How does
$USG maintain its value and defend its peg?
$USG doesn’t use redemptions. Instead, it uses a battle-tested economic design inspired by
$crvUSD from
@CurveFinance. Explanation below 👇
1️⃣ What is
$USG, and what is it used for?
$USG is a CDP stablecoin. It is overcollateralized by crypto assets, with a current collateral ratio of 131%. Since most of the collateral consists of productive stablecoins (through Curve LPs), borrowers mostly use
$USG as a leverage farming tool:
Deposit collateral → Borrow
$USG → Sell it for more collateral → Repeat → Multiply returns
As borrowers take on leverage, they apply selling pressure on
$USG, which causes its price to drift slightly below $1. This is a feature, not a bug. The system is designed to tolerate deviations below $1 to facilitate leverage.
However, this deviation tolerance has a limit. If the system needs to absorb leverage while remaining attractive, it also needs to ensure $USG’s stability. That’s where dynamic interest rates and rewards cut come into play.
2️⃣ Dynamic interest and rewards deduction
If you are not familiar with the two kinds of markets featured by Tangent, please refer to the docs:
docs.tangent.finance/docs/us…
As
$USG drops below $1, both the rewards haircut and interest rates increase automatically. The rewards cut follows a step function from $1 to $0.995, while interest goes up as
$USG goes down, following a purpose-made formula.
In practice, the system will start defending its peg more aggressively if
$USG drifts below $0.995. On HEC markets, the rewards cut will be at its maximum, and interest will start being charged. On LEC markets, that’s when rates will start going up more aggressively.
As $USG’s peg deteriorates, so does the profitability of leveraged loops, which can even turn heavily negative. As a result, borrowers are incentivized to unwind their positions, pushing
$USG back up. Meanwhile, as more rewards are deducted and more interest is charged, the system’s revenues rise, and so does its attractiveness, as most of them flow back to
$sUSG and vote incentives.
If you want to go deeper into Tangent’s mechanisms and economic design, please refer to the following sections of the documentation:
- HEC markets:
docs.tangent.finance/docs/us…
- LEC markets:
docs.tangent.finance/docs/us…
- Rewards deduction:
docs.tangent.finance/docs/us…
- Interest rate:
docs.tangent.finance/docs/us…
- Peg stability:
docs.tangent.finance/docs/us…
- Peg Keepers:
docs.tangent.finance/docs/us…