Ten days. That’s all it took for Cap’s governance token to elbow its way into the number two spot among lending and borrowing protocol tokens by trading volume, sitting behind only Aave.

CAP generated more than $355 million in trading volume during its first seven days on the market following its token generation event on June 26.

What Cap actually does

Cap operates a dual stablecoin system: cUSD, which is pegged to the dollar, and stcUSD, a yield-bearing version that lets holders earn returns while maintaining dollar exposure.

The protocol launched on Ethereum in August 2025 and quickly attracted serious capital. Its total value locked hit roughly $500 million by early 2026, a figure that has since settled to around $259 million. At one stage, over $360 million of cUSD reserves, representing more than 80% of the total, was supplied to Aave V3.

Cap was founded around 2024 by Benjamin Lenz, and the team raised between $11 million and $13 million from a roster that includes Franklin Templeton and Kraken Ventures.

The token launch and early momentum

When CAP launched, approximately 15.6% of the total supply entered circulation.

In February 2026, the protocol distributed $12 million in cUSD to early users through its “Frontier” rewards phase.

The CoinGecko ranking puts CAP’s volume ahead of every other lending and borrowing token except AAVE itself.

Why this matters for DeFi investors

The TVL trajectory deserves scrutiny. Declining from roughly $500 million to $259 million is a 48% drop that happened before the token even launched. Some of that likely reflects the natural lifecycle of airdrop farming, where users deposit capital to qualify for rewards and then withdraw once the distribution is complete.