Pierre brings a highly unique perspective to the decentralised finance space. As a former Member of the French National Assembly, he spent years shaping digital asset frameworks and technology policy.
Today, he merges that deep legislative expertise with hands-on product strategy to build EUR0, a MiCA-compliant stablecoin backed by real-world assets.
As traditional stablecoin issuers generate billions in revenue, everyday users who take on the risk of holding those assets see virtually no return. Pierre Person is on a mission to completely overhaul that broken model.
We sat down with Pierre Person, CEO and Co-Founder of Usual Money, at Paris Blockchain Week to discuss how his team is bringing true value distribution back to the community.
In this interview, Pierre explains why traditional stablecoin issuers operate exactly like legacy banks, the urgent need for direct fiat integrations, and how Europe must embrace a culture of risk to remain globally competitive.
Read more about his ambitious roadmap for the future of onchain finance below.
You worked at the French National Assembly on crypto regulations, and now you have co-founded your own protocol. What did you learn from politics about what DeFi really needs?
I served in the National Assembly during the 2017 bull market and the ICO boom. Regulation was entirely different back then. We evolved alongside the market and avoided over-regulation. Predicting long-term technological evolution is extremely difficult.
When I left politics in 2022 to create Usual, I saw massive potential in the stablecoin market. The European market lacked strong issuers. Meeting with various stakeholders in the Assembly helped me fully understand market needs. I combined these perspectives to ensure our go-to-market strategy remained free from regulatory gridlock.
Europe has stringent regulations that challenge innovation. My political background helped slightly, though investors generally prefer standard profiles from business schools to those of former politicians.
Usual believes that stablecoin issuers retain most of the value, giving back nearly nothing to their users or communities. For example, Tether and Circle made over $7 billion in 2025 and shared nearly none of it. Why did it take so long to see a real alternative to this?
The stablecoin business relies heavily on distribution. Tether and Circle arrived first and secured listings everywhere. People grew accustomed to their services. During the early crypto cycles, avoiding volatility was far more valuable than earning a small percentage yield.
Today, stablecoins are highly democratised. Use cases have multiplied, and many users remain in stablecoins permanently. A yield tied to the Fed or T-Bill rate is now highly meaningful to investors. In 2022, we realised that a decentralised entity serving a community must distribute cash flows back to its users. This became a core bet for Usual.
Incentivising users is our most powerful distribution lever. Tether and Circle avoid this because they are already deeply embedded across the board. The US Congress is already debating the redistribution of stablecoin economics, and competition will increasingly shift to this level.
Users who take the risk of holding a stablecoin absolutely deserve a share of the returns. Otherwise, the system mirrors a traditional bank, where you deposit funds and receive zero benefits. Tether and Circle currently operate exactly like banks. We are changing that model.
You recently launched a direct EUR bank account to EUR0 rail, powered by Monerium, with no exchange required. What does this unlock for European users?
This service currently targets European customers, with USD support coming soon. Accessibility remains the primary pain point in crypto. Everyone knows someone who wants crypto exposure but lacks the knowledge to get started. The current onboarding process requires registering with a centralised exchange just to convert fiat and enter DeFi. Friction points block users from accessing lending, borrowing, and yield products.
Our ambition for the next phase is to build a TradFi fintech solution with genuinely simple onboarding ramps. Thanks to Monerium, users can now deposit directly from their bank accounts. They can send fiat to Usual to receive stablecoins, or send stablecoins directly to their IBAN account.
We charge zero fees and settle transactions in under 24 hours. Simplicity is our absolute focus. A smooth user experience is essential to democratise crypto.
Usual ran one of the largest pre-deposit campaigns we have seen recently, and you activated revenue sharing shortly after the token launch. How does this approach change the relationship between Usual and its users compared with other stablecoin projects?
We were among the first DeFi protocols to implement meaningful revenue sharing. Our model is centred on a fully decentralised treasury. We built this ecosystem to provide a stablecoin paired with a governance token that carries real financial rights. Staking our token grants users direct access to most of the protocol's benefits, ensuring a fair and transparent experience for everyone involved.
This launch provided valuable insights into crypto market behaviour. While traditional finance valuations focus heavily on cash flows, the crypto space often prioritises speculative potential. We initially believed that activating revenue sharing would offset pressure on farming. We found that many participants still seek short-term exposure to dynamic assets, alongside their interest in sustainable yield.
We chose a long-term path for Usual. Trading above our perceived fair value indicates that the market is maturing. Legitimate, transparent promises attract sophisticated capital. Founders who make firm, long-term decisions build lasting value. Being the first to redistribute revenue is a major step towards attracting serious, dedicated investors.
The V2 roadmap points towards a full financial platform, complete with multi-currency accounts, IBAN integration, and clearFX for onchain EUR/USD conversion. Is this a full transition to a Neobank/NeoFi platform?
We started with the stablecoin business, which mirrors the core activity of a traditional bank. We now offer a much broader range of services. We handle fiat ramps, currency exchange, and sophisticated investment products. Users want exposure to basis trades, T-Bill rates, and strategies yielding between five and ten per cent. We also launched a fixed-rate lending and borrowing mechanism.
To summarise, we offer a payments layer, an investment layer, and a credit layer. We will encapsulate all of this in a highly accessible mobile app. Users will onboard directly from the app store without needing to understand the underlying infrastructure.
Each year, our tooling and user experience see significant improvements, allowing us to provide advanced financial tools via a straightforward and clean interface.
In the “Setting the Path” blog, Usual clearly explained how the Labs is connected to the DAO, how compensation works, and which parts of the project are transferred to the community. Why did you decide to share this level of detail publicly?
We released that information during a period of heavy speculation around governance structures. We wanted absolute clarity. The Labs initially bootstrapped and built the protocol. However, the Labs and the DAO are completely separate entities. The DAO uses the governance token to decide on treasury deployments and cash flow distributions.
Governance token holders deserve full transparency regarding treasury ownership. The Labs must remain distinct from the DAO. Some projects dissolve their DAOs or Labs to manage regulatory optics. We reject that approach at Usual. We believe in a strict separation, with the Labs functioning as a business entity working for the DAO.
In the long run, I would be thrilled to see other independent Labs build on Usual's infrastructure. That would prove the protocol can survive without the founding team. A clear separation between cash flows and treasury ownership is vital. The Labs exists strictly to secure the protocol, manage the mandate, and ship updates validated by token holders.
Paris Blockchain Week feels like a kind of homecoming for a French founder like you. What does it mean to you to build your project here, and how do you see Europe’s current moment in crypto from your perspective?
I feel very fortunate to be here. France is an excellent place for development. The bigger question is how Europe can prevent falling behind on the global stage.
The United States is advancing quickly under its new administration, with institutions like JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and BlackRock responding swiftly and actively building on existing infrastructure. Europe has some momentum, yet we are lagging. I want to see Europe accelerate to match this pace. We have strong client bases in Asia and the US, and we want to see similar institutional engagement here in Europe.
We were slightly ahead on regulation initially. We sometimes over-regulate early, targeting businesses that barely exist here yet. We must avoid that trend in crypto. Mindset matters just as much as regulation. We are seeing highly knowledgeable financial professionals entering crypto in the US to help the industry grow. We need to foster that same energy in Europe.
How do you see the stablecoin space evolving over the next five years, and what are the main risks that people might be underestimating?
We must differentiate between the various assets labelled as stablecoins. For fiat-backed stablecoins with real-world asset collateral, fractional reserve exposure poses a major risk. We saw this with Silicon Valley Bank, where the backing carries counterparty risk beyond the sovereign issuing the T-Bill. That systemic risk is very real.
Debt-backed stablecoins carry the risk of the underlying instrument at maturity. Fortunately, industry standards are improving. Auditors provide high transparency, and issuers such as Circle are now fully backed by T-Bills rather than bank deposits. This is a major improvement.
The US Congress presents another major factor. Banks are lobbying heavily to prevent stablecoins from sharing any revenue. Despite this, I am certain that stablecoins will become the primary asset for value exchange and payments. Relying exclusively on centralised traditional rails makes no sense today. In the future, when people hold money, they will hold stablecoins.
Drawing on your experience in politics, what is the key priority for governments when it comes to crypto and DeFi?
The challenge remains the same across all technology sectors. Regulating blindly, without understanding the long-term use case, leads to terrible decisions.
Governments must remain humble and accept the unpredictable nature of technological evolution. They need to protect consumers while allowing innovation to thrive. Protecting traditional incumbents, such as banks, stifles progress.
Proportionate AML and investor protection rules are vital. Risk is a natural element of developing new technology and undertaking ventures. While the US has a strong risk-taking culture, Europe needs to understand and adopt this approach.
Economic growth relies solely on innovation, which generates global value and wealth. We should fully embrace technology and consider it the cornerstone of our future.