May 4, 2023 12:36 UTC
| Updated:
May 4, 2023 at 12:36 UTC
The algorithmic stablecoin crvUSD has successfully been deployed on the Ethereum network by decentralised financial protocol CurveDAO.
Curve Finance, a decentralised finance (DeFi) platform, has released its native algorithmic US dollar-pegged stablecoin on Ethereum mainnet and has already generated more than $22 million in crvUSD token sales.
The contract has generated more than $22 million worth of crvUSD in the previous eight hours, with $20 million of that amount generated in the first five minutes, according to data from blockchain explorer Etherscan at the time of writing on May 4.
An important step towards the public release of the algorithmic stablecoin has been taken with the deployment of crvUSD on the Ethereum network. Notably, until integration with Curve’s front-end user interface on its official website, the stablecoin is still inaccessible to the general public.
When asked when the stablecoin would be made available to the general public in the official Curve Finance Telegram group, an admin said that it would be coming “soon.”
According to information from DeFiLlama, Curve Finance is one of the biggest DeFi protocols in the market as of the time of publication, with about $4.4 billion in total value locked (TVL).
Following the collapse of the Terra ecosystem in May 2022, when the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin lost its peg and the value of its sister token Terra—later renamed Terra Classic (LUNC)—plummeted by more than 99%, algorithmic stablecoins came under fire from all corners of the industry. A complicated arbitrage mechanism that kept the value of UST high was ultimately destroyed by a team of experienced traders.
The now-defunct UST was different from Curve’s crvUSD, which used a similar design to MakerDAO’s MKR tickers down $700DAI tickers down $1 stablecoin. The crvUSD whitepaper states that crvUSD will operate as a “collateralized-debt-position” stablecoin, requiring users to deposit security before obtaining a loan in crvUSD. Curve Finance has yet to identify the preferred asset to be used as collateral.
Not only Curve but other DeFi protocols are aiming to launch algorithmic stablecoins. This past February, rival protocol Aave (AAVE) made available a testnet version of their “native decentralised, collateral-backed stablecoin,” known as GHO.
A Curve Team member named mrblocktw first revealed Curve’s intention to launch an algorithmic stablecoin in a tweet on July 21, 2022.
At the ReDeFine Tomorrow Web3 summit later that day, Curve’s founder, Michael Egorov, confirmed that the stablecoin would be overcollateralized.
According to data from TradingView, the native Curve DAO (CRV) token of the protocol increased by almost 7% after the introduction of the new stablecoin. The current exchange rate for CRV is $0.96.
