Sample agreement #014Open
970.00USDC
5.20% fixed1.33% over T-bills
Collateral coverage101.1%
Fund NAV 1.0004Top-up needed below 100%
- Collateral
- 1,001 tBENJI
- Haircut
- 3.0%
- Matures in
- 4d 06:12:40
Per aspera ad Stellar
Turn tokenized Treasuries into working cash.
Borrow dollars against your tokenized Treasury funds, at a fixed rate for a fixed term. Keep your fund position and get cash in seconds.
#014
970.00 USDC
5.20%
7d · tBENJI
Open
#015
25,000.00 USDC
4.85%
14d · tBENJI
Open
#016
5,000.00 USDC
5.35%
7d · tBENJI
Margin call
#011
12,500.00 USDC
5.05%
7d · tBENJI
Repaid
#017
50,000.00 USDC
4.95%
30d · tBENJI
Open
#009
2,000.00 USDC
5.40%
7d · tBENJI
Liquidated
The opportunity
Billions in tokenized funds earn yield but can't raise cash.
Stellar already holds some of the safest assets in finance: tokenized Treasury and money-market funds. Holders who need cash today must redeem and wait. Almost none of these assets can be borrowed against.
$3.03Bin tokenized real-world assets on Stellar. Only $133K of it works in DeFi.1
$1.97Bin Spiko's nine Treasury and money-market funds, the largest RWA issuer on Stellar ($308M in T-bill funds eligible at launch; SAFO after due diligence). No lender here accepts them.2
0lending contracts hold any of the $434.7M in Franklin Templeton's BENJI fund on Stellar3
As of 25 Oct 2026. Sources are listed at the foot of the page.
Our approach
Where the risk sits: freezes, approved-holder rules, business-day redemption.
The assets are safe. Getting cash out is slow.
The largest dollar tokens on Stellar (USDC, PYUSD, USDY, BENJI) are backed mostly by short-dated US Treasuries. The risk is not the asset itself. It is access: issuers can freeze tokens, only approved holders can redeem, and redemptions settle on business days only.
USDC
Circle Reserve Fund
T-bills + repurchase agreements
BENJI
FOBXX fund
≥99.5% US gov't paper
So lending against them should work the way bank repurchase desks have for decades: a fixed term, a daily price check and time to top up, not an automatic sell-off triggered in seconds.
Today
Floating-rate lending pools
- Built for assets that trade 24/7: liquidate any hour, at once, to anyone
- No cure window before a sale
- Seized fund shares can't be sold outside business hours
- Floating rate, no end date
With Caravel
Fixed-term repurchase agreement
- Priced at the start, at each daily check and at maturity
- No margin call on an outdated price
- A margin call and time to top up always come before default
- Fixed rate, fixed term, one amount due
How it works
In the demo, one day runs in 60 seconds
Four steps, from offer to repayment.
- 01 · Offer The lender sets the terms Amount, term, rate and accepted collateral. The lender's cash waits in escrow. The collateral discount is set per asset, not per offer.
- 02 · Accept The borrower accepts The borrower posts fund shares worth more than the loan. Collateral goes in and cash comes out in a single transaction.
- 03 · Monitor Daily price check The fund's NAV is checked every day. If coverage falls below the threshold, the borrower gets time to add collateral.
- 04 · Close Repay or default One amount due, fixed on day one. Repay any time. If it is still unpaid after maturity and a grace period, an approved buyer purchases the collateral.
Delivery versus paymentBoth sides settle together
Borrower
BorrowertBENJI1,001.00 → 0
USDC0 → 970.00
Caravel escrow
Caravel escrowtBENJI held0 → 1,001.00
Lender's cash (USDC)970.00 → 0
- t0Borrower signs
- +1sSubmitted
- +5sRecorded on ledger
- finalBoth sides complete
Collateral and cash move in one transaction. If either side fails, nothing moves.TXsettled
If the borrower doesn't repay, the lender is paid first.
In full while NAV stays within the haircut; if NAV falls further before the sale, the lender takes all the proceeds and a Shortfall is recorded on-chain.
Example: a 970 USDC loan for 7 days at 5.20%. The amount due, 970.97, is fixed on day one. With a 3% haircut, the borrower posts 1,001 fund shares (tBENJI). If the loan isn't repaid, an approved buyer purchases the collateral at 1% below NAV, for 990.99. The lender receives 970.97, less the protocol fee on interest, and about 20 USDC goes back to the borrower.
| Amount due, fixed at start | 970.97 |
| Collateral sold (NAV −1%) | 990.99 |
| Paid to lender | 970.97 |
| Returned to borrower | 20.02 |
Who it is for
Built for active treasury and trading desks.
Borrowing against Treasuries makes sense when you can earn more on the cash than the loan costs. That is why Caravel is built for trading firms, market makers and treasury teams, not for adding leverage to a passive position.
- Borrowers
- Raise cash for a set term at a known cost while keeping your Treasury fund position. No redemption, no waiting for the next business day.
- Lenders
- Earn a fixed rate, quoted as a spread over the Treasury yield. Protected by the haircut, margin calls and an approved buyer. You are repaid in USDC; only if the price feed fails for over a week can you take the collateral itself instead.
- Approved buyers
- Issuer-approved market makers buy collateral from defaulted loans at a discount and redeem it at NAV. Aave Horizon uses the same model.
- Fund issuers
- Their fund becomes eligible collateral, and they keep full control over who may hold it.
Cost of the loan5.20%Sample Caravel rate, fixed
The fund keeps earning, and the borrowed cash earns about 0.5% more than it costs, at today's floating pool rate. Rates are examples and change daily.
Why Stellar
The assets are already here. So is the infrastructure.
- Any issuer's rules
- Caravel only uses the standard token interface. Each issuer approves the escrow its own way: authorized trustlines for Franklin Templeton's BENJI, Spiko's own permission contracts for its funds.
- Native tokens
- Circle's USDC and fund tokens are used directly, with no wrapping or bridging.
- Delivery versus payment
- Collateral and cash change hands in a single transaction.
- Standard price feeds
- One standard interface for fund prices: any SEP-40 feed, chosen at deploy (RedStone already publishes BENJI NAV on Stellar; Chainlink, live since 14 Oct, is not SEP-40).
- Fast, low-cost settlement
- Final in seconds, typically for under a cent, so daily checks cost almost nothing.
Collateral
Collateral discounts based on real risk, not labels.
Each asset has a minimum haircut set in the contract. Lenders can't go below it, and an asset's haircut can change without redeploying anything.
Launch haircuts for a 7-day term. The testnet demo uses tBENJI and tSAFO (a test Spiko token, held at a 30% demo haircut until due diligence).
| Asset | Underlying assets | Main risk | Haircut |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spiko USTBL, Franklin BENJI | US T-bills, government money-market funds | Approved holders only; redeems on business days | 3% |
| Ondo USDY | Treasury-backed yield stablecoin | Ondo's redemption terms. Freely transferable (no issuer approval); priced by RedStone SEP-40 | 3% |
| Spiko EUTBL | Euro-area T-bills | EUR/USD exchange-rate risk on a dollar loan | ≈5% |
| Etherfuse CETES | Mexican government bills | Sovereign and peso risk | 8–10% |
| Spiko SAFO and other swap-based funds | Returns from a bank swap | Swap counterparty | After due diligence |
Spiko and Franklin Templeton first. Spiko is the largest RWA issuer on Stellar, with $1.97B across nine funds, led by its euro overnight fund (eurSAFO, $1.47B) and its EU and US T-bill funds (EUTBL, $272M; USTBL, $36M). No lender on Stellar accepts them today. Its T-bill funds can launch at the haircuts above, and its swap-based funds follow after due diligence.
Risk, stated plainly
The risks, in plain terms.
- A narrow safety margin. A 3% haircut minus the 1% buyer discount leaves about 2% of cushion. If the fund's NAV falls further before the collateral is sold, the lender absorbs the shortfall, and it is recorded publicly. A reserve funded by fees is planned.
- Outdated prices pause risky actions, never repayment. Each asset has its own freshness window, about four days for funds that don't price at weekends, so a Friday price still counts on Sunday. Past it, new loans, margin calls and collateral sales pause. Repaying and adding collateral always work.
- Issuers keep control. On mainnet, each issuer must approve the escrow and every buyer, and some issuers can pause or change their tokens.
- Built for active capital. The loan rate is higher than the fund's own yield, so it suits firms that can earn more with the cash elsewhere.
Per aspera ad Stellar
Put idle Treasuries to work.
Try a complete loan on Stellar testnet in under two minutes, or join our mainnet pilot with fund issuers.
FAQ
Questions, answered simply.
What Caravel is, how a loan works, and what protects each side.
Still have a question? Write to us.
What is Caravel?
A lending service for tokenized Treasury funds on Stellar. Fund holders borrow US dollars (USDC) against their fund shares, at a fixed rate for a fixed term. Lenders earn that fixed rate.
How does a loan work?
A lender posts an offer: amount, term and rate. A borrower accepts it and deposits fund shares worth a little more than the loan. The shares go into escrow and the cash goes to the borrower in the same transaction. At maturity, the borrower repays the agreed amount and gets the shares back.
Do I have to sell or redeem my fund shares?
No. Your shares stay in escrow during the loan and keep earning the fund's yield. You get cash today without redeeming and waiting for the next business day.
What can I use as collateral?
The demo uses tBENJI, a test version of Franklin Templeton's BENJI fund. We plan to start with the Treasury funds of Spiko and Franklin Templeton, two of the three largest issuers on Stellar, then add other assets with larger haircuts. See the collateral table above.
What is a haircut?
A safety discount on the collateral. With a 3% haircut, $1,000 of fund shares supports a loan of up to $970. It protects the lender if the fund's price falls.
What happens if the fund's price falls?
The fund's price (NAV) is checked every day. If the collateral is no longer worth enough, the borrower gets a margin call and time to add collateral or repay. Nothing is sold automatically in that moment.
What happens at weekends, when funds don't publish a price?
Each asset has its own price freshness window, about four days for funds that publish NAV on business days only. A Friday price still counts on Saturday and Sunday, so loans can open and margin can be checked as usual. Repaying and adding collateral never wait for a price.
What if the borrower doesn't repay?
After maturity and a short grace period, an issuer-approved buyer purchases the collateral at 1% below NAV. The lender is paid first: in full while NAV stays within the haircut, otherwise all the proceeds, and a Shortfall is recorded on-chain. Anything left over goes back to the borrower.
Why a fixed term instead of an open-ended loan?
Tokenized funds price once a day and redeem on business days. A fixed term with daily checks matches how these assets actually work, and both sides know the rate and the amount due from day one.
Who can borrow and lend?
BENJI and Spiko fund tokens can only be held by wallets the issuer has approved, so their borrowers are already approved holders. Lenders provide USDC and are repaid in USDC. On mainnet, issuers also approve the escrow and the buyers, plus a custody account for any lender who may take collateral in kind if the price feed fails.
What does it cost?
Borrowers pay the fixed interest set in the offer. Caravel takes a protocol fee from that interest. Network fees on Stellar are typically under a cent per transaction.
Is Caravel live?
It runs on Stellar testnet today and the contracts have not been audited yet. We are preparing a mainnet pilot with fund issuers. You can request access below.