M1X Global, a sovereign financial infrastructure and technology company building blockchain‑based public‑sector instruments, has closed an oversubscribed Seed round led by Paradigm, bringing its total funding to $8.5 million just 14 weeks after its public launch and angel raise. Breed VC joined as a strategic participant in the round, which follows a $3 million angel raise backed by investors including former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan and Cumberland Labs CEO Tama Churchouse. The new capital will support continued development of M1X’s platform and the institutional rollout of USDM1, which the company describes as the first USD‑denominated, fully secured sovereign bond issued natively on a public blockchain and collateralized 1:1 by short‑duration US Treasuries.
M1X operates in a public-private partnership with the Republic of the Marshall Islands, where it helped design and coordinate USDM1, a U.S. dollar‑denominated sovereign debt instrument issued on public blockchain infrastructure. USDM1 combines the legal and economic structure of fully collateralized sovereign debt with the programmability of digital assets, offering T+0 settlement, enforceable legal protections and programmable transferability. The bond is fully backed by short‑duration U.S. Treasuries held in bankruptcy‑remote custody by a U.S. trust company, structured under New York law and designed to provide holders with a perfected first‑priority security interest in the collateral, supporting High‑Quality Liquid Asset (HQLA) treatment and inclusion in legal netting sets under Basel and ISDA frameworks.
Domestically, USDM1 is being used as a disbursement rail for the Marshall Islands’ universal basic income program (ENRA), enabling near‑instant, on‑chain government aid payments across a geographically dispersed island nation. Internationally, it is positioned as institutional‑grade sovereign collateral for 24/7 markets, designed to be deployed in repo, margin, and secured-financing workflows where round‑the‑clock settlement and tokenized collateral are increasingly in demand. USDM1 has been used in institutional working groups with major financial institutions and market‑infrastructure providers, including Bank of America, Citadel Securities, Virtu Financial, Tradeweb and DTCC, exploring how sovereign collateral issued natively on‑chain can integrate into regulated trading and post‑trade stacks.
M1X coordinated the initial USDM1 issuance and ecosystem in partnership with the law firm Cleary Gottlieb, the Stellar Development Foundation, Anchorage Digital Bank, Guidepost Solutions, Inca Digital, and Crossmint. Initially launched on Stellar, USDM1 is now also available on Canton and Solana, with custody and collateral management provided through Anchorage Digital’s federally regulated platform and Surus Trust maintaining a first‑priority perfected security interest in the underlying Treasuries under the UCC. Institutional access has expanded through Anchorage Digital’s bank, tZERO’s SEC‑registered broker‑dealer custodian and integrations with Bank of Guam, linking the instrument more directly into traditional banking rails.
Paradigm’s lead investment reflects growing conviction that sovereign financial infrastructure and tokenized government debt represent a critical next phase of blockchain adoption, bridging public finance, regulated institutions and digital‑native markets. The firm notes that 24/7 markets require collateral that can move 24/7, and sees USDM1 as a reference model for sovereign debt issued natively on‑chain. Breed VC’s participation reinforces venture interest at the intersection of capital markets, sovereign finance and crypto infrastructure.
The funding also signals strong backing for M1X’s founding team. CEO Mark Lurie is a repeat entrepreneur who previously built a top‑five decentralized exchange via Shipyard Software, later acquired by Sushi Labs. President and COO Jordan Goldman was an early C‑suite executive at Genesis Trading, where he helped launch the custody and derivatives businesses and grow annual transaction volume from around $10 billion to more than $300 billion, effectively establishing one of the first digital‑asset prime brokerages. Co‑founder Robert Muller, president of Lomalo, brings senior international government experience as a former Chief Secretary and advisor to a presidential cabinet, with expertise in public‑sector leadership and policy implementation.
Going forward, the Seed proceeds will be used to expand M1X’s platform, support growing institutional demand for USDM1 across regulated market infrastructure and pursue additional sovereign partnerships to bring similar instruments to other jurisdictions. M1X frames its mission as building a “sovereign layer” for on‑chain capital markets, coordinating legal, compliance, technology, custody, and institutional infrastructure so that digitally native sovereign instruments can operate within existing legal, accounting, and capital frameworks while taking advantage of programmable, 24/7 settlement.
KEY QUOTES:
“Paradigm’s investment is an important milestone for M1X Global, strengthening our ability to scale the infrastructure behind sovereign financial instruments and to accelerate the build-out of systems that can support their use across regulated markets. This support advances our capacity as we continue to see strong onboarding demand and institutional adoption of USDM1.”
Mark Lurie, CEO, M1X Global
“As USDM1 moves into institutional deployment, we have been seeing clear evidence of the ways sovereign instruments can deliver meaningful impacts in both domestic and institutional contexts. These assets can improve access to government services and also provide new sources of high-quality institutional collateral in 24/7 markets. This investment supports the expansion of M1X’s platform and of USDM1’s ability to meet institutional demand across regulated market infrastructure.”
Jordan Goldman, President and COO, M1X Global
“24/7 markets require collateral that can move 24/7. USDM1 shows how sovereign debt can be issued natively onchain. M1X Global has assembled the rare mix of government, capital markets, and crypto expertise needed to bring this model to institutional scale.”
Arjun Balaji, Partner, Paradigm
