[RFC] $OPEN Stablecoin Index ReGenesis - Q3 2025

OPEN Stablecoin DTF
1

Simple Summary

This RFC outlines the proposed structure for the upcoming $OPEN Stablecoin Index reGenesis, scheduled for Q3 2025. Comments are open for suggestions, questions, or just a nod of encouragement.

Motivation

Refresher: read the OPEN launch announcement here.

$OPEN is an equal-weight index of leading stablecoin networks advancing transparency, composability, and user-owned governance.

There’s no CEO calling the shots. No hidden team behind closed doors. Decisions aren’t made in the dark. They’re made by the community, through smart contracts and transparent, onchain vlSQUILL-OPEN governance.

Get to know the $OPEN governance process here: Get started with $OPEN: What, Why, How + Governance

Review the $OPEN basket here. Note: it’s not equally weighted at the moment as some tokens are outpacing others, shifting the index composition in real time.

The index rebalances quarterly subject to governance, with the next aimed for July 2025. Each rebalance offers a chance to update the basket and expand the community with aligned, value-adding contributors.

The experiment has been quite interesting since April 15.

  • $OPEN index up 47%
  • $372,581 market cap, averaging 50%+ growth weekly
  • 59 $OPEN holders
  • 22 vlSQUILL-OPEN governors

The U.S. Treasury projects the stablecoin market could reach $2 trillion by 2028—an 8x increase from today. That may be an underestimate, but either way, a rising tide will lift many boats.

TradFi’s view of stablecoin TAM far exceeds that of DeFi and naturally many projects are positioning accordingly. While there’s growing excitement around centrally issued stablecoins, the DeFi frontier remains the faster engine of innovation and experimentation.

Machine economies are beginning to take shape. Already forming around protocols, and likely soon AIs and robots coordinating autonomously. This may accelerate the stablecoin boom in ways we can’t yet fathom. They may leapfrog the entire TradFi stack.

Cars drove through mud for 40 years before roads were paved. Homes burned from DIY wiring for 45 years before home electrical and power grids were standardized. The internet screeched over phone lines for 30 years before broadband unlocked its potential.

Stablecoins are just 11 years old. Their primary use today is bridging TradFi and crypto, and patching the legacy fintech stack. But the most transformative innovations are likely still ahead. Tomorrow’s winners may not exist yet.

It’s entirely possible that primitives being pioneered by Aave, Curve, Ethena, Inverse, Frax, Liquity, Reserve, and Sky (the current $OPEN constituents) will be refactored into slower-moving layers of the global financial system. These decentralized stablecoin networks accelerate open experimentation and propagate dollar network effects while aligning more closely with user interests.

Other innovative projects are emerging as well. The $OPEN index hopes to track 10 of the leaders and help tell the story of this exciting frontier.

Specification

We suggest a 5-6 week exercise starting now, culminating with a rebalance on or around July 1 2025.

  • May 19-June 1 (two weeks) - Community nominates protocols. Open call: Suggest stablecoin networks adds or removals for the $OPEN index. Drop a one-sentence rationale in the comments of this RFC. Invite protocols to submit full proposals via the standard RFC format at: OPEN Stablecoin DTF - Reserve Protocol Forum.
  • June 2-15 (two weeks) - Debate proposals + tradeoffs in the Forums, Secret Admirers group, or on 𝕏.
  • June 16-22 (one week) Draft + feedback: A proposed $OPEN basket is published for community review and final input before onchain voting begins.
  • June 23-26 (3 days) Vote + announce. $vlSQUILL-OPEN governors cast votes on the proposed July basket. Following the vote, the final index composition updated weights and constituents is implemented onchain and announced.

Risks

  • Selecting stablecoin networks that stall or fail to innovate
  • Selecting networks with unsustainable or flawed tokenomics
  • Selecting networks where token inflation outpaces real ecosystem growth
  • Selecting networks that neglect transparency, composability, or user-led governance
  • While the Reserve index protocol (that powers $OPEN) has been audited and rebalanced before, past performance doesn’t guarantee future resilience

Proposer background

I am @0xJMG, one of the community contributors to $OPEN. Follow me on 𝕏 or read me at Furthermore.co.

Next Steps

  • What parts of the plan or process do you agree or disagree with? Drop a comment.
  • Got ideas to simplify the process? Add your thoughts below.
  • Start nominating: share a tweet-worthy rationale and let us know if you can intro the protocol or want help doing so.
4 Likes
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Great proposal. I nominate protocol fx, growing tvl and base launch soon.

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Big fan of OPEN and how it leverages the index protocol to bring together protocols. Thank you James for your hard work.

Looking through your proposal, I don’t see any obvious holes. The risks section will certainly require a good bit of diligence per protocol - I can see the time adding up.

It’d be really cool if OPEN launched an OPEN stablecoin that was governed by OPEN, but I’m not sure if the yield protocol allows tokens other than RSR to be used for governance/staking. Similar idea to eUSD, being a basket of stablecoins and being pegged to $1. I’m sure I’m not the first one that’s had this idea!

There seems to be an unmet need to concentrate efforts between all of these protocols to build one singular stable! Perhaps there can be more “average winning” per protocol if they band together?

Appreciate you spearheading OPEN, James.

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Absolutely fantastic to see $OPEN come from an idea to where it is in such a short time!

One thing I’d love the community to consider: should the $OPEN DTF be market cap weighted in some way? The largest indexes in the world are all marketcap weighted and its the standard way that people expect indexes to work. Equal weighted might actually be surprising to some who are looking to passively get exposure to the stablecoin ecosystem.

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Big fan of what the $OPEN team and community are doing!

I nominate $SYRUP to be added to the basket. Maple’s TVL growth, driven by institutional lending and an increasing demand for syrupUSDC, is a testament to their PMF. Maple has a defensible moat in BTC yield and with loans outstanding and loan origination metrics at all time highs sustaining and scaling yield paid out, demand for syrupUSDC is showing no signs of slowing down.

https://dune.com/maple-finance/maple-finance

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Let’s boot Ethena to make room for other open stablecoins. Not a knock on Ethena, they’re crushing it, but a nod to the reality that we are best off leaning into the longer tail of open stablecoins!

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Good comments rolling in.

Think a good next step is for invited protocols to post lightweight proposal either here in the comments or as a standalone RFC in this forum covering the following:

-Stablecoin ticker + TVL
-Primary stablecoin use cases
-Stablecoin key integrations and partners
-Gov token ticker, market cap, % circulating
-Gov token’s role (what-why-how)
-Gov token liquidity (CEX/DEX venues + depth for rebalancing)
-Onchain vs offchain ops overview covering decentralization/transparency
-Blockchain(s) deployed on
-link to audit reports or external research analyses
-If available, link to forward-looking investment or roadmap priorities
-Link to docs

Protocols introducing themselves and crafting a simple proposal generally following the above outline will make it easy for vlSQUILL-OPEN governors to consider changes to the OPEN basket.

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Agree with Spencer420. Would also like to see Protocol f(x) be represented in this decentralized stablecoin index. Seems to capture the spirit of this effort being a decentralized stablecoin built by AladdinDAO.

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I’m nominating @protocol_fx to join the $OPEN basket. The reason is that the protocol is currently seeing an increase in TVL, and they plan to introduce short positions soon. Additionally, the upcoming Base integration will enable over 10x leverage on smaller market cap tokens, expanding their capabilities even further.

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Hey scoopy from Alchemix here.

I’d like to raise my hand for a possible Alchemix ALCX token nomination here. We are hard at work with our massive v3 upgrade, which we strongly believe can bring scalability and peg resilience for both our stablecoin alUSD and ETH synth alETH. Furthermore we are also hard at work with a governance and tokenomics update that will drive value to ALCX and make us much more decentralized.

I would be happy to answer any questions regarding our plans and estimated time table and roadmap.

:backhand_index_pointing_right::backhand_index_pointing_left::flushed_face:

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Welcome @scoopy. Big fan of what you guys built and path you are on. since some people might not be familar with Alchemix, would you mind responding here with answers to the following? This will help $OPEN’s governance assess and vote on ALCX in the basket.

-Stablecoin ticker + TVL
-Primary stablecoin use cases
-Stablecoin key integrations and partners
-Gov token ticker, market cap, % circulating
-Gov token’s role (what-why-how)
-Gov token liquidity (CEX/DEX venues + depth for rebalancing)
-Onchain vs offchain ops overview covering decentralization/transparency
-Blockchain(s) deployed on
-link to audit reports or external research analyses
-If available, link to forward-looking investment or roadmap priorities
-Link to docs

Also hope you will join the Telegram $OPEN Secret Admirers.

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Proposal to add f(x) Protocol governance token FXN to the OPEN Index

f(x) Protocol empowers DeFi to bring an innovative approach to stablecoins and leverage trading. The f(x) invariant can split any yield-bearing asset into two components:

  • A scalable decentralized stablecoin that captures sustainable on-chain real yield - fxUSD

  • A leveraged position that delivers up to 10x leverage on ETH with minimal liquidation risk and funding cost - the xPOSITION.

The fxUSD component of the protocol allows for the creation of leverage for the innovative defi primitive xPOSITIONS, and fxUSD has reached a TVL over $50MM. fxUSD, and the tokenized yield bearing stablecoin vault fxSAVE, has widespread usage throughout mainnet defi on the following notable platforms: Morpho, Curve, Pendle, Spectra, and AAVE. Due to its complete reliance upon crypto native assets (wstETH and wBTC), fxUSD is completely decentralized and does not have any exposure to RWAs or CEXs. Due to these factors and AladdinDAO’s deep relationship with many of the existing stablecoin platforms already in the OPEN Index, f(x) Protocol would like to propose to add its governance token, FXN, to the OPEN Index. Questions and comments regarding this proposal are welcome.

Quick Facts:

  1. Stablecoin Ticker: fxUSD

  2. Protocol f(x) TVL: $150MMM

  3. Primary Stablecoin Use Cases:

  4. Main use case is to denominate debt for leverage long xPositions in BTC and ETH

  5. Can be deposited into Stability Pool to earn yield in wstETH, FXN

  6. Use to mint a tokenized ERC-4626 vault token representing a position in the Stability Pool called “fxSAVE” and utilize it as collateral in a money market or for yield trading

  7. LP in Curve pool

  8. Stablecoin key integrations and partners:

  9. Morpho - fxSAVE/USDC vault

  10. Curve - Liquidity in fxUSD/USDC LP

  11. Pendle - fxSAVE yield trading

  12. Spectra - fxSAVE yield trading

  13. AAVE - backing collateral (wstETH) for Xpositions are lent out; excess USDC from stability pool is lent out

  14. Gov token ticker: FXN

  15. Market Cap: $2.8 MM

  16. % circulating: 5.74%

  17. Gov token role: ve- locking design. Operates identical to Curve ve-locking. Used for governance decisions and revenue distribution.

  18. Gov token liquidity: Curve FXN/ETH LP - $2.2MM

  19. Blockchains deployed on: mainnet only for now; Base launch is imminent

  20. Link to audit reports: Audit Reports | fx Docs

  21. Link to Docs: f(x) Protocol Documentation | fx Docs

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So Alchemix overall TVL is ~$65m, split between alETH and alUSD synths

For alUSD specifically:
-Ticker: alUSD
-alUSD TVL: ~18m
-Integrations/Partnerships: Curve, Velodrome, Ramses, Timeswap, StakeDAO, Convex, Holyheld, Frax, InverseDAO (also working on Chainlink oracles for alUSD to enable lending market integrations for Euler, Morpho, and letsgetHAI)

For Alchemix Generally:
-Gov Token: ALCX, ~$25m MC, 94.5% circulating
-ALCX role: Governance voting via snapshot (fully on chain DAO soon tm)
-ALCX Liquidity: Roughly $6.5m in TVL on DEXs (Balancer, Sushiswap, Curve, Velodrome, Ramses), and has major CEX markets including Binance, Coinbase, OKX, Kraken, Pionex, and Gate.
-Keepers automate much of the protocol operations, while parameter changes, upgrades, and incentives are run by the multisig and must adhere to governance voting authorizations. Treasury operations are run by the multisig.
-Deployed on Ethereum Mainnet, Optimism, and Arbitrum
-Audit reports: Audits & Reports | Alchemix User Docs
-Our roadmap is exciting. Our upcoming Alchemix v3 (now being audited by Spearbit, Cantina, and Immunefi) will introduce stronger pegging mechanisms, new DeFi primitives, simplified UX, and much greater scalability. We believe it has potential to lead to a resurgence similar to Euler and Maple’s recent performance, and is aiming for a mid-to-late summer release. Our tokenomics upgrade and on chain DAO have also nearly completed development (audit scheduling to begin soon). Further planned expansions to the v3 system for later in the year and into 2026 will offer more flexible collateral types and further improvements to peg stability mechanisms.
-User Docs: https://docs.alchemix.fi/
-Developer Docs: AlchemistV2 | V2 Developer Docs
-Quarterly Financial Reports: Financial Reports | Alchemix User Docs

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I would like to nominate Origin Protocol

Origin focuses on making DeFi yield accessible to everyone by launching different yield products.

Origin Protocol currently sits at $137m in TVL.

Governance token: OGN
Market cap: $40M
Liquidity: $2.2m spread across different chains. $1.6m of the liquidity resides at Uniswap on the Ethereum mainnet.
Exchanges: Listed on Coinbase and Binance.

  • OUSD is a yield generating stablecoin that was launched in 2020 and pioneered the rebasing stablecoin at the time.
  • Majority of on-chain liquidity sits on Curve outside of the funds that are deployed into DeFi strategies on Morpho and Sky that generate the yield that the stablecoin comprises of.

  • Yield Generation: OUSD automatically earns yield by deploying its collateral to DeFi protocols like Curve, Sky and Morpho. Yields are distributed via daily rebasing, increasing the token supply and holders’ wallet balances while keeping the price stable at ~$1.

  • Collateral: Backed 1:1 by major stablecoins (USDT, USDC, DAI), ensuring stability and redeemability. Reserves are verifiable on-chain, and redemptions are instant with a 0.25% fee to deter abuse

  • Decentralized Governance: Controlled by Origin’s community via OGN (and later OGV) token holders, who stake for voting rights (xOGN) to decide yield strategies and protocol upgrades.

  • Analytics: The real-time strategy allocation and collateral distribution can be viewed at the Origin analytics platform.

Outside of OUSD, Origin Protocol has also built other products such as:

  • OETH which is an ETH LST that was launched in May 2023. It uses DVT to increase key management security and reduce the risk of a single point of failure.
  • OS which is a Sonic LST that was launched in the early parts of 2025.
  • ARM: The Automated Redemption Manager is a DeFi tool designed to enable zero-slippage swapping of redeemable assets, primarily liquid staking tokens.

The protocol is widely integrated across the DeFi ecosystem in protocols such as: Uniswap, Balancer, Aerodrome, Euler, Silo, Morpho, Curve, Pendle, Spectra, Summer, Frax etc.

Origin protocol is fully audited and has a continuous auditing agreement with OpenZeppelin. You can read more about it here.
Docs: Origin Protocol Docs

4 Likes
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$OPEN’s Q3 rebalance discussion is nearing its final phase.
To support informed debate, here’s a crowdsourced spreadsheet comparing key metrics across the 8 current constituents and 3 proposed additions — ALCX, OGN, and FXN.

If you’d like to challenge any data in the google sheet, just use the native commenting to do so.

As a reminder, the current $OPEN index methodology is pasted below and always available at openstablecoinindex.com.

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1 Like
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Proposal to add $SYRUP to the index.

$SRYUP governs the Maple ecosystem and accrues value from direct monthly buybacks.

syrupUSD is a liquid, yield-bearing asset built and managed by Maple—designed to deliver consistent returns through overcollateralized lending to institutional borrowers. Built for consistent yield and capital preservation, syrupUSD delivers yield through real cash flows.
It is overcollateralized and fully transparent, loan data and collateral positions are verifiable on Maple Finance

Stablecoin ticker + TVL

  • Ticker: syrupUSD
  • TVL $1.2B

Primary stablecoin use cases

  • Yield-generation
    *Native yield + protocol incentives through the Drips program

  • DeFi integrations: Morpho, Contango, Pendle, Euler

Gov token ticker, market cap, % circulating

  • Ticker: SYRUP
  • Market cap: $600M
  • Circulating supply: 93.2%

Gov token’s role (what-why-how)

  • Governance (voting on proposals). $syrup tokens
  • Staking (for variable APY). stake on Maple Earn page, earn drips rewards that can be converted to $syrup tokens

Gov token liquidity (CEX/DEX venues + depth for rebalancing)

  • CEX: All major exchanges: Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bitget, Gate, HTX + more
  • DEX: Uniswap, Aerodrome
  • $100M+ in average daily volume

Onchain vs offchain ops overview covering decentralization/transparency

  • Deposits are fully automated. Redemptions normally take 24h or less (can be up to 30 days) and are not fully automated. There is $10M in instant onchain liquidity for instant redemptions.
    Collateral and other related data can be tracked in real-time on Maple Finance

Blockchain(s) deployed on:

  • Ethereum

Link to audit reports or external research analyses

If available, link to forward-looking investment or roadmap priorities

  • 4B TVL by EoY 2025

Link to docs on Maple site

1 Like
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Think you would add $SYRUP to the index vs. syrupUSD.

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Agree @maplejesse it should be SYRUP, not syrupUSD. Recommend updating your post.

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Nomination for $OPEN Stablecoin Index:

Protocol: Stake DAO

Gov Token: SDT, ~$25m MC, 63% circulating

One-sentence rationale: Stake DAO controls nearly 15% of Curve’s total veCRV voting power through its CRV Liquid Locker (sdCRV) and provides critical stablecoin liquidity infrastructure via Votemarket, where stablecoin issuers regularly purchase vote incentives to support their pools and maintain deep liquidity.

Key points supporting inclusion:

Major Curve Control: 15% of total veCRV voting power directly impacts CRV rewards distribution across all stablecoin pools, affecting liquidity and adoption

Stablecoin Infrastructure:

  • sdCRV and sdBAL: major governance footprint in two of the most important DEXs for stable coins

  • sdFXS and sdFXN: major governance power in two stable coin issuers, FRAX and fxUSD

  • sdPENDLE and sdSPECTRA: top ownership of the two leaders of the yield trading layer for stable

Strategic asset for stable coin issuers :

veSDT is held or rented by major stable coin issuers with notably Reserve, Aave and Alchemix amongst its top holders, demonstrating the strategic importance of Stake DAO’s infrastructure for major stable coin issuers.

Votemarket Platform: Primary marketplace where stablecoin issuers (Aave, Abra, Inverse, Origin, Falcon, Synthetix, and more) purchase vote incentives to maintain competitive yields

SDT Governance: Central mechanism enabling veSDT holders to boost voting power across all liquid lockers.

Scale: >$200M TVL, 12 active Liquid Lockers, transparent community governance

Stake DAO provides essential infrastructure for stablecoin competitiveness and liquidity optimization.

Usefull links:

https://www.stakedao.org/
https://votemarket.stakedao.org/
https://x.com/StakeDAOHQ
https://github.com/stake-dao/

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Hey @chago0x — big fan of Stake DAO and the thoughtful work you’re contributing to the ecosystem.

That said, Stake DAO doesn’t appear to currently align with the mandate of The $OPEN Stablecoin Index, which tracks governance tokens of stablecoin networks.

It’s possible the mandate needs sharper language—that’s a valuable conversation for the OPEN community to explore separately, and might take a few weeks longer than available for the 1st snapshot vote cycle happening in 4 days.

Open to broader input, but straying off-mandate poses real risks to the index’s clarity, growth, and communications.

Pasting the current mandate below (also at openstablecoinindex.com).

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