Announcing the USD.AI Foundation and $CHIP

Summary

• The USD.AI Foundation launches today as the off-chain steward of the USD.AI DAO, supporting USD.AI protocol development, treasury management, and ecosystem growth.
• $CHIP is the governance token of the USD.AI DAO. CHIP holders vote on protocol parameters, approved curators, and ecosystem initiatives.
• $1.5B+ pipeline, with the first $100M in GPU-backed loans originating Q1 2026.
• ICO and TGE will happen in Q1 2026.

The Interest Rate of AI

Today marks the establishment of the USD.AI Foundation, the off-chain steward of the USD.AI DAO. The Foundation exists to represent the interests of CHIP tokenholders and to support the long-term development of the USD.AI protocol.

The Foundation serves the USD.AI DAO by providing legal infrastructure, custodying the DAO treasury on behalf of tokenholders, and coordinating ecosystem development. Actions taken by the Foundation are directed by tokenholder governance, ensuring the protocol remains aligned with the interests of its community.

Artificial intelligence is becoming a capital-intensive industry. GPU infrastructure generates recurring cash flows, pays interest on real hardware, and supports long-duration productive assets. As this market matures, an interest rate naturally emerges. USD.AI is designed to be that rate.

As its first major initiative, the Foundation will oversee the deployment of CHIP, the protocol’s governance token, planned for Q1 2026. CHIP enables decentralized control over protocol parameters, approved curators, and long-term ecosystem direction.

The establishment of the USD.AI Foundation formalizes governance for a new financial layer. One designed around productive compute, institutional underwriting, and on-chain capital formation. One built to define and maintain the interest rate of AI.

The Problem: Capital Can't Keep Pace with Compute

Banks take up to 24 months to recycle credit. A nimble private credit fund still takes 6-12 months to underwrite. If you wait for TradFi, your GPU is already well past half its lifecycle.

Here's the structural mismatch: GPUs depreciate at roughly 20% per year, but traditional credit infrastructure moves at the wrong tempo for hardware that's obsolete in three years.

DeFi has speed but lacks collateral expertise. Traditional finance has expertise but can't move fast enough.

So we built a liquid credit instrument that works at GPU speed.

The Fannie Mae Moment

Every trillion-dollar market had this moment: when credit became liquid.

Housing couldn't scale until Fannie Mae created tradable mortgages. Only then did "the mortgage rate" become real.

AI is at that moment now. It needed a liquid debt product—and it didn't exist because GPUs depreciate too fast. So we built one.

The USD.AI Ecosystem

USD.AI turns GPU hardware into tokenized collateral. AI companies borrow against real infrastructure. Depositors earn yield from real interest payments.

On-chain. Instant. Transparent.

USDai is a stablecoin overcollateralized by PayPal’s PYUSD, a GENIUS Act compliant stablecoin backed by U.S. Treasuries and cash equivalents.

Traction

We're building liquidity that didn't exist:

• $7.7B+ in sUSDai traded in 2025, compared to only $30m for a 1.5bn Coreweave bond.
• PayPal onboards PYUSD with $1B in liquidity incentives
• $1.2B in approved facilities to QumulusAI, Sharon AI, and Quantum SKK
• Chainlink adopted as official oracle provider

Introducing the USD.AI Foundation

The USD.AI Foundation is the off-chain steward of the USD.AI DAO. The Foundation represents the interests of CHIP tokenholders in legal, regulatory, and contractual matters, and supports the long-term development of the USD.AI protocol.

As GPU-backed credit emerges as a durable asset class, the DAO requires legal infrastructure to manage regulatory compliance, execute contracts, and coordinate ecosystem development. The Foundation exists to fulfill these functions on behalf of CHIP tokenholders, acting at their direction through on-chain governance.

Core Responsibilities

• Protocol Governance — Oversee upgrades, parameter changes, and risk frameworks through on-chain governance
• Treasury Stewardship — Manage protocol-owned resources to support security and long-term sustainability
• Ecosystem Coordination — Support builders, integrations, and research that expand the USD.AI ecosystem
• Decentralization Pathway — Facilitate the progressive transfer of control to CHIP-based governance

Relationship to $CHIP

The Foundation acts as the legal steward of the USD.AI DAO, representing CHIP tokenholders in off-chain matters. The Foundation is required to act at the direction of tokenholders and executes governance decisions approved through the on-chain voting process.

The Foundation provides legal infrastructure for the DAO. It does not operate the protocol.

Introducing CHIP

CHIP is the governance token of the USD.AI DAO.

The USD.AI protocol is governed by CHIP tokenholders through on-chain voting. CHIP holders vote on protocol parameters, approve curators, and direct ecosystem initiatives.

CHIP Holders Decide:

• DAO Rights - Vote on collateral parameters, fee structures, and new asset types
• Treasury Governance - Vote on allocation of DAO treasury funds for grants, ecosystem development, and protocol initiatives.
• Insurance Module - Stake CHIP in the insurance module to protect sUSDai holders against bad debt

All on-chain. All transparent. All governed by $CHIP.

Revenue Model

The USD.AI protocol captures fees on origination and net interest margin. Risk is managed through first-loss curators who take illiquid positions and often originate loans.

At $1B in originations, this fee structure translates to $30M in annual revenue.

What's Next

Q1 2026 — The Allo Game concludes and transitions immediately to the new season, ICO, Airdrop, and subsequent TGE in late Q1. And we will introduce a new participation mechanism for all Allo holders, as a finale to the first Allo Game.

Additional details on ICO venue, date, and logistics will be released later this month.

Security Notice

CHIP claims are NOT live. Exercise extreme caution with anyone claiming early access or token distribution. Official announcements come only from usd.ai and verified USD.AI channels.

Get Involved

Join the Community

• Twitter: @USDai_Official

• Telegram: t.me/usdaiofficial

Build With Us — Developers and integrators can explore the documentation or reach out for grants through the Foundation.

Stay Informed — Subscribe to updates at usd.ai/stories

About USD.AI

USD.AI is a permissionless lending protocol built to finance AI infrastructure. The protocol enables GPU operators to tokenize their hardware as collateral and access financing instantaneously. Through its dual-token model, USDai (a stablecoin overcollateralized by PYUSD) and sUSDai (its yield-bearing counterpart), USD.AI creates new liquidity pathways for AI operators while expanding access to GPU-backed lending.

Developed by Permian Labs. Learn more at usd.ai.