Binance Labs, Kraken Ventures back $10m round for stablecoin issuer Usual

Binance Labs and Kraken Ventures led a $10 million Series A funding round for decentralized fiat-backed real-world asset stablecoin issuer Usual.

Usual, the RWA-backed stablecoin issuer that uses the USUAL token to distribute value and ownership, announced its fundraising through X on December 23.

Protocol said it has raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Binance Labs and Kraken Ventures, the venture capital arms of Binance and Kraken. Usual’s fundraiser also attracted participation from other heavyweight VC platforms in the ecosystem, such as Galaxy Digital, OKX Ventures, Wintermute, and Amber Group.

As usual, this milestone was reached after another major development.

On December 18, the stablecoin issuer announced a strategic alliance with Ethena Labs and Securitize, the tokenization platform for BlackRock’s BUIDL fund. The partnership targets the expanding decentralized finance market by offering users the advantage of combined liquidity, yield and composability.

Usual Labs and Binance Labs collaboration

Binance Labs said in a blog post that it invested in Usual to help reshape the DeFi ecosystem through Usual’s community-first approach. Featuring a shared rewards model, the project aims to use capital injection to redefine stablecoins through broader adoption of DeFi and RWA.

“At Binance Labs, we look for projects that foster meaningful innovation and expand the ecosystem, and we are excited to support Usual’s mission to push the boundaries of what stablecoins can achieve,” Alex Odagiu, investment director at Binance Labs, said in a statement. .

Binance Labs has supported several emerging projects in recent months, including Solana-based stablecoin infrastructure protocol Perena, multi-asset liquidity platform Astherus, and decentralized science research and investment platform BIO Protocol.

He also supported the Lombard Bitcoin liquid staking project in November 2024.

Notably, crypto exchange Binance was the first platform to add support for USUAL in November.

Usual Labs CEO Pierre Person said that the project will seek to expand its collaboration with Binance Labs.

“In the coming months, Binance Labs and Usual Labs will continue to collaborate to ensure the stablecoin market remains at the forefront of innovation and becomes even more community-centric,” Person added.