DeFi Stablecoin Newcomer Touts Idle APY Earnings

The DeFi sector has boosted the demand for stablecoins to unprecedented levels this year but there are still innovative concepts emerging. The team behind the latest dollar-pegged digital asset, Origin Dollar (OUSD), includes former Google and PayPal engineers and executives. The project boasts a unique feature in that there is no need to stake or lock up collateral in order to participate in the earning strategies that come along with most other similar assets.

Today, we are excited to launch the Origin Dollar $OUSD: the first stablecoin that earns a yield while it's still in your wallet. 🚀

Learn more about our bold new step into #DeFi here: https://t.co/q5MJSX49dm pic.twitter.com/dAx9buCucu

— Origin Protocol (@OriginProtocol) September 23, 2020

OUSD Boasts 2.77% APY

At the time of press, the OUSD website was reporting earnings of 2.77% annual percentage yield (APY) for just holding the asset. While this does not sound like much compared to some of the monumental returns some DeFi yield farming assets are offering, it’s way ahead of what any high street bank currently offers. The Origin Dollar is backed by other stablecoins including USDT, USDC, and DAI, and the yield is generated by deploying these underlying assets to a diversified set of DeFi protocols. It has an elastic supply that constantly distributes additional units of OUSD to holders. The official blog post introducing the concept stated;

“OUSD combines the automated farming of Yearn, the elastic supply of Ampleforth, and the ease-of-use of Tether.”

It addresses the two main DeFi dilemmas at the moment; having to lock collateral into smart contacts where it is inaccessible while earning a yield, and having to spend a lot of funds on gas when switching positions. Additionally, liquidity pools and yield farming opportunities are constantly shifting so it has become a full-time job to keep up with them. OUSD smart contracts deploy the underlying capital to a diversified set of farming strategies, rebalancing over time. Being a stablecoin, it does not suffer from the wild fluctuations that other digital DeFi assets, most of which have dumped double digits this week. Every OUSD is backed by another stablecoin deposited or earned by the protocol.

The Caveat

OUSD launches on Sept 23 and ultimately intends to integrate with Compound, Aave, dYdX, Uniswap, Curve, and Balancer, in the future. The smart contracts have yet to be fully audited so the team does encourage investors to exercise caution as code bugs could result in monetary loss. It added that it expects a full audit by Trail of Bits next month.