CoW Protocol launches CFTC-compliant stablecoin

The tokenisation of real-world assets is one of the most significant developments in crypto right now. Treasuries, stocks, real estate, private credit, commodities - the world's most valuable assets are moving on-chain, and the market is growing fast.

At CoW Protocol, we've been watching this space closely. And we think the industry is missing something obvious.

Today, we're proud to introduce USDC - the Unified Simple Dairy Coin - the world's first milk-backed RWA token, built on CoW Protocol's settlement infrastructure and backed 1:1 by liters of fresh cow's milk held in certified dairy reserve vaults across four continents.

This isn't a stablecoin gimmick. This is real-world asset tokenisation - for the world's most milky asset.

How It Works (Technical Overview)

We know you want the details. USDC is structured as a fully-reserved commodity token. Every token in circulation corresponds to exactly one liter of verified, grade-A cow's milk held in a registered CoW Dairy Reserve Vault. Here's how it works:

1. Purchase

Users acquire USDC through CoW Protocol just like they would any other RWA from Ondo or xStocks - swap any supported token for USDC at the prevailing market rate. Simple. You know how to do this.

2. Reserve acquisition

Upon each issuance, CoW Protocol's treasury operations team sources the equivalent volume of physical milk from our network of approved dairy operators and routes it into a registered vault aka silo. This mirrors the reserve model used by leading fiat-backed stablecoin issuers - the difference being that our reserve asset is tangible, refrigerated, and frankly more interesting.

3. Attestation

Vault levels are verified continuously by our proprietary MilkLink IoT sensor array, which monitors volume, temperature, and bacteria count in real time and publishes signed attestations every six hours.

4. Yield (Cream Layer)

In unhomogenised milk, cream naturally rises to the top. CoW Protocol's vault operators harvest this cream on a rolling basis and sell it into wholesale dairy markets, generating a net yield of approximately 2% annually, distributed pro-rata to USDC holders. We call this the Cream Layer. It is, to our knowledge, the only yield mechanism in DeFi resulting from truly organic processes!

5. Redemption

USDC holders can redeem tokens for physical delivery at any time. Minimum redemption is 500 liters (one standard chilled pallet). CoW Protocol has partnered with a leading cold-chain logistics provider for eligible regions, with a target delivery window of five to seven business days.

6. Liquidation

In the event of spoilage (force majeure), affected vault tokens are replaced from a cross-collateralised Emergency Cheese Reserve - because cheese is just aged, tokenised milk.

The USDC Reserve Vaults

DeFi talks a lot about transparency. Nobody shows you the actual milk. We do. CoW Protocol’s Dairy Reserve Network now spans 12 countries and 47 certified milk vaults, from the rolling fields of Wisconsin to the alpine meadows of Switzerland, the vast dairy plains of New Zealand, and yes - a surprisingly productive facility just outside Rotterdam.

Each vault is:

• IoT-connected - every silo is fitted with real-time level sensors, broadcasting reserve data on-chain via our proprietary MilkLink oracle

• Fully audited - third-party pasteurisation audits happen quarterly. Proof of Dairy = Proof of Stake

• Geographically diversified - no single-region milk dependency. We call this our Multi-Udder Architecture

Current global reserves: 4.2 billion liters. All on-chain. All verifiable. Try doing that with gold.

The Dairy Drop

The first 5,000 people who post a video chugging a full liter of milk get airdropped 1 USDC. But there’s more:

• 🥛 1 liter = 1 USDC

• 🥛🥛 2 liters, no stopping = 3 USDC + rare Bessie NFT

• 🥛🥛🥛 3 liters, filmed in one take = 10 USDC + lifetime Cream Layer yield boost + invitation to the first DaFi governance call

Lactose intolerance? We've got you. Oat milk submissions earn 0.3 USDC - enough to acknowledge the effort, not enough to threaten monetary stability.

DeFi has always promised a fairer financial system. We're just also making it a more delicious one. USDC is live. The vaults are open. The cows are ready. Don't have a cow - have a CoW.