Ducat brings its UNIT stablecoin to Cashu ecash as Turbo UNIT

Ducat, a protocol built for credit and stablecoin activity on Bitcoin’s base layer, is bringing its UNIT stablecoin to the Cashu ecash protocol. The ecash version is called Turbo UNIT.

The announcement landed on October 24, 2026. Its pitch is simple: a dollar-pegged token backed by Bitcoin that can move privately and quickly, off-chain, without leaving a trail on the public Bitcoin ledger.

How Turbo UNIT works

The mechanics start with a deposit. Users send UNIT into the Ducat Cashu mint and get back Turbo UNIT, an ecash form of the same stablecoin.

From there, payments get unusually lightweight. Turbo UNIT can be sent peer-to-peer through messages or QR codes, with no on-chain transaction for each transfer.

The privacy piece comes from Cashu’s use of blind signatures. Picture a notary stamping a document sealed inside an envelope: the stamp is valid, but the notary never sees what’s inside.

Applied to payments, the mint can verify that a token is legitimate without being able to link it back to whoever originally received it. Spending a token reveals little about its history.

Meanwhile, the serious machinery stays put. The collateral backing UNIT and the issuance of UNIT itself remain on the Bitcoin blockchain, while Cashu handles the fast, private payments layer on top.

What UNIT actually is

UNIT is a Bitcoin-overcollateralized stablecoin with a soft peg to the US dollar. It is issued using the Runes standard, a way of creating tokens directly on Bitcoin.

A soft peg means the price floats near a target rather than being locked to it. UNIT has typically traded between $1.01 and $1.04, so it tends to sit slightly above a dollar rather than below.

The overcollateralization is where the numbers get conservative. Borrowers must post a minimum 160% collateralization ratio, which means locking up $160 worth of Bitcoin for every $100 of UNIT they mint.

If a position’s collateral falls to 135% of the loan value, it hits the liquidation threshold. That 25-point buffer is the cushion between a nervous borrower and a forced sale.

Collateral sits in non-custodial vaults built on Taproot, a Bitcoin upgrade that improves scripting flexibility and efficiency. Users keep control of their Bitcoin rather than handing it to a company.

For those holders, UNIT works as a borrowing tool. Instead of selling Bitcoin to get dollar liquidity, they can lock it up and mint a stablecoin against it.

The numbers so far

Ducat launched as a closed mainnet alpha earlier in 2026. The protocol has processed over 4 million transactions.

It has also vaulted more than $700 million in Bitcoin, with over $300 million in UNIT minted. Those two figures sit comfortably with the overcollateralization model, since the Bitcoin locked up runs well ahead of the stablecoin issued against it.

The project has also leaned on a specific design philosophy. Ducat operates on Bitcoin’s Layer 1 without relying on external platforms or Layer 2 networks for its core functions.

Cashu, for its part, has been developed independently since 2022. It was built for private ecash transactions on Bitcoin, which makes it a natural fit for a stablecoin that wants to be spent, not just held.

What this means for users and the Bitcoin stablecoin race

For UNIT holders, the integration adds a second job for the token. UNIT was already a borrowing instrument for Bitcoin holders, and now it gets a private payments mode that skips typical on-chain fees.

The trust model is worth watching closely. Depositing UNIT into the Ducat Cashu mint means users are relying on that mint to honor redemptions back into UNIT, a different arrangement from the non-custodial Taproot vaults that secure the underlying collateral.

In other words, the collateral layer and the payments layer carry different assumptions. Users chasing privacy should understand which layer they are standing on at any given moment.

The peg is the other thing to monitor. UNIT’s typical range of $1.01 to $1.04 shows it holds close to its target, but a soft peg is by definition a promise to stay nearby, not a guarantee of exactly one dollar.

Collateral discipline matters too. With a 160% minimum and a 135% liquidation threshold, sharp Bitcoin price swings could test how smoothly the system handles stressed positions as the amount of vaulted Bitcoin grows past its current level of more than $700 million.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Kaye Quema. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.