After the launch of the stablecoin protocol USUAL on Binance, it has maintained a strong upward trend. This has also caused the market to shift its attention to the stablecoin sector. This article will introduce two stablecoin protocols, USDX and Resolv, which are similar to Ethena and use term structure arbitrage strategies to generate profits. Their features and airdrop participation methods will also be shared.
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ToggleHow to safely obtain annualized returns? Perpetual contracts give rise to fee arbitrage
The concept of term structure arbitrage is to hold a spot position and simultaneously open a short contract position of the same size to hedge. Since the spot is equal to the long position, holding the short position can guarantee that the position value remains largely unchanged. In a bull market, you can earn funding rates from this. The annualized yield on the Ethena website was around 10% before the deadline.
For example: holding $10,000 worth of $BTC spot, and also holding a $10,000 short position in $BTC. Before the deadline, Coinglass predicted an annualized Binance BTC funding rate of around 10.95%, which means that with the position size unchanged, you can earn about $1,095 in revenue from the short position over a year.
The team has a history of misconduct, careful evaluation is needed before participation
The USDX protocol received $45 million in funding on November 29 from Dragonfly, NGC Ventures, UOB Venture, Generative Ventures, BAI Capital, and Epoch Capital, with a valuation of $275 million. From the investors to the team members, it can be judged that the main team is Chinese. However, the founder Yang Zhou previously founded the stablecoin protocol Hope.money, which did not end well, so there may be a question mark over the team's experience.
However, USDX's advantage is that it is right in the sweet spot of the stablecoin sector, and it has a cooperative relationship with the BNB Chain. It is well known that Binance urgently needs to use DeFi to boost the BNB Chain and the price of BNB. USDX has a partnership with the BNB-based liquid staking protocol ListaDAO, which can also help unlock the liquidity of the staked assets.
Unlike Ethena, USDX adopts a multi-currency arbitrage strategy as its support, while Ethena is mainly based on large-cap coins like BTC and ETH. Comparatively, USDX may have higher liquidity risk, but more diverse revenue channels. Unfortunately, USDX did not explain the specific operating currencies and partner exchanges, which is relatively opaque.
Is the savings game worth participating in? The TVL has reached $530 million
This type of stablecoin project is essentially a savings game. On the official website, you can connect your wallet to exchange USDT or USDC for USDX. Each $USDX can earn 1.5 points per day, and staking to become $stUSDX can earn an additional 1 point. In addition, there are some Galxe tasks on the official website airdrop page that can also earn points.
Although providing liquidity for USDX can also earn 1-2x the points, the author recommends depositing $sUSDX on ListaDAO and borrowing $lisUSD, similar to a stablecoin nesting concept, to activate the capital. But remember to confirm that the wallet is switched to the BNB Chain at the beginning. USDX's points activity runs for eight weeks starting from December 3, and there is still time to participate. Before the deadline, USDX's TVL reached $530 million.
Improved Ethena mechanism, $USR and $RLP provide mutual protection
The Resolv team is from Russia and has received funding from Delphi Digital, but the amount and valuation are not disclosed. Resolv has launched the stablecoin $USR, claiming that each $1 of $USR is backed by over $1.1 in assets, of which $0.7 is fully verifiable on-chain. However, for users, they can mint $USR 1:1 using USDT or USDC, so there is no major efficiency issue.
Unlike Ethena, Resolv has an additional $RLP (Resolv Liquidity Pool) token as a safeguard. Resolv defines $RLP as a leveraged liquidity token that absorbs the risk of delta-neutral strategies. $RLP is used to protect $USR from market and counterparty risks (such as short positions being liquidated). To attract users to mint $RLP, $RLP tokens can earn higher revenue sharing.
Resolv currently only holds $ETH and $ETH-pegged liquid staking tokens, and also holds short positions in $ETH-related trading pairs. Resolv's vault can be viewed on the website, and the most noteworthy aspect is that currently about 30% of the futures positions are established on Hyperliquid, indicating that even the short positions are transparent and available for viewing.
More importantly, Resolv is expected to launch the future HyperEVM, providing USDC-alternative stablecoins for HyperEVM, which the author believes is a very attractive approach.
Only 4 days left for the 50% bonus in the 4th phase activity
It is understood that Resolv will launch the governance token $RESOLV in the first quarter TGE, with the following functions:
- Voting rights for governance proposals, covering adjustments to capital strategies, approval of new integration solutions, and allocation of funding.
- Aligning interests with trading platforms, liquidity providers, DeFi protocols and other long-term partners.
- Used to distribute treasury tokens to the bug bounty program and other community-supported protocol projects.
For the airdrop, at the time of writing, Resolv's 4th phase point program still has 4 days left, during which an additional 50% of points can be obtained. The rules for the next phase may be different. By using the referral link, the invited person can also get an additional 20% of points. It is also recommended to use addresses with interaction records with Hyperliquid and Dinero, which can add an additional 10% of points. In summary, this can result in 80% of the points. Additionally, holding the Genesis NFT can increase by 25%, but the current floor price is 0.55 ETH, which may be more suitable for whales.
Point tasks:
- Holding $USR stablecoin: 30 points per $USR per day, and 5 points per $stUSR liquid staking token
- Holding $RLP token: 10 points per $RLP per day
The holding part is currently only open on the Ethereum mainnet, but will soon be launched on the Base chain.
Additionally, providing liquidity on protocols like Pendle, Spectra, Euler, and holding YT, can also earn 30, 20, and 10 points per dollar, respectively. A special case is Euler, which provides a market for $stUSR, but also 5 points. Although users who buy YT on Usual have been very successful, it should still be reminded that such operations carry risks.
However, for the average person, the simplest way should be to provide liquidity on DEXes like Aerodrome, Curve, Uniswap and Balancer. The links to the various liquidity pools are on the official points page. As of the editorial deadline, Resolv's TVL has reached $350 million.
Risk Warning
Cryptocurrency investment is highly risky, and its price may fluctuate dramatically, and you may lose your entire principal. Please carefully evaluate the risks.
