Coin columns · Ethereum City (Capital)
Legacy Frax Dollar: The Original FRAX Stablecoin, Renamed
The original partly algorithmic dollar coin, now ‘legacy’
Legacy Frax Dollar is the current name of FRAX, the stablecoin launched by Frax Finance in late 2020. When a new stablecoin, frxUSD, became the centre of the project in 2025, the original coin stayed in circulation under the ‘legacy’ label for compatibility.
1. The original partly backed stablecoin
Frax is a DeFi (decentralized finance, financial services run by code) project started in December 2020 by Sam Kazemian and colleagues. Its stablecoin FRAX was designed to track the US dollar, and at first only part of its value was backed by collateral such as USDC, with the rest resting on the governance token FXS.
Frax later raised the share of collateral step by step. In 2025 the newly built frxUSD became the project’s main stablecoin, and the original FRAX was renamed Legacy Frax Dollar. On the Crypto Nation map, this coin stands in Ethereum City (the capital), because it was first issued on Ethereum.
2. Holding the dollar peg
FRAX stayed near one dollar through arbitrage (profiting from price gaps). Below a dollar it could be bought cheaply and redeemed for collateral, and above a dollar more could be minted and sold. Smart contracts called AMOs (algorithmic market operations controllers) also put collateral to work in lending and trading pools to help steady the price.
In the new setup, frxUSD is described as fully backed by cash-like assets and tokenized US Treasuries, and Frax says it is built to fit the US stablecoin law, the GENIUS Act. Alongside it, the governance token FXS was renamed FRAX and became the base token of Frax’s own blockchain, Fraxtal.
3. DeFi use and the 2025 overhaul
FRAX served as a dollar-like coin for trading and collateral on decentralized exchanges and lending services across several chains. The Frax family also includes frxETH, which makes Ethereum staking easier, the exchange Fraxswap and the lending service Fraxlend. Its own blockchain, Fraxtal, opened in 2024.
In 2025 the ‘North Star’ hard fork (a major rule change to a blockchain) and governance proposal FIP-428 reshaped the lineup, and the original FRAX stayed in circulation as Legacy Frax Dollar for backward compatibility. The GENIUS Act, a US federal stablecoin law, was signed that July.
4. Things to know
Names are easy to mix up. The old stablecoin, the new frxUSD and the renamed FXS token all belong to the Frax family, and some sites use the same ticker, FRAX, for different assets. Without checking the name and contract address, a user could buy or send the wrong one.
No stablecoin is guaranteed to hold its peg; FRAX wobbled in March 2023, when USDC, a major part of its collateral, briefly fell below a dollar. The project’s focus has also moved to frxUSD, and smart-contract bugs and governance decisions remain risks.
Written from information public up to October 2026. It does not recommend or rate any coin and is not investment advice. If something is wrong, please tell us through the contact page.