Usual has two parallel streams that flow through USUAL: revenue from the real assets backing the platform, and emissions from the daily USUAL distribution. This article explains how they interact and how both end up in the hands of the community.
The two streams
```
Real assets (Treasury Bills, wstETH, EUTBL...)
│
▼
Protocol revenue
│
├─── 30% ───▶ Locked USUALx holders (in USD0)
└─── 70% ───▶ DAO treasury (in various assets)
USUAL distribution buckets
│
├───▶ bUSD0 holders
├───▶ LP providers
├───▶ USUALx stakers
├───▶ Foundation (DAO)
└───▶ Insiders (USUAL*)
```
Revenue is earned. Emissions are new USUAL created and distributed. Both go to the community, via different channels.
Revenue — where it comes from
Usual generates revenue from several sources:
Yield on US Treasury Bills backing USD0 — the largest source
Yield on Eurozone T-Bills backing EUR0
Yield on wstETH backing ETH0 (ETH staking rewards via Lido)
Fees on savings products, bUSD0, and Usual Credit
Arbitrage and treasury management income on DAO treasury assets
As of early 2026, protocol revenue is around $5.5–6M per year (down from a pre-UIP-11 peak of ~$27M/year, deliberately reduced to cut emission selling pressure).
How revenue is distributed — the Revenue Switch
The Revenue Switch was activated on 13 January 2025. Since then, 100% of protocol revenue is distributed to the community:
Share | Destination | Form |
30% | Locked USUALx holders | Paid in USD0, distributed weekly |
70% | DAO treasury | Held in various assets for compounding, buybacks, and strategic deployment |
No shareholders. No venture capital margin. No hidden fees. 100% to the community.
Emissions — where the new USUAL comes from
Separately from revenue, new USUAL is created daily according to the emission schedule. As of post-UIP-11 (November 2025):
Daily emission: ~1,350,000 USUAL
End of distribution: June 2028
Bucket allocation: see USUAL tokenomics
Emissions are paid in USUAL itself. They are a dilution of the total supply, but designed to reward the participants who make the platform work: bond holders, stakers, LPs, and the DAO.
Why two streams instead of one
Having both revenue and emissions lets the platform do two things at once:
Revenue rewards those who own the platform (USUAL and USUALx holders)
Emissions onboard new users and reward activity (bUSD0, LP, stakers)
Over time, as emissions wind down (stopping in June 2028), revenue becomes the dominant reward stream. The long-term plan is for USUAL holders to earn purely from protocol revenue once the distribution period ends.
A worked example — if you stake into USUALx
Suppose you hold 100,000 USUAL and stake it all into USUALx. You now earn from two streams:
Revenue share — 30% of platform revenue goes to locked USUALx holders proportionally. If locked USUALx TVL is $30M and revenue is $6M/year, that's $1.8M/year in revenue → your share depends on your lock weight.
Emission share — USUALx stakers receive 301,203 USUAL/day (22.31% of total daily emissions). Your share depends on your portion of total staked USUAL.
Your total return is the sum of both streams. Check the live rate in the app — it fluctuates with staking TVL and USUAL market price.
Note: Revenue depends on actual protocol performance. If revenue falls, distributions fall. If revenue grows, distributions grow. It is not a fixed rate.
Technical note (for DeFi users): Revenue flows through the Distribution contract at 0x75cC0C0DDD2Ccafe6EC415bE686267588011E36A. The 30/70 split to USUALx / DAO treasury is enforced by the contract. Emissions flow through the daily distribution module per the bucket table. Both streams are verifiable on-chain. See the docs for the full flow specification.
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