Security Mechanisms
Off-Exchange Settlement
Overview
Hermetica can scale USDh to $5b+ in TVL (at current OI) because it can tap into CeFi perpetual futures liquidity in a trust-minimized way.
Historically, centralized exchanges have been vulnerable to hacks and sudden bankruptcies, making it crucial to mitigate the counterparty risks associated with trading on these platforms.
Infrastructure
When users deposit collateral to mint USDh, the funds are moved directly to institutional-grade Off-Exchange Settlement (OES) custodians. This ensures that users' collateral is never held by a single party or directly on an exchange.
Our OES custodians allow us to mirror funds on centralized exchanges for trading purposes without requiring the funds to be held directly on the exchange. This design means collateral can be recovered by Hermetica in the event of an exchange outage, hack, or other failure.
Additionally, Hermetica cannot singlehandedly control funds. Collateral is securely held in OES custodian accounts within a bankruptcy-remote trust for the entire lifecycle of USDh.
The only funds exposed to the exchange are any unsettled Profit and Loss (PnL) from trading positions. Regular settlements (e.g., daily) and diversification across the five major derivatives trading venues ensures this PnL remains small. In the event of an exchange failure, Hermetica would only lose that day’s unsettled PnL, while the bulk of the collateral remains secure in segregated wallets.
To facilitate OES, we have partnered with top-tier, fully licensed custodians.
Audits
Hermetica is dedicated to develop highly secure and professionally audited smart contract infrastructure.
To this end, we go through regular security audits with independent third-party services (like Thesis Defense and Strata Labs), Hermetica ensures that its infrastructure remains resilient against an evolving security threat landscape.
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