Anchorage Digital, home to America’s first federally regulated crypto bank, announced that USDM1, a U.S. dollar-denominated sovereign debt instrument natively issued on the blockchain by a sovereign, collateralized 1:1 by U.S. Treasury instruments, is now available on its federally regulated custody platform. For the first time, institutional clients can access, hold, and seamlessly integrate a sovereign, Treasury-backed financial instrument into 24/7 margin, collateral, and financing workflows.
As an infrastructure partner, Anchorage Digital will provide settlement, control-account, custody, and collateral management support for USDM1, enabling institutional access within established regulatory frameworks.
USDM1 is not a tokenized or wrapped instrument, instead each unit represents secured sovereign debt issued under New York law, structured in the style of a Brady bond, providing holders with claims secured by a fully established security interest in the underlying collateral. USDM1 is compatible with derivatives, repo and financing markets and enables deployment as sovereign collateral in institutional trading and financing workflows. On Anchorage’s federally regulated platform, USDM1 provides a bankruptcy-remote, collateralized sovereign exposure with 24/7 programmable settlement, benefiting from robust U.S. close-out netting protections.
Nathan McCauley, Co-Founder and CEO at Anchorage Digital said: “Institutions need digital assets that fit within existing legal and operational frameworks, not outside them. USDM1 is a compelling example of how sovereign, Treasury-backed instruments can be issued for the digital era, and we’re proud to provide the regulated custody, settlement, and collateral infrastructure that makes institutional adoption possible.”
USDM1 was developed to support the Republic of the Marshall Islands’ Universal Basic Income (UBI) program, serving as a financial instrument underpinning its digital implementation.
Hon. David Paul, Republic of the Marshall Islands’ Minister of Finance, said: “USDM1 represents a new foundation for how we can deliver financial services to our people. Reaching every citizen across our remote atolls has always been one of our greatest challenges as a government, and USDM1 changes that. With modern digital infrastructure built on trusted legal frameworks, we can now ensure every citizen receives what they are entitled to, wherever they live. We are proud to be leading the way in showing what sovereign financial inclusion can look like.”
Beyond its role in domestic disbursements, USDM1 supports a full range of institutional functions associated with fully collateralized sovereign debt, with issuance, collateral and redemption under New York law. USDM1 is compatible with standard derivatives, repo, and securities lending frameworks, offering institutions a sovereign, Treasury-backed alternative to corporate digital dollar instruments via Anchorage Digital’s regulated, federally licensed platform.
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