$ETH Stablecoin Issuing System M^0 Employs Fireblocks for Crypto Custody

• Institutions that use Fireblocks for crypto key management workflows will work seamlessly with M^0’s stablecoin-minting and validation software.

• The protocol aims to fill the gap between existing stablecoin systems, where all the yield goes to either the token issuers or the token holders.

M^0 (pronounced “M Zero”), a protocol that allows institutions to mint their own stablecoins backed by U.S. Treasury bills, reached an agreement for Fireblocks to provide cryptocurrency custody services to its issuers.

Firms using M^0 to mint cryptodollars use private keys to transfer them, update collateral balances, retrieve and burn tokens and interact with other participants in the ecosystem such as validators for checking reserves. Those keys now work seamlessly with Fireblocks' key-management system, the companies said.

"We are creating these minter modules and validator modules to be as institutional ready as possible,” M^0 Labs CEO Luca Prosperi said in an interview. “So when a party like a large market maker or trading desk, for example, comes and says they want to become a minter, but have their key management system on Fireblocks, then you can integrate it in a seamless way with them. We are doing this because we think no one is as well equipped as Fireblocks to do such sophisticated workflow and key management systems for crypto assets."

M^0 Labs develops the software for the protocol, which is governed by the decentralized M^0 Foundation.

The organization also highlights what it says is a unique feature of its business model.

The success of stablecoin issuers like Tether, whose USDT is the largest by market cap, and Circle, producer of the No. 2, USDC, have focused attention on the industry and seeded a new crop of dollar-pegged tokens. Those tokens are generally backed by yield-generating reserves, typically U.S. Treasury bills.

In existing models either the issuer, such as Tether or Circle, keeps all yield, or the interest payment accrues to the token.