X: An Introduction

The current financial system is highly fragmented, facing significant challenges in composability and interoperability. Financial institutions primarily focus on aggressive user and merchant acquisition, adding functionalities to keep customers within their exclusive ecosystems. This approach creates multiple obstacles for cross-institution and cross-border settlements, ultimately hindering the rapid development of commerce. Enterprises encounter unwieldy workarounds, multiple transaction hops, and high fees when moving assets across borders to customers and counterparties.

The advent of decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain technology offers a transformative opportunity to optimize the delivery of financial services. By eliminating the need for centralized intermediaries through smart contracts, DeFi is not constrained by national borders or institutional barriers.

X aims to bridge the gap between DeFi and traditional financial services (CeFi), leveraging the strengths of both systems. It is driven by two foundational components:

• X is a comprehensive Layer 2 solution that powers xUSD, a stablecoin designed for both Web3 and Web2 contexts. As an EVM-based optimistic rollup, X enables the development and deployment of Web3 applications while ensuring efficient settlement across institutions and users, regardless of country.

• xUSD is a reserve-backed stablecoin that can be minted by depositing trusted assets like USDC or fiat currency, ensuring it holds real intrinsic value. This feature facilitates seamless cross-border settlements, reducing transaction costs and complexity for enterprises.