The Republic of the Marshall Islands has entered into a strategic partnership with Inca Digital to provide real-time market surveillance and intelligence infrastructure for USDM1, described as the world’s first digitally native sovereign bond.
This partnership provides oversight infrastructure for USDM1, the world’s first digitally native sovereign bond, supporting both institutional market activity and the RMI’s pioneering universal basic income scheme. Under the agreement, Inca Digital will deliver surveillance, transaction monitoring, anomaly detection, cybersecurity support and rapid incident response capabilities.
USDM1 is a U.S. dollar-denominated sovereign bond issued natively on blockchain and collateralized 1:1 by short-dated U.S. Treasury instruments. The instrument is designed to combine the legal safeguards of conventional sovereign debt with the transparency and settlement efficiency of blockchain-based financial infrastructure.
The initiative also has a domestic policy dimension. USDM1 serves as a disbursement rail for the Marshall Islands’ nationwide universal basic income program, known locally as ENRA. Through the program, Marshallese citizens may receive quarterly UBI payments directly into mobile wallets, reducing reliance on cash delivery and cheques across a geographically dispersed island nation with limited traditional banking access.
For institutional markets, USDM1 is intended to support regulated use in derivatives, repo and financing workflows as sovereign collateral. The partnership with Inca Digital is aimed at strengthening market integrity, improving AML/CFT compliance monitoring and detecting unusual activity or potential market manipulation in real time.
The project positions the Marshall Islands as an early sovereign mover in blockchain-based public finance, linking digital debt issuance, institutional market infrastructure and citizen benefit distribution within a single framework.
Adam Zarazinski, CEO of Inca Digital, said the RMI’s decision to issue sovereign debt on-chain and route it directly to citizens represents a high-stakes use case for digital asset oversight.
Hon. David Paul, Minister of Finance of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, said the partnership enhances USDM1 through real-time market oversight and stronger risk detection, while improving transparency, security and operational resilience.
The partnership marks a notable step in the development of sovereign digital finance, where blockchain infrastructure is no longer limited to private digital assets but is being tested as part of government debt issuance, compliance monitoring and public benefit delivery.
