The decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, Curve Finance, has finally launched its hotly anticipated native algorithmic U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin, called “crvUSD” on the Ethereum (ETH) mainnet.
A New Stablecoin Hits The Market
After an initial code release in September, Curve Finance has deployed the stablecoin on the Ethereum mainnet on Wednesday, minting more than $22 million worth of crvUSD. As per data from blockchain explorer Etherscan, nearly $20 million of that amount was minted within the first 5 minutes.
As many figured – deployment of crvUSD smart contracts has happened!
This is not finalized yet because UI also needs to be deployed. Stay tuned!
— Curve Finance (@CurveFinance) May 3, 2023
The move marks a major milestone for rolling out Curve’s long-awaited stablecoin to the public. It could open up myriad opportunities in terms of new models, making the platform even more liquid as well as ensuring long-term sustainability. Curve’s plans to deploy a dollar-pegged asset first became public in June 2022.
However, the crvUSD stablecoin won’t be accessible to the public until later as it is not yet integrated into Curve’s user interface. Following the deployment, the protocol’s governance token CRV witnessed a sharp uptick. According to CoinMarketCap, Curve DAO Token (CRV) gained more than 6% in the last 24 hours to trade at $0.95. Meanwhile, the digital token is up 1.81% over the past seven days.
The launch comes amidst heavy competition as a slew of rival DeFi protocols also launch their stablecoins. In February, DeFi protocol Aave (AAVE) released its native stablecoin GHO on the testnet.
Stablecoin Adoption Skyrockets
Moreover, since the onset of the New Year, US dollar-pegged stablecoins have attracted tremendous attraction. The surge in stablecoins is due to its ability to maintain a constant exchange rate with fiat currencies, for example through a 1:1 U.S. dollar peg. Despite coming under a lot of flak, following Terra Luna’s collapse, stablecoin adoption has grown rapidly over the past few months.
On January 31, Cardano (ADA) deployed its new algorithmic stablecoin “Djed” on the mainnet, amassing massive traction. In just over 24 hours, since launch, Djed managed to accumulate a whopping $10 million in total value of assets locked (TVL).
Djed is LIVE!!!https://t.co/a9CWJtT4z4
Visit https://t.co/p7eV0jd400$DJED $SHEN $COTI @InputOutputHK @Cardano@Cardano_CF pic.twitter.com/9W7au8imrr
— COTI (@COTInetwork) January 31, 2023
The National Australia Bank (NAB), one of the four biggest Australian banks, has created a stablecoin called “AUDN”, which it aims to launch later this year. In addition, following the resignation of Martin Guzman, the Economy Minister of Argentina, several cryptocurrency exchanges in the country experienced a high trading volume in stablecoins.
2/ Expect that 2023 on-chain stablecoin volumes will not only surpass Visa volumes, but will also likely surpass the aggregate volume of all four major card networks (Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, and Discover).
— Peter Johnson (@TheChicagoVC) December 21, 2022
As per an estimate, consumers in the country bought up to three times more stablecoins than their usual trend. Amidst the surge in stablecoin adoption, Peter Johnson, co-head of the venture branch at Brevan Howard Digital, noted,
“In 2023, on-chain stablecoin volumes will surpass the largest card network, Visa.”
