Midas, a tokenization platform backed by Coinbase Ventures and others, has launched a new yield-bearing token called mBASIS.
mBASIS is a dollar-denominated ERC-20 token designed to deliver yield through a delta-neutral arbitrage strategy, Midas said.
Delta-neutral arbitrage involves profiting from the price difference between the spot market and the futures market indefinitely. By buying in the spot market and selling short in the futures market indefinitely for the same amount (or vice versa, if the futures contract is below the spot market), the transaction will capture the price difference, or basis, as profit while maintaining a delta-neutral position.
mBASIS is similar to Ethena Labs' yield token, sUSDe (the staked version of USDe “synthetic dollar”), which also uses a delta-neutral arbitrage trading strategy to generate yield. Since launching earlier this year, sUSDe has quickly grown in popularity and now leads the yield token category with a market cap of $1.65 billion, according to The Block's Data Dashboard .
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Midas decided to launch mBASIS because they felt they could create a better product than Ethena Labs, according to Fabrice Grinda, executive chairman of Midas.
Currently, Midas offers mTBILL, a yield-bearing stablecoin backed by US Treasury bonds, more suitable for bear markets. However, in a bull market, people seek yields that far exceed the risk-free rates that mTBILL offers, Grinda said.
“In a bull market, people expect BTC and ETH prices to increase in the future. You can generate yield by buying into the spot market and shorting futures contracts. When the market was extremely hot like in March, this generated annualized returns of up to 50%,” said Grinda, co-founder and former CEO of Aucland, Zingy and OLX, and an angel investor. know.
mBASIS vs. Ethena's sUSDe
mBASIS differs from Ethena's sUSDe in many ways, according to Dennis Dinkelmeyer, founder of Midas and former investment research analyst at Goldman Sachs. Unlike Ethena's product, Dinkelmeyer said, mBASIS is managed by “a leading, licensed asset manager, operating under fiduciary duty, ensuring that the investment process is aligned with best interests of investors,” but he declined to name the asset manager. He added that mBASIS has an independent fund administrator, NAV Consulting.
mBASIS also offers bankruptcy protection, as customer assets are held in a special vehicle that is protected from bankruptcy, Dinkelmeyer said. In the event of default, a security agent will distribute assets to creditors.
The mBASIS token is “fully compliant with European securities regulations,” according to Dinkelmeyer, who said this compliance ensures investor protection and legal certainty and makes mBASIS “a viable option.” choose to be more transparent than Ethena products.”
How mBASIS works
The mBASIS token dynamically adjusts underlying positions on bitcoin, ether and the top 20 altcoins. While underlying trading strategies typically perform well in bull markets due to positive funding rates, mBASIS switches to reverse underlying trading or mTBILL during unfavorable market conditions.
“This flexibility ensures mBASIS remains an attractive investment under varying market conditions,” Dinkelmeyer said. “At the beginning of June, mBASIS's APY [annual percentage yield] was around 20%. Currently, the APY is around 12%. Yields change according to market conditions,” he added.
Overall, Dinkelmeyer said mBASIS aims to achieve above-average returns by aggressively allocating to underlying positions in the top 20 altcoins, which typically yield higher returns than bitcoin and ether.
mBASIS has collected some seed capital that is currently being invested, totaling “several million dollars” of value locked (TVL), Dinkelmeyer said. He expects TVL to exceed $100 million by the end of the year for both Midas tokens, mBASIS and mTBILL. Currently, mTBILL has a TVL of about $7 million, according to Midas' website.
Neither mBASIS nor mTBILL are available to individuals and entities from the United States or those from sanctioned areas. The current minimum investment amount for both products is 100,000 euros (over $107,000). Some investors, such as qualified investors, may invest with lower minimum amounts.
Midas is backed by prominent investors, including Coinbase Ventures, GSR, and BlockTower Capital. The Berlin, Germany-based startup raised $8.75 million in funding in March.
Source: https://tapchibitcoin.io/midas-ra-mat-token-moi-mbasis-mang-lai-loi-suat-de-canh-tranh-voi-ethena.html