USDai

USDai acts as the main dollar-denominated asset for entering and leaving the USD.AI depositor system. Users can hold or transfer the token, trade it through supported markets or use it within decentralised finance applications.

Its main protocol-specific use is staking. A holder can deposit USDai into the USD.AI staking system to receive sUSDai. Unlike USDai, sUSDai is yield-bearing: its value relative to USDai changes as income from GPU-backed loans and reserve assets accrues to the sUSDai vault.

This distinction separates USDai's role as a stable medium of exchange from the credit risk associated with the protocol's lending activities. USDai itself has no direct exposure to GPU depreciation, hardware performance or loans originated through the protocol, with those exposures instead associated with sUSDai.

USDai can also be used as a settlement asset within the wider USD.AI system, including payments connected with GPU purchases, equipment loans and other data-centre expenses.

USDai and the USD.AI protocol were developed by Permian Labs, a Delaware-based company that provides technical and operational services to the protocol.

Permian Labs was co-founded by David Choi, its CEO, and Conor Moore, its COO.

The protocol is governed through the USD.AI Foundation, a Cayman Islands Foundation Company. The Foundation holds the protocol's intellectual property and oversees governance while Permian Labs acts as its technical and operational service provider.