$USH - The Real Estate Token
Diversified American real estate in a permissionless token
$USH is a permissionless token that tracks the performance of the U.S. residential real estate market. Unlike traditional private real estate investments that require large capital, complex transactions, and ongoing management, $USH provides liquid, permissionless exposure to American housing through a single token.
Think of $USH as a liquid index fund for U.S. residential real estate - you get the steady appreciation of American home prices without the complexity of property ownership.
How $USH Works
Each $USH token represents a U.S. home value backed by a portfolio of Home Equity Investments (HEIs) across the United States. HEIs are financial instruments that provide pure investment exposure to residential home equity returns without the burdens of property ownership.
While $USH is designed to track U.S. home prices, it is overcollateralized by a portfolio of HEIs that generates significantly higher returns than simple home price appreciation. This excess collateralization - where the backing assets are worth more than what $USH needs to track - generates returns to support the entire Manifest ecosystem.
Daily NAV Management
Every day, Manifest performs a calculation that keeps $USH tracking pure real estate performance:
Portfolio Growth: The HEI portfolio typically grows faster than home prices due to its equity multipliers (investors receive rights to 2x their investment percentage in home value appreciation)
Target Tracking: $USH tracks the weighted average home price appreciation of properties in the portfolio
Token Minting: To bridge this gap, Manifest mints new $USH tokens daily
The newly minted tokens serve three purposes in order:
Fund protocol operations and expenses (~2% annually) through the operating expense structure
Support governance-approved initiatives if activated by $USA holders
Reward staked token holders with remaining excess via the staking mechanism
This elegant mechanism ensures $USH holders receive exactly what they expect—exposure to U.S. home price appreciation—while creating sustainable yield for stakers. No fees are extracted from $USH holders; instead, the protocol captures real economic value from the portfolio's structural outperformance.
Daily NAV Calculation
Manifest calculates $USH's NAV daily based on the aggregate home price appreciation of properties in the portfolio. Since the portfolio is diversified across homes nationwide, it serves as a representative sample of U.S. residential real estate performance. The portfolio valuation methods ensure conservative and accurate pricing using industry-standard automated valuation models.
Unlike volatile crypto assets, $USH's NAV moves with the predictable rhythms of real estate: gradually appreciating over time with occasional market adjustments. Historical U.S. home prices have shown remarkable resilience, making American housing one of the most reliable stores of value.
Settlement Reconciliation
When individual HEIs settle (averaging ~4.5 years through home sales or refinances), actual returns typically exceed modeled expectations due to Manifest's conservative valuation methodology. This excess value flows to the Reserve Pool.
The Reserve Pool acts as the equity layer of the protocol—capturing upside when HEIs outperform while serving as first-loss capital in rare underperformance scenarios. This structure helps ensure $USH tracks home prices smoothly and $sUSH holders receive consistent yields.
Trading and Pricing
$USH is not a stablecoin. Like a closed-end fund, $USH can trade at a premium or discount to its NAV based on supply and demand. Manifest maintains liquidity around the NAV price to enable efficient trading for most users, but allows the price to float based on market forces. This flexible design prevents the rigid constraints that have caused problems in other protocols while still providing fair value for normal trading volumes. The protocol's stability mechanisms ensure orderly markets.
Normal in TradFi, New in Crypto
$USH's trading behavior is similar to a closed-end fund. In traditional markets, closed-end funds manage over $400 billion in assets, and trading at a premium or discount to NAV is routine. What feels new in crypto is actually a well-established, large-scale model in traditional finance.
Primary and Secondary Markets
Primary Market: Whitelisted users can acquire $USH directly through Manifest's Uniswap v4 pool by swapping $USDC. When demand pushes the price above NAV, Manifest mints new $USH and deposits it into the pool, bringing the price back to fair value. The $USDC received is offramped to USD and deployed to acquire more HEIs. See the full guide to buying $USH for details on the whitelisting process.
Secondary Market: $USH may also trade on DEXs.
Key Benefits vs Traditional Real Estate
Instant Liquidity: Buy or sell in seconds, not months, thanks to sophisticated liquidity management
No Minimums: Invest any amount, not just hundreds of thousands
Global Access: Available to anyone with an internet connection
No Management: Zero property maintenance, tenant issues, or operational overhead
No U.S. tax reporting: Investors without U.S. tax reporting obligations are not expected to have U.S. tax reporting obligations as a result of investments in $USH
DeFi Composable: Use as collateral, provide liquidity, or integrate with other protocols through various integrations
The Overcollateralization Advantage
While $USH tracks home prices (typically appreciating 3–5% annually), the underlying HEI portfolio generates higher returns. This is possible because HEIs are structured with:
Equity multipliers: For every dollar invested, HEIs receive rights to two dollars of home value appreciation. Read more in HEI mechanics
Preferred positioning: Manifest's investment is secured by a lien on the property, sitting senior to the homeowner's equity
This gap between home price growth and HEI returns creates the excess value that funds operations and rewards stakers, all while maintaining robust earnings coverage that protects $USH holders. The daily value capture described in NAV and minting distributes these returns efficiently.
Next Steps
Ready to invest? Follow our guide to buying $USH
Want to earn yield? Learn about $sUSH staking
Interested in governance? Explore $USA tokens and the Reserve Pool
Curious about the tech? Discover how Manifest works
Concerned about risks? Review our risk management approach
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