M

Overview

M0 sells stablecoin issuance as infrastructure. Its site presents the platform in three layers, application, distribution and issuance, and tells builders to launch a stablecoin built around their own business rather than someone else's. M is the token underneath that stack.

The protocol documentation calls it an "immutable ERC20-compliant token at the heart of the M0 Ecosystem", carrying six decimals, and states that "the total supply of $M is exclusively controlled by the MinterGateway contract". Approved entities called Minters generate M by securing eligible collateral in off-chain special purpose vehicles. Approved Validators verify that collateral before the protocol clears the mint. Governance runs through what the glossary calls the Two Token Governor: power token holders vote on day-to-day parameters and role approvals, zero token holders hold meta-governance rights. The issuer of record on this map is M0 Foundation, and the peg is to the US dollar.

The Ethereum explorer lists the contract as M by M0 with 86 holding addresses.

Sources: M0 issuer site, M0 docs, the $M token overview, M0 docs, protocol roles, M0 docs, glossary, Blockscout token API, M by M0 on Ethereum

Backing and reserves

What counts as collateral

A November 2024 M0 research post states that short term US T-Bills remain the only eligible collateral asset. It records a governance proposal to "extend the term of US T-Bills instruments from a maximum of 90 days to a maximum of 180 days". The same post names the approved structure of that period: investment manager CrossLend GmbH in Germany, collateral storage at Asset Repository S.a.r.l in Luxembourg, custodian DEKA Bank. Superstate's USTB fund was put forward as an additional structure, with Superstate Asset Trust holding and UMB Bank as custodian. M0 describes itself there as multi-structural rather than multi-collateral: different wrappers around the same asset class.

How collateral reaches the chain

Minters must call update collateral within a governance-set interval, typically daily. The glossary states that missing it sets the on-chain collateral value to zero and incurs the penalty rate on the next update. A mint requires "signatures from multiple approved Validators, meeting a minimum threshold set by governance". Chronicle Labs was approved as a validator in the August 2024 governance cycle and verifies the presence, value and composition of minter collateral.

What is not published

M0 publishes no periodic reserve attestation. The audits page lists smart contract audits only, spanning the protocol and TTG governance in early 2024 and later rounds for Wrapped M, the Solana deployment, the extension contracts and mUSD. A collateral composition endpoint exists, with fields for eligible treasuries, total cash and yield to maturity, but the documentation states the Protocol API "requires authentication via API keys to access its endpoint". The public ecosystem dashboard renders its values in the browser, so no collateral total is readable from the page source. What the chain holds is a validator signature, not the T-bills.

Sources: M0 Research, expanding available collateral structures for minters, M0 docs, minting and burning, M0 docs, glossary, M0 Research, Chronicle and collateral verification, M0 Research, August governance approvals, M0 docs, smart contract audits, M0 docs, Protocol API overview, M0 docs, collateral composition API recipe

Where it is used

M0's address book lists deployments across 17 networks, among them Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Linea, BNB Chain, HyperEVM, Plume, Plasma, Monad and Solana. On Solana, M is a Token-2022 asset that is frozen by default, bridged through a Portal program the docs describe as a fork of Wormhole's Native Token Transfer program.

Other tokens are built on M as extensions, each with its own brand and economic parameters. The audits page records separate audit rounds for mUSD in August 2025 and for the EVM and Solana extension contracts through 2025. Usual documents M inside its USD0 collateral section and describes it as a token a Minter generates by locking short term T-bills in a secure off-chain facility, which places M in the backing of USD0.

MXON was the first live minter, completing a $10 million mint of M in July 2024.

Sources: M0 docs, M0 platform contract addresses, M0 docs, Solana deployment, M0 docs, smart contract audits, Usual tech docs, M by M0 as USD0 collateral, M0 press release, MXON first live minter

Risks

The collateral sits off chain

The T-bills backing M are held in special purpose vehicles with bank custodians. On-chain collateral value is a figure signed by validators on a governance-set interval. If a minter stops calling update collateral, the protocol sets that minter's on-chain collateral value to zero and charges the penalty rate on the next update. The penalty formulas in the documentation cover both missed intervals and excess owed M.

Governance sets every parameter

The mint ratio, the update interval, the penalty rate, the minimum validator signature threshold, the mint delay and the approval of each minter, validator and earner are all governance-controlled. Validators hold emergency powers to freeze minters and cancel pending mint proposals.

Disclosure and concentration

86 addresses hold M on Ethereum. M0 publishes no reserve attestation and gates its collateral composition data behind an API key, so a holder cannot reconcile the T-bill portfolio against outstanding supply from public sources. The November 2024 research post recorded the extension of eligible T-bill maturities from 90 days to 180 days as a proposal, which lengthens the duration of the assets behind the token if adopted.

Sources: M0 docs, minting and burning, M0 docs, protocol roles, M0 docs, glossary, M0 Research, expanding available collateral structures for minters, Blockscout token API, M by M0 on Ethereum

What this map tracks

What the map reads

The Global Stablecoin Map tracks M on Ethereum at contract 0x866A2BF4E572CbcF37D5071A7a58503Bfb36be1b, the address M0's own documentation gives for the token on Ethereum mainnet. The registry records about 272 million M outstanding and 86 holding addresses, matching what the Ethereum explorer returns for the same contract. The per-chain breakdown puts the whole of that snapshot on Ethereum. The map files M as fiat-backed USD with global reach.

What it does not read

The registry lists Ethereum and Solana for M. M0's address book lists 17 networks, so any M held on the other 15 is outside this page's supply figure. No market price is recorded for M, so the circulating number here is a token count and not a dollar amount. Extension tokens built on M, such as mUSD and PYUSDX, are separate entries in the stablecoin explorer rather than part of this one.

Sources: M0 docs, M0 platform contract addresses, Blockscout token API, M by M0 on Ethereum, M0 docs, Solana deployment

Common questions