Usual Labs, a startup building a USD0 stablecoin ecosystem, has raised $7 million in funding.
Usual Labs’ backers include co-leaders IOSG and Kraken Ventures, as well as GSR, Mantle, Starkware, Flowdesk, Avid3, Bing Ventures, Breed, Hypersphere, Kima Ventures, Psalion, Public Works, and X Ventures.
The $7 million constitutes Usual Labs’ total funding to date. The company’s board of directors will not change following the round, as Usual Labs hopes to achieve complete independence and decentralization, a company spokesperson told The Block.
“Usual, like Ethena, is poised to become the Tether Killer, aiming for rapid success and growth, but with an infinitely scalable and highly secure real-asset architecture,” said Pierre Person, founder and CEO of Usual Labs.
USD0 is a stablecoin backed by real assets. Usual Labs plans to use the funds to support the launch of USD0 on the Ethereum mainnet in the second quarter of this year, which will involve funding the testnet phase and smart contract audits.
“The support and trust we have received from 100 visionary investors, including IOSG and Kraken Ventures, validates our mission to continue to revolutionize the financial landscape,” Person said in a statement.
Usual Labs also announced Wednesday that its total USD0 valuation has reached $75 million. The company plans to launch the stablecoin in the second quarter of 2024.
“Usual’s infrastructure connects the trusted, quality assets of traditional finance with the efficiency of decentralized finance, while sharing revenues with users instead of paying them to intermediaries,” Kraken Ventures partner Stuti Pandey said in a statement.
Usual Labs was founded in 2022 and is headquartered in France. The governance token USUAL allows holders to participate in the protocol’s forward-looking decisions, while the stablecoin USD0 provides a rate of return based on the valuation of real-world assets linked to the stablecoin, CoinDesk said.
The company’s CEO, Pierre Person, is a former member of the National Assembly and member of the French National Assembly.
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