RIA·DeFi
Refusal file · stable lending

Why Ketju rejected Usual (USD0 / USD0++)

Memo v1Published by Ketju Research

A registry memo, published verbatim and versioned. Superseded versions are recorded, never edited away. A rejection is a judgment for Ketju's client base and thesis, not a universal safety claim. Not investment, legal, tax, or compliance advice.

The memo

REJECTED, and it belongs in client education because the failure mode is one no amount of smart-contract auditing would have caught. On 2025-01-10 Usual UNILATERALLY changed the redemption terms of USD0++. Holders had been able to redeem 1:1 for USD0; the protocol introduced a floor price of $0.87 instead. The token promptly traded to ~$0.90. There was no exploit, no oracle failure, and no bad debt in the underlying — the issuer simply rewrote the terms of the instrument by decree. The damage came through composability: $200M+ of borrows on Morpho used USD0++ as collateral, and the repricing pushed many above the 86% LLTV into liquidation. Curve pools were left badly imbalanced. Holders who never touched leverage were harmed by the liquidation cascade around them. The lesson to carry: a redeemable token is only worth its redemption TERMS, and those terms are a governance variable unless they are immutable. This is why Liquity-style immutability is graded highest in assets.ts — not ideology, but because nobody can vote to change what you are owed.

What would reopen the file

  • n/a — rejected

Facts on file

Verdict
Rejected
Exposure
stable lending
Chains examined
Ethereum
Memo version
v1
Reviewed
Next review

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