iUSD

Cardano's homegrown answer to a decentralized dollar is iUSD, minted through the Indigo Protocol since late 2022. Users lock ADA as collateral in a debt position and draw iUSD against it, always keeping the position over-collateralized so the peg stays covered if ADA falls. Rather than tie its dollar to a single reference, Indigo pegs iUSD to the median price of USDC, TUSD, and USDT, so a wobble in any one of them does not drag the token off a dollar. A neat wrinkle: ADA locked as collateral keeps earning staking rewards, a liquid-staking feature specific to Cardano's design. Holders redeem by burning iUSD to unlock the underlying ADA through the protocol, permissionless and without KYC, so the claim is onchain collateral rather than a company promise. iUSD is governed by the Indigo DAO and remains Cardano's principal synthetic stablecoin.