USDST: A Stablecoin Backed by Gold and Silver instead of Treasuries

Stablecoins have grown into one of the largest payment networks on the planet. In 2025, they processed roughly $33 trillion in transaction volume, double what Visa handled over the same period. Their total market cap now exceeds $300 billion, with issuers like Tether and Circle ranking among the top holders of US Treasury bills, and about a third of Tether users treat it as their primary bank account. For someone facing currency instability in Lagos or Buenos Aires, a dollar-pegged token on a phone beats a savings account that bleeds value month after month.

But stablecoins are tokenized dollars, and dollars lose purchasing power. A stablecoin may protect you from your local currency collapsing, but it does nothing about inflation.

Crypto was supposed to build a better financial system, and some crypto OGs are a little embarrassed that crypto’s most successful product to date is a wrapper around the fiat currency we wanted to replace.

Stablecoins are an extremely valuable innovation that has benefited millions of people around the world, but STRATO is working on the next logical step: a tokenized economy built on sound money.

Dollar Stability. Hard Asset Backing. 

Stablecoins work because they start from something everyone agrees has value: dollars. The logical next step is to extend that same principle to assets with even deeper consensus: gold and silver.

Gold and silver have held purchasing power for thousands of years, predating central banks, fiat currencies, and every monetary experiment that ended in debasement. If you're choosing between an inflationary currency and a hard asset, you pick the hard asset. You just need the tools to use it.

STRATO calls this category HardFi. The idea is that stablecoins shouldn't be the ceiling of on-chain finance. They should be the floor. A person should be able to hold inflation-resistant assets, borrow against them, earn yield on them, and spend the proceeds, all without leaving the chain. Stablecoins don't solve inflation or give people access to high-quality assets. A platform built around gold, silver, and crypto can do both.

How USDST works

USDST is STRATO's stablecoin, pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. You get it by depositing collateral and borrowing or minting against it. The collateral pool accepts crypto (ETH, WBTC, other stablecoins) alongside STRATO's tokenized precious metals, GOLDST and SILVST. Each GOLDST token maps to one troy ounce of 99.9% pure gold, and each SILVST token maps to one troy ounce of silver. The metal sits in secured vaults, verified by monthly vaulting confirmations and an independent CPA audit.

The system carries more collateral than the USDST it has issued, which gives depositors a thick safety cushion and gives new users confidence that the infrastructure has been proven in production. 

You can check the current collateral backing, proof-of-reserve links, and audit documents at strato.nexus/vaults.

What you can do with USDST

The simplest place to start is the Savings Vault. Deposit USDST, earn yield automatically, and  withdraw whenever you want. The vault generates returns through an autonomous arbitrage bot that trades across STRATO's liquidity pools, capturing mispricings between pool prices and live oracle feeds meaning yield comes from real trading activity, not token emissions. The current APY on the Savings Vault sits at 38%, though rates are variable and will shift as more capital enters the system.

Beyond savings, USDST is the unit of account for everything on STRATO. You can borrow it against your deposited assets at up to 80% LTV, keeping your gold, silver, or crypto exposure while freeing up capital. 

You can provide liquidity in swap pools paired with ETH, gold, silver, and other stablecoins, earning trading fees and reward points in STRATO's Season 2 rewards program.

Built for real financial life

A person should be able to save, borrow, trade, and earn on-chain without thinking about the plumbing. STRATO USDST gives you stability when you need it through USDST, and gold and silver exposure when you want it. It allows you to essentially issue your own credit against your assets without selling them. Stablecoins gave people access to dollars. USDST gives people access to a financial system backed by something better.

Start at app.strato.nexus.