Agora Finance

Agora is a stablecoin infrastructure company that issues AUSD — a US dollar-pegged stablecoin backed 1:1 by cash, Treasury bills, and overnight repo agreements — and provides a white-label platform that lets other companies launch custom stablecoins built on the same reserve model. The protocol has processed over $45 billion in cumulative transfer volume across 17 million transfers, with a circulating supply that has crossed $200 million.

AUSD Architecture

Unlike algorithmic stablecoins or crypto-collateralized models, AUSD holds strictly off-chain, cash-equivalent reserves. Each dollar of AUSD in circulation is backed by:

• US dollar cash
• Short-duration US Treasury bills
• Overnight repo agreements

Reserve management is handled by VanEck, the established asset management firm. Custodianship sits at State Street, one of the world's largest custodian banks by assets under administration. Grant Thornton LLP provides monthly attestation reports, verifying that reserves match circulating supply.

The reserve yield earned on these cash instruments is not retained by Agora. Instead, Agora operates a revenue-sharing model: yield flows to the protocols, exchanges, and fintech companies that distribute AUSD to end users. This creates a direct financial incentive for partners to integrate AUSD over competitors that retain yield internally.

Solana Presence

AUSD is deployed across multiple chains. Its Solana mint address is AUSD1jCcCyPLybk1YnvPWsHQSrZ46dxwoMniN4N2UEB9. Solana's transaction speed and low fees make it well-suited to the payment and DeFi use cases Agora targets — including cross-border settlements, on-chain money markets, and stablecoin-to-stablecoin swaps.

White-Label Infrastructure

Beyond the native AUSD product, Agora offers a white-label stablecoin platform. Third parties can issue branded stablecoins built on Agora's reserve management and attestation infrastructure. This is the "internet markets" use case Agora emphasizes: enabling any fintech, exchange, or protocol to issue compliant stablecoins without building custody, attestation, and reserve management from scratch.

Security and Audits

Agora's smart contracts have undergone four independent security audits: Cantina Spearbit (June 2024), Certora (July 2024), Zellic (August 2024), and MoveBit (September 2024). These audits cover the EVM deployment of AUSD. Solana-specific contract audits have not been separately disclosed in available public sources.

Team and Funding

Agora was co-founded by Nick van Eck, Drake Evans, and Joe McGrady. Nick van Eck brings institutional finance pedigree through the Van Eck family, which manages VanEck — the same firm that handles AUSD's reserves.

The company has raised $62 million in total funding: a $12 million seed round from Dragonfly Capital in July 2024, followed by a $50 million Series A from Paradigm in July 2025. Paradigm's participation is notable given its reputation for rigorous due diligence on DeFi infrastructure.

Solana Ecosystem Fit

Agora enters the Solana stablecoin market from a position of institutional credibility: VanEck reserve management, State Street custody, Grant Thornton attestations, and Paradigm backing together constitute a compliance posture more aligned with institutional market participants than most Solana-native stablecoin projects. Its revenue-sharing model directly incentivizes Solana protocols to integrate AUSD as an alternative to USDC or USDT, offering yield-sharing as a competitive differentiator in the growing on-chain dollar settlement landscape.