The Stablecoin Narrative: How Long Will it Last?

Recorded at Solana Breakpoint 2025, Abu Dhabi, day two.

Hodl Up: Hello, hello! We're at Breakpoint day two, and we're here with Xuling from Unitas. Let's get straight to the point. Xuling, tell us a little bit about Unitas and a little bit about yourself. How did you get into crypto, and what did you do before?

Xuling: Sure. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Xuling and I'm from Unitas Labs. At Unitas Labs we provide a yield service through our stablecoin, USDu. We're mainly built on Solana, and we are a basket of delta-neutral strategies; that's where your yield comes from. One of our main strategies is that we hedge JLP. Thanks for having me.

Hodl Up: Of course, honored to have you. You mentioned you're mainly building on Solana. What are the perks of building on Solana right now, in your eyes? I'm seeing Breakpoint and it's amazing. Everyone's here, all the industries are connecting here. In terms of stablecoins, what are the perks?

Xuling: Solana is definitely one of the best chains to be on in 2025 and in the next couple of years. They're very big at the moment. One of the reasons we chose Solana is that they have such a great ecosystem. We got a lot of support from them to begin with. And like I mentioned, one of our big strategies is hedging JLP, and Jupiter is built on Solana, so it just makes a lot of sense. Also, Ethereum is very competitive right now: the pool is pretty big and there are a lot of stablecoins on Ethereum, while Solana is relatively new, they give a lot of support, and we're supported by Solana. So it makes a lot of sense for us to be here.

Hodl Up: But you're also looking at options to go multi-chain, right?

Xuling: Definitely. In the next couple of months we'll be on BNB Chain as well, and we're also exploring different chains like the EVM chains, Sui and many others. But for now we're only in the Solana ecosystem.

Hodl Up: Well, it's the place to be, right?

Xuling: It definitely is. Look at this place, it's amazing. We have been with Solana for a long time, and we've participated in every single one of their events since the beginning of this year. We were at Accelerate in New York, we were in Singapore for APEX, and now we're here for Breakpoint. So yes, definitely the place to be.

Hodl Up: Tell us a little bit about USDu and the staked version of USDu. Why is it different from other stablecoins?

Xuling: For sure. USDu is our stablecoin, and once you hold USDu and stake it for yield, that's sUSDu that you're holding. Why is it different? First of all, USDu is backed by JLP, and as most of you probably already know, JLP is an index fund in itself, so it already diversifies risk. That's why we chose to be backed by JLP. We also have our own in-house quantitative trading team that manages and monitors the trading risk. Even during the market volatility on October 11th, our yield remained stable and USDu remained pegged. Nothing went wrong. Our max drawdown has always been stable: it has stayed at -0.16% over the past year, and even on October 11th it stayed around 0.2%. So we have not had an issue.

Hodl Up: That's rare in my opinion, especially at this time in the industry, because volatility right now is crazy, especially after October, when a lot of events happened. For you to have a sustainable yield of 15% and a pegged stablecoin, that's really rare, so that's a big win. I want to go back to the non-technical stuff about Solana. We both agree that Solana is literally the biggest ecosystem right now, culturally and even in terms of infrastructure. Why do you think that is? In my opinion it has more to do with the marketing approach and the growth that the team, especially the core team but also the community, has focused on. We all know Solana was dying two or three years ago with FTX and everything, but it grew back and literally broke all-time highs in market cap and even usage. The ecosystem was never this big. So why do you think Solana does this well?

Xuling: From my point of view as a builder and a marketing person, first of all, Solana is very selective about who builds with them. They don't randomly take builders or business people on board, and we also went through a very selective process to be part of this stage. They're very picky about who they bring on board, and the people who got into Solana have experience in building, in business and in finance. So I think it's definitely because they're very careful about who they choose. They have such a great crowd. And of course... sure, you can take one.

Hodl Up: I can take one?

Xuling: Yes, you can. Sorry, where was I? They're very selective with their team. And I think it's great marketing, because when we first wanted to build on Solana, we got a lot of help from their ecosystem team. It's not just "okay, give us this and you can come on board." They're actually talking to us. They're there at every single stage, even with merch ideas and who you should be talking to. So they're very helpful. It's a group of great people who are actually putting in the effort and building.

Hodl Up: I always say free merch is the easiest way to onboard people, right? But one of the reasons Solana does so well is also that there are more bold people in this ecosystem. In terms of marketing, when I go on Twitter, it's a lot of AI slop nowadays. How difficult is it to stand out from a marketing perspective? How do you go about it?

Xuling: The marketing space is very messy at the moment. It's not easy, but I think you definitely need to be brave and come up with some cool ideas. With us, for example, we're not on the trendy front line. We're not into all the memes and degen slogans. We want to take more of a traditional path, and I think in today's Web3 world, being traditional is also a strong way to stand out. That's our strategy.

Hodl Up: Personally, I also did marketing and growth. What do you think about utilizing other platforms as well, like Instagram and TikTok? Not many crypto brands are on them, and I think that's what crypto is missing right now: growing and disrupting these Web2 social media platforms beyond Twitter.

Xuling: I think it's definitely a great idea. There are so many projects that people call Web 2.5. They're not completely Web3, they're somewhere in between, and for those projects specifically, it's very important to be present on Instagram and other platforms. But if you're doing something super degen, like building a chain or a new layer, then it's definitely important to have a presence on Twitter. For us, we want to have Web2 users later on, but for now we're only focusing on users with on-chain assets. We're not trying to educate new users from scratch. Our partners could have posts on Instagram for sure, but it really depends on your project, to be honest.

Hodl Up: I also like this more traditional approach, the more traditional phrasing. Even Solana, as we were discussing yesterday, doesn't use the word crypto or Web3 in its Twitter bio. People are so tired of all the degen stuff that they just want to feel that something actually has utility, and to understand it.

Xuling: And to understand it, right.

Hodl Up: So, so that we don't take up more of your time: what's one message you want to give to your community and to everyone here at Breakpoint? I hope I didn't put you on the spot with this question.

Xuling: Keep building and have faith in blockchain. I'm not saying crypto, I'm not saying Web3: have faith in blockchain, because I'm a big believer. That's how I got into this whole blockchain world. I have faith in it, and I believe it's going to go a lot further. And for safe, high yield, choose Unitas.

Hodl Up: Well, thank you so much, Xuling. It was a pleasure to have you, and thanks for the merch as well.

Xuling: Thank you so much.

Hodl Up: Okay guys, the Abu Dhabi heat got to us. The equipment is literally fried, so we're going to do the closing once again.

Xuling: Hi! So yes, keep building, and if you're looking for high, stable and transparent yield, farm with Unitas.