A two-minute introduction to the technology behind GReT and why it changes how a financial reserve can operate.
A blockchain is a shared public ledger. Instead of one company keeping records in its own private database, the same record is kept on many computers around the world, and anyone can read it. Every transfer is recorded there, so balances can be checked independently.
A smart contract is a program that runs on the blockchain and applies its rules automatically. It can hold tokens, send them, and accept or reject an operation according to its code, with no employee or intermediary approving each step.
In a traditional investment fund, an asset manager runs the fund and makes investment decisions within its legal mandate, with custodians, auditors and regulators overseeing the process. Blockchain makes a different arrangement possible: assets can be held by a smart contract, anyone can inspect the operating rules, and decisions can be made collectively rather than by a single company.
GReT’s vault is a smart contract that cannot be upgraded. Once deployed, its code cannot be changed by anyone, not even by its creator. That code fixes the fundamental rules: the assets backing GReT can only leave the vault in exchange for GReT or for other assets, fees can never exceed 5%, and key changes must wait for a public notice period. Within those rules, governance can make the decisions the contract allows, such as changing the basket or setting fees. Governance can make decisions, but it cannot override the rules encoded in the vault.
Together, this allows a reserve of tokenized assets that anyone can verify, public rules for minting, redemption and managing the reserve, and community participation in decisions through governance, within limits that hold no matter who controls governance. Blockchain does not remove every risk: the assets still depend on their issuers, and governance can still make poor decisions. A traditional fund’s rules live in legal documents and are applied by its manager under supervision; GReT’s core rules live in public code that applies them the same way to everyone.
GReT is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum backed by a reserve of tokens. Its initial basket has eleven: tokenized ETFs covering US and international equities, short-term US Treasuries, AAA-rated CLOs, real estate and commodities, plus PAX Gold and Coinbase’s cbBTC. Governance can change the basket over time.
The reserve tokens sit in the GReT vault, a contract on Ethereum where anyone can see them at any time, around the clock, and minting and redemption follow rules written in its open-source code. The assets behind those tokens still depend on their issuers and custodians: keeping the tokens in a contract does not remove that counterparty risk.
Each GReT represents a proportional share of that reserve, so its value follows the value of the reserve’s tokens. GReT is not a stablecoin and does not maintain a fixed USD value. On the secondary market it can trade above or below the value of what it holds.
There are two ways to get GReT. Most people will use the secondary market; the primary market is for those who hold the full basket.
GReT is created and removed directly with the contract. To mint, you deposit every basket token in the reserve’s proportions and receive newly issued GReT. To redeem, a wallet that has minted burns GReT and receives its share of each token. Everything is in kind: no USDC goes in or comes out. Protocol fees may apply to both.
Any wallet can buy GReT from other holders, for example in DeFi pools such as Uniswap, paying with USDC, and sell it the same way where there is liquidity. GReT moves like any ERC-20 token: holding, sending or selling it needs no mint or redemption. The market sets the price, which can differ from the value of the reserve behind each GReT. GReT is divisible, so you can hold a fraction of one, although network fees, spreads and thin liquidity can make small purchases uneconomical. No listing or liquidity is guaranteed.
Related legal conditionsParticipants who mint supply the secondary market: they mint GReT with the basket and sell it for USDC, or buy GReT back and redeem it for the basket. When GReT trades above the value of what it holds, minting and selling can pay; when it trades below, buying and redeeming can. That arbitrage can pull the price toward the basket’s value, but nothing ensures it happens: it is open only to those who can obtain every component and, to redeem, have minted from the same wallet, and gas, fees, spreads, liquidity and issuer restrictions can erase the margin.
Minting turns the full basket into GReT.
The contract takes each token in the reserve’s current proportions and issues GReT for what actually arrives. It uses no price oracle: what you contribute depends only on what the vault holds. A component with no reserve, such as one just added, is not requested. The first mint, and the first after the supply returns to zero, uses a fixed basket and issues exactly 1 GReT in total.
The GReT and the eligibility to redeem are recorded for the address that calls mint. If you mint through a router or another smart contract, that contract is the caller: it can pass the GReT on to your wallet, but not the eligibility. A successful mint is a technical result, not legal eligibility; see Requirements and restrictions.
GReT is designed to bring together assets you have already obtained. Its minting function does not accept USDC or another single asset and buy the components for you. You need to source and be able to transfer every required token before minting. Trading hours vary: DBCon follows the regular US market session, so you may need to obtain it in advance.
Only a wallet that has completed a mint. Once it has, it can redeem any GReT it holds, including GReT acquired later. Buying GReT on the secondary market does not enable redemption, and a mint from another wallet does not count, even if both have the same owner. Sending GReT to another address does not pass on the sender’s mint history. Without that eligibility, a holder can still sell GReT, subject to market conditions.
Related legal conditionsYou hand in GReT and receive your proportional share of each basket token, never USDC or cash. If a redemption fee applies, it is taken from the GReT you hand in. You set the least you accept of each token.
Redemption is all or nothing: if any token cannot be transferred, the whole transaction reverts and you keep your GReT.
Related legal conditionsIf a component cannot be sent, for example because its issuer froze the vault’s balance, an eligible wallet can redeem with redeemSkipping and leave that component out. It forfeits its share of the skipped component for good: that share stays in the reserve for the other holders and is not set aside to withdraw later.
A redemption cannot leave the total supply above zero but below 1 GReT, so rounding dust never dominates the basket. For example, if the supply is exactly 1 GReT, held as 0.8 by one wallet and 0.2 by another, neither can redeem: either redemption would leave less than 1 GReT. Both can still sell or transfer their GReT, and either can redeem once enough new GReT is minted for at least 1 GReT to remain.
Minting and redemption each have their own fee, set by governance and capped by the contract at 5% each. Fees are paid in GReT to a recipient chosen by governance. On a mint, the fee is a share of the GReT issued for your basket: you receive the rest. On a redemption, it is a share of the GReT you hand in: that part goes to the recipient instead of being burned, and you receive components for the rest. The current rates are public in the contract.
Gas, spreads and the cost of trading GReT or its components elsewhere are separate and not set by the protocol.
A fee increase takes effect only after seven days’ notice, so holders can see it coming. Reductions can apply at once, as long as neither fee goes up in the same change. The recipient can be changed at once, since that does not change what anyone pays.
VORA is the governance token for GReT. Its purpose is to give holders a voice in the protocol: putting forward ideas, discussing proposals and expressing a position through voting.
VORA carries no share of the reserve and no right to redeem, and holding GReT does not grant votes. Approved decisions are carried out by the vault’s governance address, within the limits below.
Explore VORA, the governance tokenThe vault takes instructions from its authorized governance address. Within the limits written into the contract, governance can add or remove basket components, authorize rebalancing by appointing or replacing the rebalancer and the price guard, set the protocol fees, pause and resume minting, add surplus tokens to the recognized reserves or recover tokens beyond what the vault owes holders, write off a component that stops working, activate emergency liquidation and transfer its role to a successor.
The vault cannot be upgraded, so these powers and their limits are fixed. Nobody can take reserves without delivering another component in exchange, fees cannot exceed 5%, redemption cannot be paused, and governance cannot redirect holders’ claims or reverse liquidation. Because governance chooses who may rebalance and the price guard that checks each exchange, those choices carry real weight. A vote cannot override these limits; new powers require a new vault and voluntary migration by holders.
Related legal conditionsChanges to what backs GReT or who controls it take effect only after seven days’ notice, visible on chain: adding a component, appointing a rebalancer or price guard, writing off a component, raising a fee and transferring governance. Governance can cancel during the wait, and a change not carried out within seven days after the wait ends expires. Other actions apply at once: removing a component whose reserve is already zero, revoking the rebalancer, lowering fees, changing the fee recipient, pausing or resuming minting, handling surpluses and activating liquidation.
The basket’s published weights are targets in value, such as the share of the reserve in gold. The vault holds amounts of each token, so as prices move, each holding drifts from its target. Minting and redemption keep the proportions the vault already holds and do not correct that drift; only a rebalance changes how much of each token backs one GReT.
Rebalancing is not automatic or continuous. It happens only when the rebalancer, an address appointed by governance, exchanges one component for another with the vault: it delivers the component being bought first and only then receives the one sold. Every exchange must pass the price guard, a separate contract that values both sides and refuses exchanges that lose more than its limits. Rebalancing can be used to move the reserve toward its target allocation, subject to authorized execution and price guard validation; it does not keep exact weights at any moment.
The current price guard values exchanges with Chainlink price feeds, so for now only components with a Chainlink feed can be rebalanced. Rebalancing the rest requires replacing the price guard contract, which also waits seven days. The guard limits losses as its feeds measure them: it cannot catch an error in a feed, or a token trading away from the asset its feed prices.
If something goes wrong with the reserve that normal operation cannot handle, governance can activate an emergency liquidation. It takes effect at once and cannot be reversed: minting and normal redemption close for good, and a claims process takes their place, token by token.
Any holder, including one that never minted, can convert GReT into claims: the GReT is burned in exchange for a right over its share of each component. These rights cannot be transferred or turned back into GReT. Each component is then claimed separately, to your own address or another one. A token that cannot be transferred does not hold back the others: its right stays pending and can be claimed if the token becomes transferable again, although recovery is not guaranteed.
This differs from redeemSkipping: a skipped component is given up for good, while a liquidation right over a blocked component is kept.
If the reserve holds less of a token than it owes, everyone still pending is paid the same fraction of their right. Claiming during a shortfall closes that position, so each withdrawal lets you set the least you accept.
Holding and transferring GReT needs no eligibility: the contract does not limit who holds or receives it. Minting directly requires every basket component, and normal redemption also requires a prior mint from the same wallet. While governance pauses minting, wallets that have not minted cannot become eligible; wallets that already have can still redeem, since redemption cannot be paused.
Only that the wallet supplied the required tokens and passed the contract’s technical checks at that time. It does not establish who controls the wallet, how the tokens were obtained, or whether the holder meets legal, geographic or investor requirements. The prior-mint condition is a technical rule, not legal certification.
Related legal conditionsGReT uses on-chain conditions without collecting identity documents itself. Issuers and services used to obtain the components may still require KYC or limit access, holding and transfers, and can change those terms over time, affecting who can mint, receive a component in a redemption or claim it in a liquidation. GReT does not waive those requirements; technical access is not legal permission.
Related legal conditionsGReT carries risks of its own on top of those of the assets it holds. The main ones are summarized here; the technical register in the contracts repository details each one.
Read the accepted risks registerThe vault and the price guard can contain bugs or behave unexpectedly, for example with a token whose issuer changes how it works. The vault cannot be upgraded, so a flaw cannot be fixed in place: fixing it takes a new vault and holders moving to it voluntarily.
Governance holds significant powers, and a compromised or mistaken governance could use them against holders, for example by appointing a rebalancer and a price guard that accept bad exchanges. The seven-day notice gives time to react, but only to those who can act on it: wallets that minted can redeem, while other holders can only sell or wait. Some actions, such as pausing minting or activating liquidation, apply at once.
Related legal conditionsEach component depends on its issuer and custodians. An issuer can freeze the vault’s balance, restrict transfers, change its token or fail, and holding the token in the vault does not remove that dependency. A component that stops working can block normal redemption until it is left out or written off.
Related legal conditionsGReT can trade below the value of its reserve, or with too little liquidity to sell at a fair price. Because direct redemption is not open to every holder, arbitrage may not close that gap, and the 1 GReT minimum can hold back the last holders from redeeming.