The Rise of Yield Stablecoin Projects, Innovative Playful Methods Emerging One After Another

Stablecoins have become an important component of the cryptocurrency market. Although cryptocurrencies are perceived as highly volatile, the emergence of stablecoins has brought relatively stable value storage and trading mediums to the market. Currently, mainstream stablecoins such as USDT and USDC are still issued and managed by centralized institutions, with both holding a market share close to 90%.

However, the market demand for decentralized stablecoins has never weakened. From the development of DAI to UST, decentralized stablecoins have continuously innovated in collateral types and anchoring mechanisms. The USDe launched by Ethena has pioneered a model that utilizes futures arbitrage and staking to generate yield, opening up new imaginative space for yield-bearing stablecoins. USDe has become the third-largest stablecoin by market cap, reaching $5.9 billion. Ethena has also recently partnered with BlackRock to launch USDtb, providing stable returns through physical assets, further enhancing its product line.

The success of Ethena has inspired the emergence of more interest-bearing stablecoin projects, such as Usual, which collaborates with Ethena, Anzen from the Base ecosystem, and Resolv, which uses ETH as collateral. These projects each have their own characteristics in terms of anchoring mechanisms and sources of yield.

Usual issues USD0 backed by short-term government bonds as income-generating assets. The project's team has a strong background and close ties with the political and business circles in France, which provides advantages in terms of regulation and government support. The market capitalization of USD0 has grown by 66% in the past week, reaching $1.4 billion, surpassing PayPal's issued PyUSD. Usual has also partnered with Ethena to accept USDtb as collateral and has transferred part of the supporting assets of USD0 into USDtb.

The USDz issued by Anzen supports multiple public chains, and its underlying assets consist of a private credit asset portfolio. Anzen collaborates with the U.S. licensed brokerage firm Percent, and the portfolio is primarily exposed to the U.S. market, with no single asset accounting for more than 15%. The project has received funding support from several well-known investment institutions.

Resolv has launched two products: USR and RLP. USR is minted using ETH as collateral and adopts an over-collateralization model. RLP, on the other hand, utilizes the assets supported by the over-collateralized portion of USR. Resolv employs a delta-neutral strategy to manage collateral, staking most of the collateral on-chain while retaining a portion as futures margin.

These emerging interest-bearing stablecoin projects showcase different innovative models, with unique designs ranging from asset backing to yield generation mechanisms. They provide users with diversified options and also promote the development of the entire stablecoin ecosystem. As the market demand for stable yield products continues to grow, these projects are expected to gain more attention and development space in the future.