Stocks as Collateral
@NestUSD on Solana (not to be confused with @NestExchange on HyperEVM) launched nUSD (not to be confused with the Neutrl dollar), a stablecoin backed by tokenized US equities and USDC. The design borrows the CDP framework from MakerDAO but swaps out crypto collateral for xStocksFi tokens tracking equities like SPY, AAPL, NVDA, and TSLA. Depositing those tokens mints nUSD at a stability fee set by protocol governance — currently 3% APR. Staking nUSD into snUSD targets 6% APY paid from borrower stability fees, Kamino lending yield on PSM reserves, and liquidation penalties.
The collateral, liquidity, and price feeds Nest depends on are all native to Solana, which accounted for 96% of all onchain tokenized equity trading volume globally and hit a new all-time high in tokenized equity spot volume of $137M on Tuesday. The protocol's three core dependencies (xStocksFi for collateral, Pyth for price feeds, and Kamino for PSM yield) require no bridges, which is significant for a system where liquidations need to clear before prices move.
US equities trade 6.5 hours a day and can halt mid-session. Nest handles this by leaning on Pyth's confidence intervals: when reported price uncertainty exceeds a protocol threshold, the liquidation engine pauses rather than acting on a potentially stale feed. That behavior is correct, but it means under-collateralized positions can persist overnight, which puts real weight on the initial LTV buffers. xTSLA carries a 60% max LTV and a 72% liquidation threshold for exactly this reason.
The protocol crossed $100K in TVL this week, but the revenue distribution logic is already running. First realized revenue split 22 cents across the insurance fund (20% allocation while under threshold), snUSD stakers, and a NEST buy-and-burn engine. The broader pitch is a user who owns tokenized equities, wants liquidity without selling, and would otherwise pay retail margin rates. At 3% APR, Nest undercuts every major brokerage. Whether that proposition scales beyond the existing xStocks holder base is the question the next few months will answer.
More in today's @0xResearch newsletter: https://blockworks-research.beehiiv.com/p/the-onchain-equity-bull