USUAL: A Ponzi Scheme Disguised as RWA US Treasury Bond Yields

USUAL has a total of 5 tokens, namely: The conspiracy implemented by the USUAL team is very simple: we have created a real yield (RWA) protocol to bring the stable yield of 4% of US Treasury bonds to the chain, and it is permissionless.

The USUAL protocol is essentially a Ponzi scheme that uses the yields of US Treasury bonds to attract investors. It offers five tokens in total:

1. $USUAL: The governance token that accrues a portion of the protocol's revenue.

2. USD0: A stablecoin pegged to the US dollar.

3. USD0++: A 4-year locked version of USD0 that generates a 70% return.

4. USUAL*: An equity token with all the rights and interests of USUALX, plus additional benefits.

5. USD0-LP: A liquidity provider token for USD0 on Curve.

The protocol's strategy is to offer the stable yields of US Treasury bonds, which are typically around 4%, but making them permissionless. In contrast, other RWA protocols, such as Ondo, require KYC and a minimum investment of $100,000 to access these yields.

With USUAL, anyone can participate and earn the 4% yield by simply minting USD0-LP tokens. However, to cater to the tastes of cryptocurrency players who are accustomed to higher returns, the protocol introduces USD0++, which offers a 70% return. This serves as a powerful incentive to attract investors.

The project team's conspiracy becomes evident when they suddenly close the USD0++ 1:1 redemption channel without warning, leaving you with the only option to exit at the floor price of 0.87 announced by the team. This effectively robs holders of 13%.

At the protocol's peak, its TVL reached nearly $2 billion, making it the fifth largest stablecoin after DAI. So, what does this 0.87 floor price really mean? It signifies that the project team has taken 13% of the TVL, which amounts to close to $260 million, and integrated it into the protocol.

According to the project's description, all the stolen money will be distributed to USUAL's pledger USUALX. They will turn on the fee distribution switch in advance on January 13. In essence, the brothers who pledged USUAL will share the US dollar income + USUAL token emission income. It's a brilliant mechanism where the mining coin receiver mines themselves and the holders of USD0++ at the same time, while the holders of USD0++ mine the receivers of the USUAL mining coin. Both groups are essentially digging at each other, like the human centipede. And as the saying goes, when the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman benefits!

That's right, the project side is the one who is guaranteed to make money. Because there is another token called USUAL*, which is an equity token that retail investors cannot access and is only for investors and teams. It has all the rights and interests that USUALX enjoys, and it also has the rights and interests that USUALX does not enjoy. Looking directly at the key part, the share of TEAM+USUAL LAB exceeds 60%, with the team accounting for the majority and investors accounting for 40%.

Let’s look at the functions of USUAL*: 1. Seigniorage rights, directly share 10% of the total USUAL, which is 400 million USUAL. 2. 50% of the fee distribution. We just said that the project team got 260 million USUAL back, and they divided the spoils with USUALX holders 55-50. USUAL* gets 130 million, and the team accounts for 60% of USUAL*, so the team has earned 72 million US dollars, and this does not include the distribution of USUAL governance tokens. In addition, the total amount of USUAL* is fixed at 360 million, and it will not be diluted like USUALX. USUAL* token details: https://usualmoney.notion.site/USUAL-Recap-13eab2a39ead804e8f1aeca1c75b85bd

OK, so why do the project owners have no moral bottom line and choose to rob money directly? The answer is simple: the flywheel can no longer rotate, and the Ponzi scheme can no longer be maintained. If nothing is done, the protocol will go into a death spiral. Pull open the candlestick chart of $USUAL and see that it keeps falling! Therefore, if the project owners do not take some measures, USUAL will be mined and sold, APY will continue to fall, TVL will run away, and the protocol will no longer exist.

Therefore, the project team took a two-pronged approach: opening profit sharing and imposing a 13% head tax on TVL. This combination of punches, first, maintained TVL