USDG, Explained

USDG is a fiat-backed stablecoin used as the primary unit of account across Robinhood Chain — it's what stock tokens are typically priced and traded against, and what lending markets are denominated in.

Being fiat-backed means each USDG in circulation is meant to be matched by reserves — cash and cash-equivalents — held by the issuer. That backing is what lets USDG trade close to $1 under normal conditions, though it depends entirely on the issuer actually maintaining and disclosing those reserves.

Within this ecosystem, USDG plays the role that a brokerage's cash balance plays in traditional investing: it's the thing you hold between trades, the thing you receive when you sell a stock token, and the thing you can lend out or borrow against.

Because so much activity is denominated in USDG, its stability is a load-bearing assumption for the whole system — if USDG were to depeg, it would affect stock token pricing and lending markets simultaneously, not just USDG holders.