USD.AI April Recap
$CHIP went live and $100M active loans
May 6, 2026
April was the most significant month in USD.AI's history yet: $CHIP launched publicly and active loans crossed $100M.
By the Numbers
$CHIP Launch
$CHIP wen live on April 21, 2026. On launch day, it was listed across 15+ venues including Upbit, Robinhood, Binance, Hyperliquid, Coinbase, Bybit with perps available across major venues.
24 hours since $CHIP went live.
— USD.AI (@USDai_Official) April 22, 2026
Day 1 spot trading on @Official_Upbit, @RobinhoodApp, @binance, @Bybit_Official, @coinbase, @BithumbOfficial, @AerodromeFi, @krakenfx, @kucoincom, @MEXC, @HTX_Global, @bitvavocom, @Nexo, @Gate
Perps available on @HyperliquidX, @binance,… pic.twitter.com/MKg33hY7bO
Within the week:
- $CHIP peak 24-hour volume hit $1.3B
- expanded to Solana via Sunrise
- Binance launched a HODLer Airdrop
- Cantor Fitzgerald published a research brief covering the launch
- Anchorage Digital, the first federally chartered crypto bank, went live with institutional custody for $CHIP
Allo Points. Stake $CHIP for $sCHIP to earn 10x Allo™ points, based on dollar value staked.
As the governance token for the USD.AI protocol, $CHIP holders directly influence lending parameters, risk tiers, and yield distribution across GPU-backed loans, governing the interest rate of AI compute.
Protocol Financing
The protocol had its strongest month on record, closing with active loans above $100M.
USDAI has crossed $100M in active loans.
— USD.AI (@USDai_Official) April 30, 2026
Current sUSDai APY: 7.26%.
Finance Abundance. pic.twitter.com/hjjWw4Rbfj
- April 6 - $26.8M to Crucible Capital (NVIDIA B300 GPUs): largest in the book at the time
- April 17 - $16.4M to QumulusAI (H200 GPUs)
- April 30 - $34M in Sweden (NVIDIA B200 servers): new all-time largest single loan
- April 30 - $11M in Texas
Wilmington Trust escrow partnership
Wilmington Trust (M&T Bank subsidiary) joined as escrow agent. Previously, sUSDai holders only began earning yield once GPUs were physically deployed and operational. Now, funds move into escrow before deployment, and borrowers pay yield on escrowed capital from day one. This means depositors start earning earlier without taking on additional deployment risk. The OEM effectively finances the interim period, confident that funds are secured with an institutional escrow agent.
USDai / sUSDai
APY: Active loans crossing $100M pushed sUSDai APY to 7.26%.
Mint USDai with USDT: Depositors can now mint USDai or sUSDai directly from USDT on Arbitrum and Ethereum via a 2-step flow through LiFi.
Risk endorsement: Two independent risk frameworks, Chaos Labs and LlamaRisk, published ARFC reviews recommending USDai and sUSDai as collateral on Aave v3 (Arbitrum).
Yield milestone: Cumulative yield paid out to sUSDai holders crossed $10M during April, and has since grown to $15M+. Note: the figure on the USD.AI dashboard is higher than what appears on Stablewatch, as it includes origination fees from loans.
Worth a Read
The Interest Rate of Intelligence: David Choi, Founder and CEO of Permian Labs (developer of USD.AI) on USD.AI’s progress and roadmap. Read it here.
Protocol Underwriting Standards: Chip type, Location, and offtake tier determine the cost of AI compute.
With the upcoming launch of $CHIP its important to understand its core function: setting the interest rate of AI.
— USD.AI (@USDai_Official) April 3, 2026
Every USDAI loan has three main values:
1. Type of Chips (only to 8 types of NVIDIA chips are eligible)
2. Loan LTV (70 or 80%)
3. Rental agreement (3 tiers)
-Chip… pic.twitter.com/hwdKvbsB0k