Ascend and M1X Global say they completed an institutional repurchase agreement on Stellar mainnet that began on 16 October and closed on 19 October. M1X pledged USDM1, a dollar-denominated bond issued onchain by the Republic of the Marshall Islands, while financing was provided in USDC. The contract renewed automatically every hour for three days, including Saturday and Sunday, producing 72 consecutive rolls, which Ascend says completed without failed attempts.[1][2]
The reported sequence covers a complete trade: collateral pledge, financing, hourly renewal, repayment and return of the bond. Its significance is operating through the weekend under a defined repo agreement. The evidence is the counterparties’ account of this transaction, rather than a market-wide performance study.[1][2]
Collateral quality and financing constraints
Reported transaction parameters
| Component | Documented treatment | Boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Dates | 16–19 Oct 2026 | One completed arrangementSource 1 |
| Collateral | USDM1 Marshall Islands bond | Not ordinary cash or T-bill custodySource 1 |
| Financing | Circle USDC | Separate issuer/redemption exposuresSource 1 |
| Haircut | 2% / 98% maximum LTV | Not interest costSource 1 |
| Rate | SOFR + 10bp at booking | Not a universal forward quoteSource 1 |
| Rolls | 72 hourly consecutive renewals | Participant-reported test resultsSource 1 |
The facility valued USDM1 using its published par-redemption reference, checked USDC against a Chainlink price feed, and applied a 2% haircut. On that calculation, the maximum financing was 98% of the eligible collateral's recognised value. A 2% haircut is not a 2% interest rate or a promise that the sovereign token will always trade at par in the secondary market.[1]
The transaction's interest rate was fixed at booking at SOFR plus 10 basis points. The source says the executed annualised rate was about 3.98% at the time, which should not be mistaken for a guaranteed rate on future trades. The supporting legal arrangement was a SIFMA Master Repurchase Agreement, while programmable identity checks and permitted asset controls were enforced within the onchain workflow.[1][2]
What was demonstrated—and what remains separate
The counterparties describe collateral being pledged to a segregated margin wallet, financing released after the pledge, hourly roll processing, then repayment and release of the token. The release of USDC was recorded roughly 15 seconds after the collateral event, and final closeout returned bonds to the customer account. Those are company-observed timings, not a service-level commitment applicable to all participants.[1]
USDM1 is a Marshall Islands sovereign obligation, described by the parties as backed by short-duration US Treasury instruments; it is not itself a US Treasury bond. Ascend’s disclosure also restricts its offering to outside the United States under Regulation S, subject to the stated exceptions. Tokenised collateral therefore still requires checks on the instrument, eligible holder and transfer conditions.[1][2]
Ascend plans collateral-upgrade products and additional assets and partners. It says $100 million of institutional liquidity is expected to come online in the first quarter of 2027. That is a future funding milestone, separate from the completed October trade and its reported 72 renewals.[1]
Sources & further reading
- Ascend completes first institutional repo on Stellar using USDM1 collateral Ascend · 23 Oct 2026 · Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Ascend and M1X complete onchain USDM1-backed institutional repo M1X Global · 23 Oct 2026 · Accessed 30 Oct 2026