trUSD

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What is trUSD?

trUSD is Tori Finance’s synthetic dollar. It is designed to track the value of USD and is the foundation of the Tori ecosystem. Where fiat-backed stablecoins hold dollars in bank accounts, trUSD is backed by delta-neutral trading positions. That backing model is what generates any rewards paid to strUSD stakers. Key characteristics:

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Why trUSD exists

Traditional stablecoins face a fundamental tradeoff:

• Fiat-backed stablecoins (USDC, USDT) are stable but generate no yield for holders
• Yield-bearing stables offer returns but often carry significant risks

trUSD bridges this gap by providing a stable-value asset that can be staked to access institutional-grade strategies while maintaining the simplicity and composability that DeFi users expect.

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How to get trUSD

There are two ways to acquire trUSD:

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Option 1: swap (recommended for most users)

The simplest way to get trUSD. No verification required, though the eligibility restrictions in the Terms of Service still apply.

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Option 2: mint (verified participants only)

Users who complete KYC/AML verification can mint trUSD directly from the protocol at NAV. Benefits of minting:

• Direct access to protocol NAV
• No market spread or slippage
• Larger transaction sizes supported

Fee: a 10bps (0.1%) fee applies to mint operations. This covers the costs of entering backing positions. See Minting & Redemption for verification details.

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How trUSD is backed

Backing consists of the protocol’s delta-neutral trading positions rather than bank deposits.

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What “delta-neutral” means

Delta-neutral positions remove directional market exposure:

• The backing value is designed not to depend on crypto prices going up or down
• Returns come from pricing opportunities, not directional bets
• Performance aims to be consistent regardless of market conditions

Simplified example: how delta-neutral works

Imagine you believe the price difference between two related assets will shrink, but you don’t want to bet on the overall market direction.Traditional approach: buy Asset A and hope it goes up.Delta-neutral approach: buy Asset A and simultaneously short an equivalent amount of Asset B.If both assets move in the same direction, the gains and losses offset each other. But if the price difference between them shrinks (as expected), you profit, regardless of whether the overall market went up or down.This is a simplified example. Tori’s actual strategies are more sophisticated but follow the same principle.

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Transparency

Backing is attested continuously by Accountable, and the live dashboard at tori.accountable.capital is open to anyone. Contract balances are readable on Etherscan. Audits and monitoring are covered in Security, and the composition of reserves in Backing and reserves.

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Peg mechanism

trUSD is designed to trade close to $1.00.

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Arbitrage incentives

When trUSD deviates from $1.00, arbitrageurs profit by pulling it back: When trUSD trades above $1.00:

• Verified participants mint trUSD at NAV and sell on the open market
• Supply increases and the price falls back toward $1.00

When trUSD trades below $1.00:

• Verified participants buy trUSD on the market and redeem at NAV
• Supply shrinks and the price rises back toward $1.00

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What bounds the price

The mint and redeem window is the anchor. Because verified participants can transact at NAV, any secondary-market deviation is a trade back toward $1.00, and the wider the deviation, the stronger the incentive to close it.

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Use cases

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Stake for rewards

The primary use case for trUSD is staking it to receive strUSD, the vault receipt token. When you stake trUSD, you receive strUSD tokens designed to accumulate rewards from Tori’s trading strategies. Learn more about strUSD →

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DeFi integration

trUSD is a composable DeFi primitive: collateral in lending protocols, liquidity in DEX pools, transfers to any Ethereum wallet, and a base for building on the Tori ecosystem. The set of live venues is tracked in DeFi integrations.

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Store of value

Hold trUSD as synthetic dollar exposure without staking. Unstaked trUSD earns no rewards, but keeps its dollar-tracking design.

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Custody and security

Backing assets live in two places. On-chain, they sit in audited smart contracts whose privileged roles are held behind multisigs and a 24-hour timelock, documented address-by-address in Roles and timelocks. Off-chain, they are held in segregated accounts with independent institutional custodians, and counterparties are limited to established firms. The full picture is in Backing and reserves.

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Technical details

For developers and integrators:

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Multi-chain architecture

Cross-chain transfers run on Chainlink CCIP under the Cross-Chain Token (CCT) standard. Ethereum holds the canonical supply behind a Lock and Release pool; every other chain mints and burns against it, which keeps a single unified supply with no wrapped tokens. Transfers are secured by CCIP’s decentralized oracle network and independent Risk Management Network (RMN), with rate limits per lane. Supported networks are listed in the app’s bridge. Contract addresses are in Contracts.

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Next steps