How is OUSD created?

OUSD is a collateral-backed stablecoin created by Origin. Its value is pegged to the USD and backed 1:1 by other stablecoins like USDC, USDT and DAI. Users can mint OUSD from the official Origin Dollar front-end app by converting their stablecoins. Once minted, the OUSD begins to immediately accrue compounded yield. The Origin app will automatically route user transactions to give them the best available price while taking slippage and gas costs into consideration. This means that sometimes it will encourage users to buy OUSD that is already in circulation versus minting new OUSD. Redeeming OUSD back for the underlying stablecoins is the same process but incurs a 0.25% exit fee upon vault redemption. This means the app will often route the user's transaction through an AMM to sell the OUSD instead if it is cheaper after accounting for slippage, gas costs, and the exit fee. This fee is distributed as additional yield to the remaining OUSD holders, as well as serves as a security feature to make it more difficult for attackers to take advantage of lagging oracle prices (incentivize long-term holders over short-term speculators). For redemptions, the vault determines which underlying stablecoin to return to the user. This also serves to protect the vault in the event any supported stablecoin loses its peg. OUSD is able to generate yield as the protocol deploys the underlying stablecoins to third-party DeFi platforms like Aave and Compound. The yield generated from interest, trading fees, and protocol rewards is pooled and converted to stablecoins to produce OUSD-denominated yield. This yield is passed on to OUSD holders through a constant rebasing of the token supply. This allows the OUSD price to stay pegged at 1 USD while the user's token balance adjusts in real-time to reflect the accrued yield.

What is OUSD used for?

OUSD is a price-stable asset that is mostly used as a hedge against volatility as it maintains a stable value of around 1 USD. Users need an alternative store of value and medium of exchange to navigate the highly volatile crypto markets. OUSD addresses this problem for crypto native users, as well as allows users to passively earn yield while held directly in their wallets.

How is the price of OUSD kept stable?

OUSD is an asset-backed currency that maintains a free-floating peg to the USD. This means that its value may differ from exactly 1 USD from time to time given current market conditions. The protocol's rebasing function treats 1 stablecoin as 1 OUSD to protect user balances from being impacted by the daily fluctuations in the prices of the underlying stablecoins. Since the rebase function only counts the number of tokens, the user's OUSD balance should only increase over time. As an additional precaution, Origin never pays more than 1 USD for a stablecoin nor sells a stablecoin for less than 1 USD. Thus, inaccurate oracle prices will not result in a reduction in the number of stablecoins held.