The Surge of DeFi Protocol Usual Elevates Hashnote’s Tokenized Treasury Beyond BlackRock’s BUIDL.

Hashnote’s USYC Token Fuels Rapid Growth of DeFi Protocol Usual

Hashnote’s USYC token is playing a pivotal role in the explosive growth of the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Usual, whose USD0 stablecoin recently surpassed a $1 billion market capitalization in just a few months. This shift has disrupted the tokenized Treasuries market, valued at $3.4 billion.

According to rwa.xyz data, Hashnote’s USYC token has seen a remarkable rise, with its market cap increasing to over $1.2 billion—five times its size in just three months. This surge has pushed USYC past BlackRock’s BUIDL, which had held the position of the largest token in the space since April, with a market cap of $450 million.

The USYC token is linked to the Hashnote International Short Duration Yield Fund, which invests in reverse repo agreements on U.S. government-backed securities and Treasury bills held in custody by the Bank of New York Mellon, as outlined on the company’s website.

Hashnote’s rapid growth underscores the importance of integrating tokenized financial products with decentralized finance applications. By enabling their tokens to be used as building blocks within other DeFi protocols—referred to as “composability”—Hashnote taps into a growing demand for yield-generating stablecoins, which are increasingly supported by tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).

The rise of USYC has been closely tied to the success of Usual, which has seen its USD0 stablecoin gain traction. Usual is aiming to capture market share from dominant stablecoins like Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC by redistributing a portion of the revenues from its backing assets to its token holders. USYC currently makes up the majority of USD0’s reserves, but Usual plans to diversify its backing with additional RWAs in the future. Recently, the protocol introduced Ethena’s USDtb stablecoin, built on top of BlackRock’s BUIDL.

“The recent bull market led to a massive influx into stablecoins, but the problem with the leading stablecoins is that they don’t offer rewards to users or provide access to the yield they generate,” said David Shuttleworth, partner at Anagram. “Additionally, users of USDT or USDC don’t gain any equity in the protocol.”

“Usual stands out because it redistributes both yield and ownership in the protocol back to its users,” he added.

The protocol has raised $1.3 billion in recent months as crypto investors flock to on-chain yield opportunities. A significant boost to growth came from the airdrop and exchange listing of Usual’s governance token (USUAL), which began trading on Binance on Wednesday. Since its launch, USUAL has greatly outperformed the broader crypto market, rising by about 50%, according to CoinGecko data.

Earlier this year, BlackRock’s BUIDL also saw considerable growth, driven by its inclusion as the main reserve asset for DeFi platform Ondo Finance’s yield-earning Ondo Short-Term US Government Treasuries (OUSG) token.