Stablecoins are the unquestionable killer use-case of blockchains, with $120+ billion circulating in stablecoins globally. However, barriers such as regulatory uncertainty and the opportunity cost generated by risk-free yields at ~5% are pushing users back into the traditional financial system.

To address this, Mountain Protocol, which on July 27th was licensed by the Bermuda Monetary Authority as a digital asset issuer, is launching USDM: the first nationally-regulated yield-bearing stablecoin. This makes USDM the first stablecoin licensed in Bermuda, a country that is growing its crypto presence, following the licensing of Coinbase earlier this year.

Like most fiat-backed stablecoins, USDM is an ERC20 token redeemable at $1 for KYB’d users which can be freely used across DeFi. The token is fully backed by short-term U.S. Treasuries, with the difference that USDM provides users daily rewards in the form of rebasing, currently at a rate of 5% APY. This way, all non-US users can earn yields on the stablecoin simply by holding USDM. Mountain provides direct access to U.S. Treasury yields to anyone outside of the U.S. with a crypto wallet worldwide.

“From a technical perspective, we are leveraging long-standing battle-tested solutions, including the ERC20 standard and rebasing, providing a safe and easy to understand product for the ecosystem to integrate with” said Matias Caricato, co-founder and CTO.

The company recently closed a seed round, led by Nic Carter from Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, NewForm Capital, Daedalus Angels and founders from OpenZeppelin, Reflexer and Nansen. The company also announced Dr Firas Habach, current Head of Compliance at Sygnum, as independent Board member.

“From protocols improving Liquidity Provider returns to exchanges looking to launch their white-label stablecoins, we are seeing lots of interesting ways people are looking to use USDM” said Martin Carrica, co-founder of Mountain Protocol.

“Mountain has cracked the code in terms of finding a high-quality regulatory domicile while retaining the ability to to pass on Treasury yields to ex-US users globally. This is a remarkable feat and heralds a regime change in stablecoins – no longer will users have to make a choice between a DeFi composable stable and native yields” added Nic Carter.

Twitter: @MountainUSDM

Website: https://mountainprotocol.com

Documentation: https://docs.mountainprotocol.com