OUSD

Origin Protocol, one of Pantera’s portfolio companies, is building out a suite of crypto products including a yield-generating token that leverages blue-chip DeFi protocols to compound yield. 

Origin developed Ethereum tokens Origin Dollar (OUSD) and Origin Dollar Governance (OGV) to create novel mechanisms for users to earn passively. Essentially, OUSD is a stablecoin that generates yield for its holders, and OGV is a governance token that manages the OUSD ecosystem. OGV currently has close to 80% of circulating supply staked, and the token is trading at an FDV of seed round stages. You can view OGV’s full price history and details here. 

For OUSD, yield sources are split across different strategies with an allocation for each: currently, just over half of the yield comes from Convex Finance, about a quarter comes from Morpho, and Aave and Compound each generate around 11%. These yield strategies intelligently optimize across the listed bluechips to theoretically provide users with higher yield than they would get from a singular one of these given strategies. There is currently a total value of ~$50M in OUSD wallet balances, and OUSD has a trailing 30-day APY moving average of 3.41% and 365-day APY moving average 5.11%. 

Trailing 30 day APY moving average. Source: Origin

Unlike CeFi, Origin allows users to earn yield with extreme transparency and no principal and counterparty risk. In light of all of the recent events involving FTX, Gemini, BlockFi, and Celsius, this clarity is more needed than ever in the crypto space. Further, OUSD holders are able to earn yield simply by holding the token in their wallets. Importantly, OUSD is a self-custodial token and the platform has no staking or unstaking period, which sets it apart from many tokens and protocols in existence today. This gives users an extra layer of autonomy and transparency in what they can do with their tokens. Users are also able to spend OUSD by sending the token to protocols that accept it. 

Origin’s interface to track earnings on, swap, and wrap OUSD. Source: Origin

OUSD also has clear use cases for DAOs that hold stablecoins as part of their treasuries: DAOs can essentially leverage OUSD’s yield benefits to bring more rewards to their community members. For example, Origin recently submitted a proposal to PopcornDAO that was approved by their decentralized governance to move their USDC to OUSD. The token demonstrates the power of on-chain yield protocols like Origin being compatible with the rest of DeFi, both in terms of on-chain composability and with the ethos of decentralization. 

Team

Origin Protocol was founded by Joshua Fraser and Matthew Liu in 2017. Josh previously founded Torbit, a web performance and management service acquired by Walmart Labs, and EventVue, a conference social networking software. Matthew previously founded PriceSlash, a consumer price-saving tool acquired by BillShark, and Unicycle Labs, the creator of ecommerce apps on Shopify. With their entrepreneurial experience, the pair is perfect for tackling the decentralized commerce space and building out Origin’s product suite. 

Closing thoughts

The yield farming boom in years past has clearly wound down. As users look for diversified strategies that seek to earn the most yield possible, Origin allows them to purchase a low-maintenance token and transparent underlying strategy so they can earn. By introducing a self-custodial token without staking and unstaking periods, more autonomy and flexibility are given to the end users. We at Pantera have backed Origin from the start and are excited to see their product suite and team grow and strengthen in the coming years. 

Paul Veradittakit

DISCLAIMER

Pantera Capital Puerto Rico Management, LP and its affiliates (“Pantera”) makes investments in crypto assets and in blockchain-related companies. Pantera and/or its affiliates or personnel may be an investor in, or have relationships or other business arrangements related to, certain instruments, companies and/or projects discussed herein. This document does not contain any advertisement for Pantera’s investment advisory services, or any other services or products, whether provided by Pantera or otherwise. The information and opinions presented in this document are solely those of Paul Veradittakit; they do not represent, and should not be interpreted as representative of, the views of Pantera or any other individual working for Pantera, and do not represent investment, legal, tax, financial, or any other form of, advice or recommendations. Neither Pantera nor Mr. Veradittakit is acting, or purports to act, as an investment adviser or in a fiduciary capacity with respect to any recipient of this paper. Information contained in this document is believed to be reliable, but no representation is made regarding such information’s fairness, correctness, accuracy, reasonableness or completeness. There is no obligation to update this document or to otherwise notify a reader if any matter stated statement or information contained here changes or subsequently is shown to be inaccurate. Nothing contained herein constitutes any representation or warranty as to future performance of any financial instrument or company. Forward-looking statements should not be relied upon, and performance or outcomes may differ materially from what is contemplated herein. Opinions included here incorporate subjective judgments or may be based on incomplete information. This document does not constitute or contain an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any securities or a recommendation to enter into any transaction, and no reliance should be placed on this document in making investment decisions.