Cap

• Cap is a yield-bearing stablecoin protocol: users mint cUSD with USDC or USDT, and operators such as trading firms and DeFi protocols borrow those deposits to generate yield.

• Operators post stake in shared security markets such as EigenLayer and Symbiotic, which can be slashed if they fail, so depositors are covered by that stake rather than by crypto collateral.

• CAP is the protocol token.

• Supply allocated across community, ecosystem and contributors.

• Underwriters stake against the loans they insure.

Pros:

• Underwriter staking creates skin in the game rather than reputation-only assurance.

• Yield derives from real credit spreads rather than emissions.

• Separating origination from deposit-taking is a cleaner structure than pooled lending.

Cons:

• Underwriter capacity limits how much can be safely insured.

• Credit assessment happens off-chain and is unverifiable by depositors.

• Early stage without a credit cycle behind it.

• Exposure to insured on-chain credit with underwriter accountability.

• Structure addresses the accountability gap that caused 2022's lending failures.

• Weigh that no credit model survives contact with a real downturn unchanged.

• Loans insured by underwriters who stake against them, so a default costs the underwriter before it costs the depositor.

• On-chain lenders bear credit risk they cannot assess and have no recourse when borrowers default.

• Inserting a staked underwriter puts capital between the depositor and the loss.

• Founded in 2024 by Benjamin Sarquis Peillard, who is chief executive.

• Raised about $11 million in total, including an $8 million seed round led by Franklin Templeton with Susquehanna, Triton Capital, GSR and Nomura's Laser Digital, following a $1.1 million community round on Echo.

• No public ICO. Distributed through ecosystem and community allocations.

• Underwriter capital can be exhausted by correlated defaults.

• Off-chain credit assessment is unverifiable.

• Early stage without a credit cycle behind it.

• Regulatory treatment of on-chain credit intermediation is unsettled.