What is Angle Protocol? DeFi Protocol Guide

Angle is an open-source, decentralized, capital-efficient, and over-collateralized stablecoin protocol that enables the minting and burning of agTokens at a one-to-one ratio against approved crypto collateral.

Overview

Developed by engineers at Angle Labs, the protocol launched in November 2021 and is purpose-built to create stablecoins pegged to various values on decentralized networks such as Ethereum, Polygon, and Optimism.

The protocol's primary stablecoin, EURA, is tied to the euro (€). Angle aims to support a broad set of Forex-pegged stablecoins, including plans to add the US dollar, and debuted on mainnet with a euro stablecoin, positioning itself as the first liquid euro stablecoin.

History

Angle made its public debut in July 2021 at ETHCC, followed by the publication of documentation and developer tooling in August 2021. In September 2021, Angle Protocol and Angle Analytics launched, and Angle Labs raised $5 million in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Fabric VC, Wintermute, Divergence Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Alven, Julien Bouteloup, and Frédéric Montagnon.

In November 2021, Angle introduced the EURA and ANGLE tokens; EURA rapidly became the largest euro stablecoin with a total supply of 100 million. The project released veANGLE in January 2022 and added ETH as accepted collateral within the Core module in April 2022.

By February 2023, EURA held a 70% share of DEX trade volume for euro pairs and was integrated with Transak to enable euro withdrawals to bank accounts. In May 2023, Angle launched the Transmuter backing mechanism. In April 2024, Angle released USDA, a U.S. dollar–pegged stablecoin designed to keep a 1:1 peg and fully collateralized by on-chain assets, supporting minting and redemption across multiple blockchains via Angle’s platform.

agToken

agTokens are Angle-issued stablecoins that are decentralized and over-collateralized, meaning the backing assets exceed the tokens' value. Their stability is governed by smart contracts rather than being supported by fiat reserves in corporate bank accounts. Currently, the protocol issues EURA, a euro-pegged stablecoin.

From agEUR to EURA

On March 14, 2024, the protocol rebranded its euro-pegged token from agEUR to EURA to improve industry alignment and reduce possible confusion with other products. The rename only affected the token's label; the underlying contracts, addresses, and functionality stayed the same and no new token was minted. The change was approved through a Snapshot governance vote.

USDA Token

USDA is a decentralized, over-collateralized, yield-bearing stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar that aims to preserve a 1:1 parity while delivering native yield to holders via the protocol’s reserve assets. USDA functions alongside EURA to facilitate on-chain forex markets and efficient swaps between the two currencies.

Tokenomics

ANGLE's total initial supply is 1,000,000,000 with Angle Governor Multisig as the only minting address. The distribution was structured to be multi-year and durable until the protocol reached widespread adoption.

EURA

EURA is positioned as the primary decentralized euro stablecoin, usable as a treasury asset, medium of payment, and yield-bearing instrument. It enables users and businesses to diversify stablecoin holdings away from the US dollar, transact in local currency, and earn additional yield.

• 40% of tokens are being distributed through whitelisted contracts (called gauges)
• 20% of the tokens are controlled by the DAO Treasury
• 12% of the initial ANGLE is held by Angle Labs in a multi-sig
• 18% to Angle Labs team members
• 10% to early backers