# What is USTB USTB is one of the stablecoins present on the re.al L2. It rebases with yields currently averaging 5%, and is fully backed by USDM locked in a vault on Ethereum Mainnet. In this section, we will focus on the backing of USTB, as well as trying to explain why it's considered as a premium RWA stablecoin on re.al. ## What is USDM USDM is the ERC-20 token that is used to mint USTB. The USDM token is managed by the [Mountain Protocol](https://mountainprotocol.com/usdm) on Ethereum Mainnet where users can register and buy USDM using FIAT. The USDM is minted at a 1:1 ratio with U.S. dollar, and the FIAT deposited to mint USDM is then used to buy United States Treasury Bills. > USDM is backed by T-Bills — short-term government securities issued by the United States Treasury held as part of the "USDM Reserves". TBills are generally regarded as the safest USD asset and are widely used by institutions to manage their own treasuries. {% hint style="info" %} A Treasury bill (T-bill) is a short-term U.S. government debt obligation backed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Terms range from four to 52 weeks. USDM usually purchases T-Bills with a maturity ranging from 4 to 6 weeks. {% endhint %} T-Bills are currently earning around 5% APY that is then redistributed to USDM in the form of rebases. This means that if you hold USDM on Ethereum, your balance will simply grow over time as yields are distributed daily. Because the yield from USDM is coming from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, it can be considered a real world asset (RWA). In other words, USDM is an IOU receipt, and as such, you can also redeem USDM for FIAT, which will generally take a few days, which is the standard for TradFi (**Trad**itional **Fi**nance). If you don't want to register with Mountain Protocol or use FIAT to purchase USDM, you can also get it on DeFi markets and swap your USDC for USDM. As of writing this guide, the main source of liquidity is located on [Curve](https://curve.fi/#/ethereum/swap?from=0xa0b86991c6218b36c1d19d4a2e9eb0ce3606eb48\&to=0x59d9356e565ab3a36dd77763fc0d87feaf85508c).
Secondary markets will not always guarantee a 1:1 ratio, but the peg is maintained by arbitrage opportunities. {% hint style="warning" %} Using USDM does present some risks that are very well presented in [the official USDM docs](https://docs.mountainprotocol.com/reference/risks). The biggest risk being a bank run if too much users want to redeem at the same time while US T-Bills are locked in time, creating a liquidity crunch even if Mountain Protocol has no solvability issues. {% endhint %} ## What is USTB USTB is simply a wrapper around USDM. In facts, there is currently no bridge to move USDM outside Ethereum. Because of that, the Tangible team decided to create a LayerZero OFT (**O**mnichain **F**ungible **T**oken) that could be transferred across all the chains supported by the LayerZero technology. In other words, you would * deposit USDM in a vault managed by Tangible on Ethereum Mainnet * Tangible will mint USTB at a 1:1 ratio against your USDM * the vault is also managing the balance of USTB and the value of the rebase based on the balance of USDM rebasing in the vault, meaning that any yields earned by USDM is 100% passed to USTB Once you own USTB on Ethereum, you can then bridge it to other chains, including re.al where you will be able to use it in many ways. A few examples are * mint arcUSD, another stablecoin maintained by Arcana Finance * swap it on Pearl Exchange for other tokens * provide liquidity on Pearl * use USTB as yield bearing collateral on Stack and borrow the MORE stablecoin {% hint style="success" %} The same way you can mint USTB using USDM on Ethereum, you can also redeem USDM on Mainnet. This operation takes absolutely no time as the Tangible vault is just a safe holding USDM that makes sure there are the same amount of USTB circulating as the number of locked USDM. Then you may swap your USDM for other tokens on Curve, or for FIAT using Mountain Protocol. {% endhint %} ## How to get USTB on re.al The [Tangible Store](https://www.tangible.store/ustb) is the only hub where you will be able to mint USTB with USDM, or redeem your USTB for USDM. You will also be able to bridge the USTB to other chains from the store directly, or by using [the re.al bridge](https://www.re.al/app/bridge).
You can find the `Mint` and `Bridge` button in the middle of the page. If you click on `Mint`, a popup will open, allowing you to either mint USTB from USDM, or redeem USTB for USDM.
Please note that this operation is only available on Ethereum Mainnet as USDM is only present on that chain. If you click on the `Bridge` button, you will then be able to initiate the bridge operation that will be using LazerZero to send your USTB on re.al (or other chains if that's what you want).
{% hint style="info" %} This bridge can be used to move USTB from any supported source chain to any supported target chain. Currently, USTB only has use cases on re.al, so it's strongly recommended to only transfer your tokens between Ethereum and re.al, but when more use cases are added (liquidity on other chains), you will be able to move USTB to/from Polygon, Base and Optimism, and maybe additional chains in the future. {% endhint %} {% hint style="success" %} Moving USTB back to Mainnet is using LayerZero technology, and is currently the fastest way to bridge assets back to Mainnet. As such, if you are in a hurry, you can swap any asset for USTB on re.al, bridge USTB to Mainnet in less than 30 minutes, and swap again on Curve for the asset you want. This is a nice workaround if you don't want to wait the 7 days settling period required to bridge ETH from re.al to Mainnet. {% endhint %} ## Legal notice The [official documentations of Mountain Protocol](https://docs.mountainprotocol.com/legal/u.s.-restrictions) indicates that > There is no certainty of the standing of digital assets in the U.S. For that reason, the Company has taken the conservative approach of complying with Reg S. > > This means that: > > * USDM cannot be purchased by US Persons. > * Mountain Protocol will not do any marketing to US Persons. > * Our main website ([www.mountainprotocol.com](http://www.mountainprotocol.com)) is not accessible from the U.S. This does not mean you cannot purchase USDM on Curve, but you will not be able to mint/redeem USDM with FIAT using the Mountain Protocol website. However, USDM adheres to specific regulations and compliance requirements, and its reserves are held under custody by JPMorgan. USDM has been audited by leading security firm OpenZeppelin ensuring the code has been thoroughly checked and tested against vulnerabilities. For the same reasons, USTB inherits from the same restrictions as USDM, meaning that you will not be able to mint or redeem USTB on the Tangible Store if you are located in the United States. You will not be able to purchase USTB on Ethereum as there is no liquidity there, but you will be able to get it on Pearl Exchange, and possibly other DEXes in the future, then bridge it from one chain to another. {% hint style="warning" %} This guide does take any responsibility if you are using USDM or USTB from geo-blocked locations. The goal of this site is solely to inform people of what they can do, and how they can do it, as long as they are legally allowed to do it. {% endhint %} --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://real-community.gitbook.io/re.al-community/tangible/what-is-ustb.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.