New Challenges in the Stablecoin Market: The Dispute Over Profit Distribution

The stablecoin market is undergoing transformation. The two major stablecoins, USDT and USDC, have long dominated market returns, providing opportunities for emerging competitors. This article will explore the cases of three emerging stablecoin projects, demonstrating how they challenge the existing landscape.

The current stablecoin market size is approximately $250 billion, with USDT and USDC together accounting for 86% of the market share. However, these two giants do not allocate any profits to users. They invest the collateral assets in U.S. Treasuries, earning about 4% annualized returns, but all these profits belong to the company.

This practice has made Tether one of the most profitable companies in the world, but it has also exposed its obvious weaknesses. Users are bound to be dissatisfied with the inability to share profits, creating opportunities for emerging stablecoins that are willing to share profits with users.

1. Resolv's USR: 8.6% Annual Yield

Resolv has launched two core products: the USR stablecoin and the RLP liquidity pool token. USR is fully backed 1:1 by Bitcoin and Ethereum, generating an annualized yield of up to 8.65% through hedging positions. This yield is twice that of a certain lending platform.

The advantages of USR include:

• Higher than market returns
• Fully backed by mainstream cryptocurrencies
• High Transparency
• Protected by RLP mechanism
• No fees
• Supports instant staking and unstaking

The disadvantage is:

• Only available on the Ethereum network
• Staking is required to earn rewards

2. Noble Dollar's USDN: 4.1% annual yield

The uniqueness of USDN lies in the fact that users can automatically earn 4.1% in U.S. Treasury yields daily without any staking operations. This "airdrop" style of profit distribution is very attractive.

The advantages of USDN include:

• Stable government bond yields
• High Transparency
• Earn returns without staking
• Daily Settlement
• Supports fiat currency purchases
• Convenient cross-chain transfer

The disadvantage is:

• Currently, the application scenarios are limited.
• The yield is lower than some competitors.

3. InfiniFi's iUSD: 8.5% to 16% annual yield

iUSD adopts a more flexible yield strategy, providing different yield rates based on user risk preferences. The base yield rate without a lock-in period is approximately 8.5%, while locking in for more than 4 weeks can yield up to 16.4%.

The advantages of iUSD include:

• Ultra high yield
• High transparency
• Multiple risk-return options
• High yield tier backs up low yield

The disadvantage is:

• Essentially a USDC deposit certificate rather than a true stablecoin
• There is a risk of insufficient liquidity
• A "de-pegging" situation may occur
• High-risk strategies may lead to losses
• Linked to risks from multiple DeFi platforms

These emerging stablecoin projects bring more options to the market, but they also come with varying degrees of risk. Investors should carefully assess and start with small amounts, waiting for the market to be fully validated before considering larger investments. In the future, the stablecoin market is expected to meet the needs of users with different risk preferences through diversified choices.