Waves Founder Plans New Stablecoin Amid USDN Depegging

Waves founder Sasha Ivanov said he intends to issue another stablecoin, upon announcing plans to stabilize Neutrino USD (USDN).

“Two things: – I will launch a new stable coin – There’s gonna be a $USDN situation resolution plan set in motion before,” Ivanov announced on Twitter. Ivanov explained that no further details would be provided about the new coin until the USDN resolution plan commenced. However, he did remark that the new stablecoin would be “undepeggable.”

USDN Loses Peg

Ivanov made the announcement following the recent depegging of USDN. The algorithmic stablecoin has struggled to maintain its peg to the U.S. dollar over the past few months. 

After very brief dips in April and May, USDN managed to retain its value until the end of the summer. However, it experienced a bit more prolonged instability starting in Aug. going into Sept. After recovering in Oct., it fell once again in November, and subsequent events have seen it fall further.

On Dec. 8, South Korean exchange Upbit took note of this prolonged depegging, issuing an investment warning about the stablecoin. “Upbit has been monitoring the price trend and deemed that there’s a risk of unexpected investor’s loss due to WAVES value volatility,” the exchange said in its announcement. This subsequently caused USDN to fall even further, which is currently valued just below $0.60

Alternative to Waves Ecosystem

USDN is the stablecoin of the Waves blockchain, and is backed by the ecosystem’s native token WAVES. In order to mint further USDN, users must stake their WAVES in the Neutrino, an algorithmic, multi-asset protocol based on Waves. Users can also subsequently redeem their WAVES tokens by taking USDN out of circulation.

Ivanov clarified that the new stablecoin is not being launched in anticipation of the collapse of the Waves ecosystem. “It’s just it’s time to create a protocol more attuned to the current market conditions,” Ivanov said. “It will be easier to stabilize usdn first and launch the new protocol after.”