USD1 keeps popping up everywhere, but what's actually going on with it? At its core, it's a stablecoin—basically a digital asset designed to maintain a 1:1 peg with the US dollar. Sounds simple enough, right? The mechanics are where things get interesting. Unlike fully collateralized stablecoins that hold traditional assets in reserve, USD1 operates through a more complex algorithm-based or hybrid collateral system, depending on which protocol we're talking about. The real question isn't just what it is, but whether it can actually hold that peg during market stress. Some stablecoins have stumbled hard when liquidity dries up or collateral gets questioned. Worth digging into the specific mechanism and backing before treating it like actual dollars on a blockchain.