The time has come for Angle 3.0, the Forex Hub.
Many of you already had the intuition that Angle was meant to build more than one stablecoin, and you were right on the money.
Now get ready for USDA, the ultimate piece to kickstart an era of cheap remittances in DeFi.
To create a forex hub onchain, and many other wonders in DeFi, you need one essential starter: a reliable stablecoin.
We must first build stablecoins that wonât blow up under market storms. And because storms are inevitable, itâs mandatory to build stablecoins that handle heavy storms in a predictable way.
Then the party may start.
USDA exists to be the reliable Superconductor of DeFi and of the Angle Forex Hub, thatâs its mission.
Chapter 1: Build stablecoins that wonât blow up under market storms
Chapter 2: The Angle special: the Forex Hub and the Forex Fees Farm (FFF)
Chapter 3: Why USDA? Scalable and composable yield that lets you sleep at night
Chapter 4: TradFi risk-management but better
Chapter 5: Deep liquidity: easy access, it all starts there
Chapter 1/ Build stablecoins that wonât blow up under market storms
Angle started with EURA (formerly agEUR), a Euro stablecoin.
EURA was an excellent way to build, experiment, and battletest a robust stablecoin infrastructure.While developing EURA, two serious questions persisted:
How do we build stablecoins that do not blow up as they scale?
How do we design stablecoins systems that remain predictable during black swan events?
Itâs been 3 years that Angle core contributors worked on these issues. 3 long years of hustle.
And we came up with 3 answers: diversification, fairness, and automatic stability infrastructures.
Thatâs why we created the Transmuter: the Angle proprietary Price Stability Module (PSM) that was built incorporating lessons from the USDC depeg in March 2023.
USDA functions with both the Transmuter that lets you mint new USDA, and a borrowing facility (CDPs) that allows you to borrow USDA against a larger set of collaterals.
It brings 3 unique benefits that you will find nowhere else:
Anti bank-run mechanics and resilience mechanism: if unforeseen circumstances lead to USDC (which serves as collateral for USDA) depegging again, redemptions against other assets in reserves can only be done at the price of the depegged asset or for a portion of all the assets in reserves. Even more, redeeming in such conditions incurs a small fee that helps replenish the Protocol for holders that are left in it, due to their support for the Protocol or their reaction time.
Embedded fairness in case of bank-run: if USDC depegs, redemptions against other assets in reserves can only be done at the price of the depegged asset, as we just said. This also means that no one is able to deposit depegged assets in the Protocol and exit with more value, leaving the holders of USDA in a worse situation. All redemptions happen at fair market price.
Direct access to the RWAs in reserves in case of black-swan event: just like other assets in the reserves, the Real-World Assets in the backing of USDA are accessible to anyone who needs to redeem their stablecoin against it. This is not the case with other RWA-backed stablecoins where holders have to rely on the protocols to give them access to the collateral, which is a hefty trust assumption, especially in case of a black swan events.
This makes USDA way more solid than any other stablecoin âcause you don't have to trust it blindly. You can always switch back to the underlying tokens if you need to.
Chapter 2/ The Angle special: the Forex Hub and the Forex Fees Farm (FFF)
When Angle was born in November 2021, the goal was already to make it a forex powerhouse.
That time has come, and USDA is the essential piece of that plan.
The U.S. Dollar is the central currency that connects all others, remittances and forex trading.
In recent months, Angle has observed that EURA (formerly agEUR) is already a forex facilitator as existing EURA pools are the preferred route to swap from any USD to Euro stablecoins (mainly centralized ones).
Since then, Angle contributors are developing systems to minimize slippage for any onchain forex trade. This will be achieved through market-making systems that will involve the balance sheets of both EURA and USDA.Thanks to USDA, Angle will be positioned as the central facilitator and market-maker of forex remittances onchain, for faster and cheaper transactions. Angle will be able to offer onchain trades at the same price as traditional forex platforms between its two stablecoins, but also between any Euro and USD stablecoins.
Angle officially started this forex facilitator activity with the opening of the first seeded EURA/USDA pool on Uniswap.
By playing this facilitator role, Angle will collect fees that are beneficial for both the Protocol and for future USDA and EURA holders in liquidity pools.
Thatâs when the Forex Fees Farm comes into play. As a protocol, the fees collected from the Forex Hub advantage shall find a usage that fits the greater good of the Protocol and the Angle DAO.
Stay tuned to the DAO discussions and decisions to redirect the benefit of these forex fees!
Chapter 3/ Why USDA? Scalable and composable yield that lets you sleep at night
Now you know USDA is built to withstand storms and to bring you forex juice.
But whatâs more? Building this reliable stablecoin that is bound to be the Superconductor of a Forex Hub gives many more opportunities.
As USDA aims to be your most reliable option, it also offers you a yield that lets you sleep at night.
No overpromising yield here! Since USDA is your new reliable companion, it offers you the best risk-adjusted yield from both TradFi and DeFi.
The native yield, simple and risk-free
First of all, letâs recall that USDA comes with an embedded yield: the stUSD token, a yield-bearing version of USDA.
If you deposit USDA in Angle savings solution, you get stUSD + a yield.
Where does that yield come from?
On top of liquid and secure stablecoins, the backing of USDA is made of DeFi yield-bearing assets and Real-World assets (RWAs) in the form of short-termThese assets held by Angle generate a yield that is automatically allocated to USDA holders who deposit their stablecoins for stUSD.
The composable yield: starting with EtherFi, Pendle, Kelp, Lido, Renzo
The DeFi ecosystem is offering robust and novel lending infrastructures that are providing the rails to create money markets in conditions that are custom and flexible. In that respect, Morpho is a commendable example.
So, users can lend their USDA on MetaMorpho Vaults and earn a yield.
Today DeFi has many assets that facilitate its growth and hold it together. At the top of this list is ETH and its derivatives: LSTs and LRTs.
When building USDA as a reliable Superconductor, it made sense to connect it to the most wanted assets in DeFi and conversely allow the holders of such assets to deal with a reliable stablecoin for composability purposes.
For this reason, USDA is launched with the ability to borrow it with:
Angle guarantees that users can leverage those assets in one transaction and at a stable cost over time.
You've got it, everything that you can do within major Collateralized Debt Position (CDP) platforms is offered from scratch with USDA.
Chapter 4/ TradFi risk-management but better
Many stablecoins have recently failed to maintain their peg due to poorly designed mechanisms or nonexistent asset liability management.
Sure, Angle is armed with its state-of-the-art Price Stability Module that offers unique protection mechanisms (see Chapter 1).
However, ensuring that a stablecoin maximizes its risk-adjusted returns, maintains its peg, and grows its balance sheet at scale requires professional management and advisory.
Steakhouse experts, among others, advise the Angle DAO on managing the reserves supporting USDA, guaranteeing an institutional-grade experience for every stablecoin holder.
Additionally, Angle prides itself on delivering high-quality and easily understandable analytics for its stablecoins. Just like for EURA, USDA has real-time a balance sheet, collateral list breakdown, and metrics progressions available for everyone to see. Donât trust, verify!
Chapter 5/ Deep liquidity: it starts with cheap and easy access
What good can a reliable stablecoin do if it is hard and expensive to access?
We thought hard and long about that one.
Naturally, there are options to ensure you can easily buy USDA from your payment card & bank account, and facilitating liquidity pools sufficiently deep to minimize slippage.
What else?
We also looked in the direction of the USD stablecoin that today benefits from the deepest liquidity onchain: USDC.
Thanks to the USDA Price Stability Module (aka the Transmuter), anyone is able to mint USDA from USDC at 0 fees, instantly.
Going back from USDA or stUSD to USDC also costs you nothing. In fact, the underlying liquidity of USDA is the same as that of USDC.
Getting in is as easy as getting out!
You got it; USDA is the most reliable USD stablecoin with an unique, innovative, and resilient Price Stability Module, and an institutional-grade reserve management.
Because stability is a no-brainer, USDA also offers a native yield to its users, and itâs as liquid as USDC.
More than a stablecoin, USDA is the new DeFi Superconductor, unlocking streamlined opportunities and efficiencies for its stakeholders, whatever their needs may be: getting exposure to RWAs, earning a steady and risk-adjusted yield on their funds, participate in forex trading directly onchain,âŠ
So, why not swap your stablecoins for some USDA right now?