TL;DR
- Cap and Symbiotic launch Universal Staking: agents borrow funds for investments like arbitrage and market making, while stakers lock capital as collateral.
- When agreed returns aren’t met, automatic slashing is triggered on the operator’s collateral, covering the shortfall and preserving the stablecoin’s peg.
- Symbiotic’s vaults only authorize withdrawals if collateral is active and enforce on-chain slashing without votes or arbitrariness.
Cap introduced Universal Staking alongside Symbiotic, a model that separates investment returns from the risks tied to those strategies.
What is Universal Staking Introduced by Cap?
Instead of a protocol or centralized fund generating returns for its stablecoins, independent agents borrow funds and deploy them in arbitrage, market making, or real-world assets. Before operating, each agent must secure backing from external stakers who lock up their capital as a performance guarantee.
If an agent fails to deliver the agreed returns, automatic slashing activates and only affects the collateral committed by that operator. The slashed funds cover the deficit and maintain the stablecoin’s peg, so users don’t suffer losses. This approach isolates the impact of a default and prevents contagion between agents or protocols.
Operators negotiate a fixed premium with their stakers, added to the base return guaranteed to stablecoin holders. If the strategy outperforms that benchmark, the excess belongs to the agent. If it falls short, the slashed collateral makes up the difference. This structure ensures predictable returns for users and means stakers only take losses if their selected agent fails.
How Do Symbiotic’s Vaults Work?
Symbiotic provides its infrastructure of programmable vaults, each dedicated to a specific type of collateral and configured with its own slashing modules. These vaults act as on-chain custodians: they authorize agent withdrawals only if their guarantee is active and execute penalties without votes or discretionary governance. Any network participant can trigger slashing by detecting a failure condition, reinforcing transparency and trust in the system.
Universal Staking extends the shared security concept beyond Proof-of-Stake. It can back unpaid loans, bootstrap new projects, or support any use case requiring economic guarantees. Stakers choose which agents to support or diversify their exposure across multiple operators. This mechanism encourages diligence and promotes competitive conditions: top-performing agents attract more capital at lower rates.
With this modular design, Cap can launch multiple stablecoins, each protected by its own dedicated collateral. Users get access to competitive returns without dealing with execution risks, while agents compete for liquidity and stakers manage their own risk exposure
