Olympus (OHM)

What Olympus is

Olympus is a treasury-backed monetary protocol on ethereum, and OHM is the token it issues. Olympus's documentation describes OHM as "a treasury backed, liquidity-enabling token on the Ethereum network" and frames the project's goal as "programmatic policy-controlled money." The documentation calls OHM "fully-backed by the Olympus Treasury" and a free-floating "flatcoin," meaning it is not pegged to a dollar but is issued and retired against a treasury balance (source: Olympus documentation, read September 2026).

There are two tokens. OHM is the base asset at 0x64aa3364f17a4d01c6f1751fd97c2bd3d7e7f1d5. gOHM, at 0x0ab87046fBb341D058F17CBC4c1133F25a20a52f, is the governance and collateral form; the documentation calls it "the only token used for proposing upgrades to Olympus protocol." Holders wrap OHM into gOHM and unwrap it back.

For where to buy Olympus from your country or state, see the availability tables on this page and the venues listed at Exchanges.

How it works

The mechanism people still associate with Olympus is Range Bound Stability, and it is worth stating plainly that the documentation says it is off. The page reads: "Range Bound Stability (RBS) is currently disabled. The functionality has been replaced by" the Yield Repurchase Facility and the Emissions Manager.

RBS worked from a moving average of OHM's price against a reserve asset, with four levels around it. The documentation gives the formulas as Lower Wall = MA × (1 − Wall Spread), Lower Cushion = MA × (1 − Cushion Spread), Upper Cushion = MA × (1 + Cushion Spread) and Upper Wall = MA × (1 + Wall Spread), under the constraint that "Cushion Spread < Wall Spread such that LW < LC < MA < UC < UW." At the walls the protocol traded directly against users; at the cushions it opened bond markets. The specific spread percentages are governance parameters rather than fixed constants, and the documentation page does not publish current values.

What operates now is issuance tied to a premium over backing. The Emissions Manager mints new OHM only when OHM trades at a sufficient multiple of its treasury backing. The documentation defines premium as "market price / backing price," sets the minimum premium at 100% or greater, and says the check runs every 3 epochs. The formula it publishes is new supply = total supply × base emissions rate × (premium + 100%) / (minimum premium + 100%), and it gives a worked example: 15 million OHM supply, a 0.02% base rate, a 200% premium and a 100% minimum premium produce 4,500 OHM.

The new OHM is not dumped on a market. It is offered through Convertible Deposits, a tick-based continuous auction in which depositors supply USDS and lock a conversion price for OHM. The documentation lists a tick step of 100.75%, so each filled tick raises the next tick's price, a tick size of 100,000 OHM, a tick size base of 2 so capacity halves when daily targets are exceeded, and a minimum bid of 100,000 USDS. As of MS Batch 1948 in July 2026 the documentation gives a minimum price of backing at 11.69 USDS per OHM plus a 50% minimum premium. A depositor can convert to OHM before expiry, redeem the deposit at term, or reclaim early at a rate the documentation states as "99% for 6-month deposits," a 1% protocol fee. Deposited USDS earns the Sky Savings Rate through the sUSDS vault in the meantime.

Cooler Loans run the other direction: they let gOHM holders borrow against their position rather than sell it. The documentation describes them as "Olympus DAO's protocol-native, perpetual lending system that allows OHM token holders to borrow USDS by using their gOHM tokens as collateral," at a "Fixed 0.5% APR" approved by OCG Proposal 8, with no expiry so long as interest is paid.

The most unusual feature of Cooler Loans is what it does not do. The documentation states there are "No Price-Based Liquidations," and that a default happens only when "unpaid interest exceeds a governance-defined threshold." Instead of a price-triggered liquidation, the borrowable amount per gOHM ratchets up on a clock: the documentation gives an LTV drip rate of 0.0000011574 USDS per second, capped at a 0.1 USDS per day increase, moving from 2961.64 USDS per gOHM as of 15 May 2025 toward a target of 2991.2564 USDS per gOHM on 15 May 2026. Minimum debt to open is 1,000 USDS, one loan per wallet, with a 1% liquidation premium.

Supply and tokenomics

OHM supply is not fixed and not arbitrary. It expands only when the Emissions Manager's premium test passes, and the expansion is sold for reserves rather than given away.

gOHM is the governance unit. The documentation lists its current uses as "Voting in governance and serving as collateral for Cooler Loans," and every parameter above is described as configurable by on-chain governance.

History

Olympus began as a rebasing protocol: OHM was staked, supply grew on a schedule, and a very large headline apy described that growth rather than any return on capital. The documentation still carries a legacy section covering bonding, staking and boosted liquidity vaults from that era.

The direction of travel since has been away from reflexive supply growth and toward issuance tied to a measurable treasury figure. Range Bound Stability was the first version of that idea, replacing discretionary policy with published formulas around a moving average. The Emissions Manager is the second, and it is stricter: it only issues when the market pays a premium over backing, and it sells that issuance into a priced auction rather than emitting it to stakers.

Cooler Loans and Convertible Deposits complete the loop. Cooler Loans give holders liquidity against gOHM without selling, at a fixed rate and without price liquidations. Convertible Deposits give the treasury new reserves in exchange for a priced claim on future OHM. Both are governed by on-chain proposals, and the documentation stamps its live parameters with the batch and date they were set.

Risks and what to watch

Governance is the largest single dependency. The emissions rate, the minimum premium, the tick sizes, the Cooler Loan rate and the LTV schedule are all parameters set by proposals, and the documentation says so explicitly. A change in any of them changes how much OHM exists and on what terms.

Backing is a treasury figure, not a redemption guarantee. The documentation describes OHM as treasury-backed and prints a backing number used in pricing, but a backing value is an accounting measure of assets held; it is not a promise that any holder can redeem at that value on demand.

The treasury's own composition carries risk. Reserves sitting in USDS earning the Sky Savings Rate inherit that system's risks, and any yield-bearing reserve asset brings the risk of whatever generates the yield.

smart contract risk applies to a protocol with this many interacting parts: an auction, a perpetual lending market, an emissions controller and a governance timelock all touching the same treasury.

Frequently asked questions

Is OHM a stablecoin?

No. Olympus's documentation calls OHM a free-floating "flatcoin" that is treasury-backed rather than pegged. Its price is not fixed to a dollar or to any other asset.

Is Range Bound Stability still running?

No. The documentation states that RBS "is currently disabled" and that its functionality has been replaced by the Yield Repurchase Facility and the Emissions Manager.

When does Olympus mint new OHM?

Only when OHM trades at a premium over backing. The Emissions Manager requires a minimum premium of 100% or greater, checks every 3 epochs, and sells the new OHM through a Convertible Deposits auction rather than emitting it.

Can a Cooler Loan be liquidated if OHM falls?

Not on price. The documentation states there are no price-based liquidations; default happens only when unpaid interest passes a governance-defined threshold. The loan is perpetual as long as interest is paid.

Where can you buy Olympus?

Availability depends on your country or US state. See where to buy Olympus for the exchanges serving your jurisdiction, and Exchanges to compare fees, kyc requirements and supported payment methods.