The Revenue Switch is one of the most important events in Usual's history. On 13 January 2025, the DAO voted to redirect 100% of protocol revenue back to the community. This article explains what changed, why it matters, and what it means for you.
What the Revenue Switch did
Before the Revenue Switch, protocol revenue was retained within the treasury for operational use. After the Switch:
100% of revenue is distributed to the community
30% goes to locked USUALx holders, paid in USD0 weekly
70% goes to the DAO treasury for compounding and strategic deployment
0% is retained as private profit by any insider
This moved Usual from a standard DeFi protocol structure to a fully community-owned financial platform.
Why it matters
Most protocols and banks generate revenue and keep it. USUAL takes the opposite stance: revenue flows back to the people who use and own the platform.
Concrete implications:
If you lock USUAL into USUALx, you start earning weekly USD0 distributions from protocol revenue
If the platform grows, your distributions grow
If the DAO treasury grows, the buybacks, liquidity, and new product launches are funded from within
Usual does not depend on new token sales or external funding for growth
A worked example
Suppose the platform earns $6 million in revenue over a year and there is $30 million in locked USUALx.
To USUALx holders — 30% × $6M = $1.8 million split among locked USUALx holders.
Your share depends on your lock weight (longer locks = larger share).
To the DAO treasury — 70% × $6M = $4.2 million added to the treasury.
This funds audits, liquidity, new products, and buybacks.
Both flows happen every week, with the USUALx distribution settling in USD0 directly to stakers.
What changed with the November 2025 restructuring (UIP-11)
The Revenue Switch was activated in January 2025. In November 2025, a second major change — the UIP-11 disinflation — restructured the emission side of the equation:
Daily USUAL emissions cut from ~2.7M to ~1.35M per day
USUAL rewards to bUSD0 positions in USL eliminated
LP rewards cut by ~80%
End of distribution moved forward to June 2028
UIP-11 did not change the Revenue Switch. It changed how new USUAL is distributed, but the 100% revenue share to the community remained intact.
What this means for you
If you... | Impact |
Hold USUALx | You earn 30% of revenue in USD0, weekly. Bigger platform → bigger distributions. |
Hold USUAL (not staked) | You benefit indirectly through treasury growth and governance power. To earn directly, stake into USUALx. |
Hold bUSD0 or sUSD0 | No change — you earn from the underlying yield and (for bUSD0) a USUAL coupon from emissions, not from the revenue share. |
Are a new user | USUAL is one of the only tokens where 100% of protocol revenue flows to holders. No shareholders, no VC margins. |
The broader context
The Revenue Switch reflects Usual's core thesis: your money is yours, and the platform that holds it should be yours too. By removing the shareholder layer, Usual aligns long-term incentives between the platform, its users, and its token holders.
Note: Revenue distributions depend on actual revenue. In periods of lower platform activity, distributions are smaller. In periods of growth, they are larger. The 30/70 split is fixed but the underlying revenue is variable.
Technical note (for DeFi users): The Revenue Switch is implemented via the Distribution contract at 0x75cC0C0DDD2Ccafe6EC415bE686267588011E36A. It enforces the 30% / 70% split at the contract level and settles USD0 to USUALx holders on a weekly cadence. The original governance vote is recorded as a UIP in the governance history. See the docs for the full contract trail.
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