Mehen Finance, the firm behind Cardano’s newest stablecoin USDM, is aiming for a public “retail rollout” of its fiat-backed stablecoin as early as next month.
USDM officially launched on Cardano on March 17 but is currently only available to institutional users.
“Retail rollout will likely be in April,” Mehen Finance Founding Partner Matthew Plomin told Cointelegraph.
“We are in limited launch - calling it ‘Live main-net ecosystem early-rollout’ internally,” said Plomin, adding that institutions in eligible jurisdictions can now join the platform and start minting the stablecoin.
Plomin explained that the USDM model resembles other fiat-backed stablecoins, but includes a key feature that prevents excess minting.
USDM’s reserve is reported directly to Charli3 — a decentralized oracle designed for the Cardano network — with Charli3 oracle data also integrated into the token’s smart contract. This ensures real-time transfers can be made transparently, said Plomin.
“The independently-reported oracle value governs the amount of USDM token that can be minted, so excess minting is not possible.”
Last July, Mehen also stated that USDM wouldn’t be freezable — unlike Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) and Tether (USDT).
This property makes USDM a superior stablecoin, argues Caleb Montiel, founder of Cardano content platform Cardano Curation.
However, the inability to freeze USDM on-chain could backfire, according to crypto commentator Vanessa Harris, warning that regulators could instead freeze USDM bank accounts, which could impact USDM’s peg.
Mehen is based in New York, where the state’s financial services regulator has a history of investigating and taking action against some of the largest industry players.
The USDM reserve is being held in government-only money market mutual funds at Fidelity and Western Asset Management, said Plomin, who stressed that they’re not being used as banks.
Early institutional users are currently sending United States dollars via wire transfer and receiving USDM at a 1:1 ratio.
Mehen has obtained licensing approvals from 17 U.S. states with more “coming soon” and will seek money transmitter and virtual asset service provider licenses in Europe and the United Kingdom later this year.
Related: Cardano refutes rumors it abandoned its scaling project Hydra
Meanwhile, Plomin revealed that Mehen will soon take on its first investment via a crowdfunded equity raise instead of a token sale.
“Securities offered under [regulated crowdfunding] are available to people around the world, and we are committed to tokenizing our Series A shares on Cardano.”
The investment raise will occur on crowdfunding platform ChainRaise.
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