Value-first token tracker

Explore economic design, value capturing structure, and utility of digital assets.

USDT derives its value from a 1:1 peg to the USD, acting as a representation token; a stablecoin backed by collateral reserves held by Tether Limited, reflecting a digital representation of $1.00, despite occasional minor fluctuations.
Tether Limited issues and redeems USDT, guaranteeing one-to-one redeemability for verified clients, subject to conditions like a historical minimum threshold (which may vary), KYC/AML compliance, and fees, with retail users typically relying on exchanges.
USDT enables DeFi integration across blockchains, leveraging its pegged value for trading and liquidity with no additional governance or staking features.

Acting as a representation token, USDC is a stablecoin soft-pegged 1:1 to the USD, issued centrally by Circle and backed by equivalent fiat reserves, serving as a stable unit of account and medium of exchange for crypto natives during volatile markets.
Deployed as an ERC-20 token with smart contract support, it enables regulated, transparent use in DeFi, remittances, and institutional finance across multiple blockchains, with supply tied directly to audited dollar reserves.
Through a centralized mint-and-redeem process, USDC represents a tokenized USD claim, where each token’s creation or destruction mirrors fiat deposits or withdrawals, ensuring stability without reliance on crypto-collateral or algorithms.

The DAI stablecoin is a token pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar and can be used as a representation thereof.
The peg is maintained by structuring the DAI issuance process in such a way that it is minted as an overcollateralized loan; thereafter, insufficiently collateralized positions are automatically liquidated.
There exist additional stabilising measures in the form of a surplus/debt auction and a module allowing direct fixed-rate swaps of stablecoins for DAI in order to prevent excessive DAI appreciation. In any case, the one-to-one redeemability of DAI for $1 of accepted collateral apiece is guaranteed at emergency protocol shutdown.

OP token empowers its holders to engage in the governance of one of the largest Layer 2 scaling solutions through its Token House.
Through the Token House, OP holders influence critical decisions like treasury spending (Gov Fund) and protocol upgrades.
Holders can vote directly or delegate their voting power to other addresses, ensuring broad participation in governance.

$JUP token core function is governance: holders participate in JupiterDAO and govern the platform
$JUP gain access to governance after staking their tokens in a lock-up mechanism staking.
Governance participation is rewarded in JUP and participant projects’ tokens from the LFG launchpad.

1INCH holders lock tokens in a vote-escrow contract to gain governance power, controlling protocol parameters (e.g., fees, treasury allocation).
Encumbered 1INCH enables Resolver deployment (with a 5% UP supply threshold), allowing users to execute Fusion orders and capture additional value through fees, contingent on operational upkeep.
Users can delegate their locked 1INCH (UP) to resolvers, transferring governance rights for a share of resolver fees and rewards (e.g., via the Delegation Incentive Program), enhancing flexibility and ecosystem participation.

SNX token is central to the Synthetix protocol, allowing holders to mint synthetic assets like sUSD by staking their tokens as collateral.
Staking SNX provides access to trading fee revenue but comes with the trade-off of assuming system solvency risk.
Stakers also gain governance rights, participating through Synthetix's multi-council system in shaping the protocol's future.

$VVV holders stake tokens to access Venice’s AI inference at zero marginal cost and earn emissions-based staking rewards
Staked tokens represent a proportional share of Venice’s total computational power, adjusting as infrastructure scales
The token captures value through yield-bearing staking that offsets volatility and rewards long-term holders, and stake-based discounts that provide proportional AI access

L3 serves as both a governance and utility token for the Layer3 ecosystem, enabling staking to earn protocol rewards and participate in governance.
Staking L3 grants access to premium features such as special launchpads and enhanced reward rates.
The benefits scale with the amount staked and the duration of commitment, incentivizing long-term participation.

VELO, an ERC-20 token, powers Velodrome Finance on Optimism, enabling low-fee swaps and liquidity provision, with value unlocked by converting to veVELO via locking.
Locking VELO into its vote-escrowed (governance) version; veVELO (an ERC-721 NFT), grants voting rights over emission distribution, requiring active participation or delegation to capture governance influence and associated rewards (e.g. bribes).
veVELO holders receive dual yield stream benefits, rebases for passive ownership proportional to locked supply, and trading fees plus incentives for active voting, maximizing value through full engagement.

As a governance token, BREAD endows holders with the power to decide how the yield from staked xDAI is distributed among Breadchain’s supported projects. Holders can begin voting on the governance portal, and may also opt to provide liquidity; retaining the same voting rights.
BREAD is minted 1:1 to xDAI and can be burned at any time to redeem the underlying stablecoin. This mint-and-burn system makes BREAD akin to a representation token. Holders can bridge their tokens to Gnosis Chain here, and start crowdstaking here.
Use BREAD as a medium of exchange in the Breadchain marketplace to purchase goods and services. Current marketplace supporters include Giveth, TBS DAO, Dandelion, Crypto Commons Association, and Crypto Leftist Discord.