Off Exchange Settlement
Secured Asset Custody
Unitas employs Off-Exchange Settlement (OES) providers to safeguard collateral while accessing centralized exchange liquidity for hedging strategies. Currently, Unitas works with two leading institutional custodians: Ceffu and Copper.
Both are independent, non-US based custodians focused exclusively on digital asset custody and settlement.
Protocol assets are never beneficially owned or controlled by the OES providers; they remain fully attributable to Unitas users at all times.
Assets are held in segregated accounts and only deployed via pre-approved trading instructions to support Unitas’s delta-neutral strategies.
Management of Risks
Unitas recognizes two primary risks when operating with OES providers:
1. Accessibility and Availability
Unitas depends on OES providers for timely deposit, withdrawal, and delegation of collateral to/from exchanges.
Any degradation in this process may temporarily slow hedging or settlement workflows.
Importantly, such issues do not affect the collateral backing of USDu, only the speed of mint/redeem operations.
Unitas actively monitors OES availability and maintains redundant connectivity across both Ceffu and Copper to minimize impact.
2. Settlement Performance in Exchange Failure
In case of an exchange default, Unitas relies on OES providers to facilitate the transfer of collateral and settle PnL without delay.
Leading custodians like Ceffu and Copper require exchanges to pre-post collateral with them, enabling efficient resolution under their rolling settlement cycles (typically 4–8 hours).
By maintaining hedges across multiple exchanges, Unitas reduces dependency on any single venue.
Additional Benefits
Liquidity Access: OES providers allow Unitas to connect seamlessly with multiple CEX venues, ensuring deep orderbook liquidity without moving assets directly onto exchanges.
Operational Efficiency: With OES, mint/redeem flows for USDu and sUSDu are on-demand and cost-efficient, avoiding unnecessary blockchain transactions or gas costs.
Counterparty Diversification: Through custodians, Unitas can expand hedging access beyond centralized exchanges to OTC and institutional counterparties when needed, further mitigating risk.
Why It Matters
OES is the backbone of Unitas’s yield-bearing stablecoin design:
USDu stays fully collateralized off-exchange, ensuring user funds remain secure and transparent.
sUSDu holders capture the yield generated by delta-neutral strategies (funding rate arbitrage + exchange fee flows), while custody and settlement risks are minimized through trusted partners.
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