirms that it “will be added with a Seed tag.” Its tags are RWA, Launchpool, Seed, and defi—meaning it comes with the Seed tag and needs to pass a risk assessment once every 90 days.

There’s a conflict to clarify here: Usual’s official documentation says it was “listed on Binance on November 19,” which doesn’t match Binance’s announcement and metadata showing December 18. I’m taking Binance’s announcement as the reference, since that’s the exchange’s first-hand record.

The product lineup includes USD0 (backed by U.S. Treasury bonds, with USYC custody by Hashnote), bUSD0, ETH0, EUR0, sUSD0, and others. In January 2026, it also acquired the Fira lending protocol to form Usual Credit. On the token side, locking USUALx can share protocol revenue—30% to lockup holders and 70% to the DAO treasury—distributed weekly starting January 2025. After UIP-15 passes on December 23, 2025, the DAO will own 100% of the protocol assets, and Usual Labs will shift to becoming a service provider.

There are three different sets of supply figures: Binance’s listing announcement says the maximum total supply is 4.0 billion tokens; after UIP-11’s deflation in November 2025, the official upper limit was reduced to 3.0 billion; and there are still data-provider figures showing 537 million, which clearly hasn’t been updated. The current CoinGecko figures are: circulating supply of about 1.934 billion, market cap about $28.10 million, and ranking 741.

Other risk points: the collateral is handled with off-chain custody by a single institution, Hashnote—this creates a concentration risk. Also, a third party has claimed that it “doesn’t have a substantive DAO, and that the multisig is controlled by a small team.” This claim contradicts the direction of the official statement after UIP-15, which says “the DAO owns 100% of the assets.” I’ve presented both sides and make no conclusion for either.

It’s up 8.6% today, but the buy/sell ratio is only 0.737, and it’s still 99.1% away from its all-time high.

This article compiles public information and personal viewpoints and does not constitute any investment advice. The data comes from exchange announcements, project official documentation, and public reports; there may be delays or inaccuracies, so please verify independently.