Well, it seems the crypto world has its latest point of focus. The stablecoin lending project, USDai, has seen its total value locked just about double in a matter of days. That’s a pretty sharp climb. From roughly $60 million last Monday, the figure shot past $110 million over the weekend. The data comes from DefiLlama, which is usually pretty reliable with these things.
A Major Vote of Confidence
So, what’s driving this sudden surge? It’s hard to say for sure, but the timing is interesting. It comes right on the heels of a big announcement. YZi Labs—you might remember them as Binance Labs before the rebrand—said they made a strategic investment in USDai. That’s the venture arm of the world’s biggest crypto exchange putting its weight behind this project. It makes you wonder. That kind of endorsement doesn’t go unnoticed, and it probably gave a lot of people the confidence to jump in.
How USDai Works
The project itself is a bit different. It was built by Permian Labs and revolves around two tokens. The main one, USDai, is a synthetic dollar. It’s over-collateralized, but not with typical assets. Its backing comes from GPU compute power, which is a roundabout way of saying it’s tied to the value of processing power for AI tasks. The idea is to funnel money into AI infrastructure, which is a growing area, I suppose.
If you hold USDai, you can stake it to get another token called sUSDai. This one is yield-bearing and is currently offering an APR around 8%. That’s a decent return in the current climate, maybe that’s part of the draw.
The Allo Game and DeFi Usage
To get people involved early, the team created this rewards system they call the “Allo Game.” It lets traders mint both tokens to earn points. Those points then translate into allocation for the initial coin offering and an airdrop. It’s a common tactic, but it seems to be working.
But here’s a curious thing. Despite all the new money flowing in, the actual use of USDai in decentralized finance apps looks a bit thin. According to a Dune Analytics dashboard, only about 15% of the circulating supply is being used in DeFi right now. There’s over $5 million locked in Curve, another $2 million in Pendle, and a bit in Euler. It makes you think a lot of people are just holding, waiting for the next move.
This growth spurt follows a $13 million Series A round led by Framework Ventures back in mid-August. They had other big names like Dragonfly and Bullish chipping in too. With that kind of backing and this recent explosion in TVL, it feels like this project is one to watch. Or perhaps it’s just a flash in the pan. It’s often hard to tell in this space.
