USUAL vs ZK
Usual Protocol and ZKsync scored on the same 25 variables, ranked against the same 251 tokens, with every gap between them shown.
Scoring pass 18 Sept 2026. Market snapshot 7 Oct 2026.
What separates them
USUAL scores 99 of 250 and ranks 147th of 251. ZK scores 95 and ranks 167th. USUAL leads by 4 points, which is inside the range where the individual variables matter more than the total. USUAL takes 7 of the 25 variables, ZK takes 5, and 13 are level.
No single variable separates USUAL and ZK by as much as 3 points. They are close on the framework's terms, which makes price, liquidity and the supply position below the only grounds for choosing.
Both score 3 or below on Revenue Trend, Supply Inflation, Vesting Schedule, Insider Selling, TVL Trend, Market Share and 1 more. A weakness both sides share is not a reason to prefer either. It is a reason to check whether the category itself carries the problem.
ZK is valued at $129.1M against $23.6M for USUAL, a 5.5x difference. The smaller of the two scores higher on fundamentals, which is the disagreement worth understanding before either position is taken.
All 25 variables, head to head
Both tokens were scored by the same framework in the same pass, so the numbers are directly comparable. What a comparison adds over two separate pages is the gap: a 6 against a 6 is a non-event, a 9 against a 3 is the reason to hold one and not the other.
Cash flow
| Protocol Revenue | 4 | 3 | USUAL +1 | |
| Revenue Trend | 3 | 3 | level | |
| P/S Multiple | 6 | 6 | level | |
| Real Staking Yield | 5 | 3 | USUAL +2 |
Supply
| Supply Inflation | 2 | 2 | level | |
| Vesting Schedule | 2 | 1 | USUAL +1 | |
| Circulating / FDV Ratio | 4 | 2 | USUAL +2 | |
| Buyback and Burn | 4 | 2 | USUAL +2 |
Ownership
| Smart Money Flows | 4 | 4 | level | |
| Insider Selling | 3 | 3 | level | |
| Holder Concentration | 4 | 3 | USUAL +1 |
Traction
| TVL Trend | 3 | 3 | level | |
| Active Users | 4 | 3 | USUAL +1 | |
| Developer Activity | 5 | 5 | level | |
| Network Growth | 4 | 4 | level |
Position
| Market Share | 3 | 3 | level | |
| Competitive Moat | 4 | 5 | ZK +1 | |
| Institutional Adoption | 4 | 4 | level | |
| Exchange Depth | 6 | 7 | ZK +1 | |
| Social Mindshare | 4 | 4 | level |
Risk
| Regulatory Safety | 5 | 7 | ZK +2 | |
| Catalyst Calendar | 4 | 4 | level | |
| BTC Alpha Potential | 3 | 3 | level | |
| Team Execution | 4 | 5 | ZK +1 | |
| Treasury Runway | 5 | 6 | ZK +1 |
Bars read outward from the centre: USUAL to the left, ZK to the right. The side that leads a variable is filled. Each score is 1 to 10 against the same definition applied to all 251 rated tokens.
Market and supply
| USUAL | ZK | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.0121 | $0.0119 |
| Market cap | $23.6M | $129.1M |
| Circulating | 65% | 51.5% |
| Dilution to full supply | 1.54x | 1.94x |
| Off all-time high | -99.25% | -96.3% |
| To recover the high | 133.3x | 27x |
| Total value locked | $350.0M | $95.0M |
| Network | Ethereum | zkSync |
Price, market cap and all-time high from the CoinGecko snapshot fetched 7 Oct 2026. Supply shares are derived from circulating and eventual supply counts, which do not move with price. The 25 scores come from the research pass dated 18 Sept 2026.
Catalyst and risk on each side
USUAL · PASS
USD0++ liquid staking recovery and new RWA yield products bringing TVL back above $500M
USD0++ depeg incident in Jan 2025 destroyed trust; USUAL token hyperinflation via revenue redistribution model; TVL down 80%+ from peak
ZK · PASS
ZK Stack elastic chain network expansion and ZKsync native account abstraction adoption
Only 17% circulating supply with years of heavy releases ahead; TVL and developer activity abandoned after airdrop controversy
Common questions
- Is USUAL or ZK the better investment?
- On this framework USUAL scores higher: 99 against 95 of 250, and it is rated PASS against PASS. That is a ranking of fundamentals as recorded at the last scoring pass, not a price forecast, and USUAL still wins 7 of the 25 individual variables against ZK.
- What is the biggest difference between USUAL and ZK?
- Nothing separates them by more than 2 points on any of the 25 variables, which is unusual and means the two are close substitutes on fundamentals.
- Which is bigger, USUAL or ZK?
- USUAL is valued at $23.6M and ZK at $129.1M on the latest market snapshot.
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Research and analysis, not investment advice. A higher score is one framework applied consistently to 251 tokens, not a prediction that one asset will outperform the other.