REF — mUSD Reserve Architecture (Bridge × M0 × MetaMask)

MetaMask's mUSD is the first wallet-native stablecoin, and its backing model is deliberately modular: MetaMask owns the UX, Bridge (a Stripe company) is the regulated issuer of record, and M0 provides the on-chain infrastructure. Reserves are cash + short-dated Treasuries only.

Key points

• Issuer of record = Bridge (Stripe subsidiary, acquired Feb 2025). Bridge holds the reserve assets, mints and redeems mUSD, and carries all legal/compliance obligations. MetaMask does NOT self-issue.
• Infrastructure = M0 protocol. Bridge mints a fungible token $M against verifiable proof of reserves (short-dated U.S. Treasuries), then wraps it into MetaMask's mUSD instance. M0 enforces security, permissioning, accounting, liquidity delivery and yield distribution. M0 also powers PayPal's PYUSD and MoonPay's enterprise stablecoins — a reference track record.
• Reserve composition: 1:1 backed by cash at regulated banks (GSIB-tier) and short-dated U.S. Treasuries — no gold, Bitcoin, equities or secured loans. That places mUSD at the top of the reserve-quality hierarchy and already inside the GENIUS Act's eligible-asset list, minimizing restructuring risk.
• Attestation track record: as a newer stablecoin, mUSD's independent third-party attestation history is still being built (Circle/Tether have years of reports). The evaluation question is the cadence, granularity and independence of disclosures as circulation grows.
• Yield source for the "up to 4% APY" Money Account: the yield does not come from mUSD reserves (which would risk the GENIUS yield ban) — deposits are auto-allocated to DeFi lending protocols (Morpho at launch, Aave planned) on Monad, so the APY is DeFi lending yield, not reserve interest paid to holders.
• Launch surfaces: initially Ethereum + Linea (Aug 2025); Money Account runs on Monad (Jun 30, 2026).

Sources

• MetaMask announcement (Aug 21, 2025): https://metamask.io/news/metamask-announces-stablecoin-metamask-usd
• MetaMask reserve-evaluation guide: https://metamask.io/news/how-stablecoin-reserves-work-and-how-to-evaluate-them
• M0 research (architecture): https://research.m0.org/research/rewiring-the-money-stack-with-metamask-dollars