Fintech company Ascend Markets and the M1X Global platform announced on October 23, 2026, the completion of the first regulated short-term collateralized lending, or repo, transaction on the Stellar blockchain. The pilot used digitized U.S. Treasury bonds for interbank settlement and demonstrated direct collateral mobilization without centralized clearing systems.
According to Stellar, the transaction ran continuously for three days, from October 16 to 19, including the weekend, when traditional banking infrastructure is typically closed. Over 72 hours, smart contracts executed 72 consecutive hourly rollovers without manual intervention, handling collateral locking, interest calculation and clearing automatically. Total network fees for the entire cycle came to less than one U.S. cent.
The transaction parameters aligned with SIFMA standards. The collateral was USDM1, a sovereign bond issued by M1X Global and backed 1:1 by U.S. Treasury bills under New York law, while settlement occurred against USDC stablecoins. Pricing was fixed at SOFR plus 10 basis points, or 3.98% annually. Chainlink oracles monitored collateral values with a 2% haircut and a 98% loan-to-value limit. Counterparty identification and on-chain KYC/AML checks were automated through the ERC-3643 / SEP-57 standard.
By late October 2026, Stellar had accumulated $3.64 billion in real-world assets, according to rwa.xyz, with the largest allocations in money-market funds from Spicet Asset Management at $2.4 billion, Oasis at $557.92 million, and Franklin Templeton at $411.90 million. The USDM1 instrument introduced an instant rehypothecation mechanism into this liquidity pool, providing proof that sovereign-debt resources can be released and redistributed on a 24/7/365 basis at near-zero operating cost.
