Since the start of 2023, the size of the stablecoin economy has decreased amid numerous redemptions. However, new stablecoin asset projects, such as Aave’s GHO, First Digital’s FDUSD, and Paypal’s PYUSD, have emerged. On September 1, a stablecoin protocol named Prisma Finance was launched, enabling users to deposit liquid staking derivative tokens for a token called MKUSD. Since its inception, the protocol has secured $55 million in locked value.
Prisma Finance Stablecoin MKUSD Joins $123B Fiat-Pegged Crypto Economy
Another stablecoin, MKUSD, has entered the stablecoin economy, a large group of fiat-pegged coins now valued at $123 billion as of September 23. The stablecoin originates from a decentralized finance (defi) protocol named Prisma Finance, which officially launched on September 1, 2023. Prisma’s stablecoin MKUSD is described as a “non-custodial and decentralized Ethereum liquid-staking-token (LST)-backed stablecoin.”
In essence, Prisma users deposit supported liquid staking tokens into a vault to borrow MKUSD. If the collateral ratio drops below 120%, the vault can be liquidated. A stability pool takes on the liquidated debt and distributes collateral to providers. Supported collateral types are WSTETH, CBETH, RETH, and SFRXETH. The minted MKUSD can be used on other defi platforms or later redeemed for the liquid-staking tokens (LSTs).
LSTs have become extremely popular over the past two years and there’s 11.96 million ether locked into LST platforms. At its launch, the Prisma project set its borrowing limit in phases, and by September 15, Prisma had secured $30 million. Presently, defillama.com data indicates that Prisma’s total value locked (TVL) is $55.16 million.
Etherscan shows the circulating supply of MKUSD is 29.99 million tokens. The token only has a mere 129 holders and the “Stability Pool” address commands 71.39% of the total supply. A stability pool is essentially a mechanism used by defi projects that ensures the supply of a stablecoin is always backed. The second-largest MKUSD wallet is held by Curve Finance and it holds 14.30% of the MKUSD in circulation.
Compared to the major stablecoins like USDT and USDC, MKUSD is considerably smaller. It also lags behind newcomers FDUSD and PYUSD but surpasses GHO’s supply of 22,706,149. There are about 368,787,867 FDUSD and 44,376,440 PYUSD. All four stablecoins – MKUSD, FDUSD, GHO, and PYUSD – are heavily concentrated, with the top 100 holders in each project controlling the majority of the supply.
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