UST Use Cases

    What are the main uses of the UST stable

    Key finding: The transaction volume of UST in protocols/apps is about 88 times larger than that of centralized exchanges.

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    We can see from the resulting table that UST is mainly used on decentralized apps/protocols. The graph below provides more insight into volume amount.

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    The resulting table is displayed below:

    Methodology

    Dex

    Dex use includes swapping at decentralized exchanges such as terraswap, liquidity mining on mirror, and anchor.

    Cex

    Cex use includes regular transfers at centralized exchanges and interchain transfers on the terra bridge.

    Rewards

    Terra operators (validators and delegates) are rewarded in UST for providing liquidity and security to the network.


    In each use-case above, we query its associated transactions and measure the count and volume. Here's how the final query looks like:

    WITH rewards AS (
      SELECT CONCAT('rewards') AS use_case, COUNT(tx_id) AS tx_count, SUM(event_amount_usd) AS volume
      FROM terra.reward 
      WHERE currency = 'UST'
      GROUP BY 1
    ),
    
    dex_swaps AS (
      SELECT CONCAT('dex') AS use_case, COUNT(tx_id) AS tx_count, SUM(offer_amount_usd) AS volume
      FROM terra.swaps
      WHERE ask_currency = 'UST' OR offer_currency = 'UST'
      GROUP BY 1
    ),
    
    cex_transactions AS (
      SELECT event_from_label_type AS use_case, COUNT(tx_id) AS tx_count, SUM(event_amount_usd) AS volume 
      FROM terra.transfers
      WHERE event_from_label_type = 'cex' AND event_currency = 'UST'
      GROUP BY 1  
    )
    
    
    SELECT * 
    FROM rewards
    UNION
    SELECT *
    FROM dex_swaps
    UNION
    SELECT *
    FROM cex_transactions
    ORDER BY 3 DESC
    

    Introduction

    UST is one of the stablecoins in the Terra ecosystem. As the symbol suggests, UST is pegged to the US Dollar.

    In the Terra ecosystem, UST serves a number of purposes. We analyze the main use cases of UST under three (3) broad categories; dex, cex, and terra rewards.