Hashnote US Treasury Token Now Available Through Crypto Custodian Copper
Not all so-called "on-chain treasures" on the market are created equal, warns Hashnote CEO Leo Mizuhara.
Hashnote, a decentralized finance (DeFi) startup serving compliance-conscious institutions, is offering its yield-generating USYC token through Copper, the cryptocurrency custody company chaired by former UK chancellor Philip Hammond.
Hashnote was the first crypto startup to emerge from Web3 incubator Cumberland Labs and counts Chicago-based trading giant Cumberland as a market maker. An integration with Copper brings Hashnote's USYC to the custody company's clientele of around 300 large institutions and crypto trading platforms.
"People are treating these on-chain treasuries as if they are as safe as something you would see in normal finance, like a money market account," Mizuhara said in an interview. “But the different structures are very important; “It’s not the same as being in a money market fund when you’re in an SPV [special purpose vehicle] that owns Treasuries, for example, or an SPV that owns ETFs [exchange-traded funds].”
Hashnote's USYC token is based on reverse repo, or holding Treasury bills overnight with a guaranteed price the next day, Mizuhara noted, and offers a net yield of about 4.8%.
"Not everyone has access to the reverse repo window," Copper sales chief Michael Roberts said in an interview. “That's really the mainstay of the big banks and some stockbrokers. Longer term, we are working on a deeper integration where the token can be persisted and potentially used as collateral as well.”
