What is USDx?

USDx, the Axis Dollar, is Axis's synthetic dollar, an upgradeable ERC-20 token. New USDx is created only through the Axis primary market against supported collateral; the token itself grants minting rights to the market alone.

Minting

Minting runs through the primary market (USDxMarket), which settles signed market orders. A mint order states:

• who provides the collateral and who receives USDx;

• the collateral asset and amount, and the USDx amount;

• an expiry and a one-time nonce.

An eligible participant signs the order and an authorized operator submits it for settlement. The market verifies the order, checks capacity, and routes collateral to registered custody before USDx is minted. Mint capacity is bounded by configured caps, a CapConfig meters USDx output against a cap over a chosen CapScope and WindowType (for example, per block), and a failed settlement consumes neither the nonce nor the capacity, so a rejected order can be safely retried. Eligibility and access conditions are enforced around the market, not inside the token.

Redemption

Redemption also settles through the primary market. A signed redeem order specifies the USDx to burn and the collateral asset and amount to return; an authorized operator submits it. Settlement depends on order validity, operator availability, the same configured CapConfig capacity (metering USDx input), and sufficient collateral available to the market.

Redeeming staked USDx (sUSDx → USDx) is a separate, asynchronous flow. See What is sUSDx?.

Token controls

USDx is a governed token: every balance-changing transfer routes through a single enforcement point, so these controls apply uniformly.

• Supply is role-gated, only the primary market may mint (MARKET_ROLE, held by USDxMarket).

• Bridging across chains uses dedicated mint/burn under BRIDGE_ROLE.

• Pause (PAUSER_ROLE) can halt transfers in an emergency.

• Restrictions (RESTRICTION_ROLE) can block specified addresses from sending, receiving, or spending USDx.

These powers serve security and compliance, and they also create administrative and censorship risk. See Access Control and Disclosures.

What supports USDx

At the contract level, USDx issuance is tied to supported collateral received through the primary market. The contracts enforce which collateral tokens and custody addresses are allowed, but they do not, by themselves, prove the current composition, value, liquidity, or safety of assets held outside the contracts.

Where does the yield come from? The collateral backing USDx is deployed into market-neutral strategies whose structural edge is cross-venue and cross-asset fragmentation, a durable yield source that does not rely on any single mechanism. Funding is one component (and can be the larger share in a given period); see the Transparency Dashboard for current attribution. That yield is passed to stakers through sUSDx, not to USDx holders directly, since holding USDx alone earns nothing.

That distinction matters: onchain issuance controls are not the same as a real-time proof of reserves or a guarantee of redemption. See Backing, Custody & Transparency.

USDx versus sUSDx

	USDx	sUSDx
Type	Synthetic-dollar token (ERC-20)	Rewards vault position (ERC-4626)
Primary purpose	Transfer, hold, stake, or redeem	Accrue vested rewards paid to the vault
Value measured by	Market price and redemption terms	USDx assets per sUSDx position (exchange rate)
Staking yield	No	Variable; depends on rewards delivered and vested
Exit	Submit a redeem order to the primary market	Request redemption (async), then claim USDx

What USDx does not guarantee

USDx does not guarantee:

• a market price of exactly $1 at every moment;

• immediate or unlimited minting or redemption;

• secondary-market liquidity;

• the absence of custody, counterparty, or strategy losses.

Read How USDx Targets $1 for the mechanism and Risk Overview for its failure modes.