USDM stablecoin eyes retail release next month: Mehen founder

Mehen Finance, the firm behind Cardano's new stablecoin USDM, is looking for an official “retail release” of the fiat-backed stablecoin early next month.

USDM was officially launched by Cardano on March 17, but is currently only available to institutional users.

“Retail rollout is likely in April,” Mehen Finance founding partner Matthew Plomin told Cointelegraph.

“Internally we're calling it a ‘live main-net ecosystem early release' – institutions in eligible jurisdictions can now join the platform and create a stable coin,” Plomin said.

Plomin explained that the USDM model is similar to other fiat-backed stablecoins, but includes a key feature that prevents overproduction.

The USDM backup is directly linked to Charli3 – a decentralized oracle designed for the Cardano network – with Charli3 oracle data as well as a token smart contract. This ensures that real-time transfers can be made transparently, Plomin said.

“The self-reported word value controls the amount of USDM tokens generated, so it cannot be overwritten.”

Last July, Mehen said that USDM will not be unfreezeable – unlike Circle's USD Coin (USDC) and Tether (USDT).

This property makes USDM a superior stablecoin, argues Caleb Montiel, founder of Cardano Curation, a Cardano content platform.

However, the inability to tie the USDM to the chain could backfire, according to crypto analyst Vanessa Harris, who warned that regulators could freeze USDM bank accounts instead, potentially affecting the USDM 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 industry's biggest players.

Plomin, who said the USDM holdings are being held in government-only money market mutual funds at Fidelity and Western Asset Management, emphasized that they are not using them as banks.

Early institutional users are currently receiving US dollars via wire transfer and USDM at a 1:1 ratio.

Mehen has received license approvals from 17 US states and is looking to “closer” to more money transfer and virtual asset service providers in Europe and the UK this year.

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Meanwhile, Plomin Mehen revealed that it will soon take its first investment through a crowdsourced equity raise rather than a token sale.

“Securities provided under [regulated crowdfunding] They are available to people around the world and we are committed to simulating our Series A shares on Cardano.

The investment raising is done by crowdfunding on the ChainRaise platform.

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