About Us
What doe IRMA stand for?
IRMA stands for Inflation Resistant Medium of Account. It is a new type of stablecoin designed to resist inflation. Unlike other USD-backed stablecoins that inflate with USD, IRMA does not inflate with USD.
How does IRMA protect against inflation?
USD-backed stablecoins are USD "substitutes", meaning that these have the main characteristic in which mint or issue price = redemption price = 1 USD. IRMA is different. First of all, IRMA's mint price is independent of its redemption price. Second, IRMA and all its reserve backings are totally on-chain, because of the fact that IRMA is not backed directly by USD, but by six or more top stablecoins in Solana (USDT, USDC, PYUSD, USDS, USDG, and FDUSD). Third, while IRMA's mint price is a function of inflation and the price of the reserve backing (with respect to USD), its redemption price depends only on total reserves divided by IRMA in circulation. When inflation goes up beyond 2%, the mint price also goes up proportionally, while the redemption price initially stays the same. Fourth, the mint price jump accelerates the accumulation of more reserves, faster than the increase in IRMA in circulation, thereby causing the redemption price to increase, eventually catching up with the mint price. Fifth, the redemption price being dependent only on total reserve and total IRMA in circulation means that there is very little possibility for a run.
How can I mint IRMA?
IRMA will be available in https://meteora.ag soon. Sign-up below to be among the first to protect yourself from inflation!
What defines a stablecoin?
A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency that maintains a stable price relative to USD. Issuers aim to keep it on par with USD (1 stablecoin = 1 USD). IRMA functions like other USD stablecoins when inflation is below 2%, but its mint price increases with inflation above 2%.
What does reserve backing mean?
Reserve backing means that when you mint IRMA, the stablecoin you use is stored in a vault and becomes part of IRMA's reserve. For example, if you mint 1,000 IRMAs at 1.0 USDC, you deposit 1,000 USDC with us. This 1,000 USDC is redeemable anytime in exchange for the 1,000 IRMAs. Until you redeem, the 1,000 USDC remains as reserve backing. If USD inflates, the value of your IRMA rises with respect to the USDC you deposited.
What are the risks?
The risks are about the same as the weakest stablecoin reserve backing. In other words, if one of the reserve backing stablecoins lose value, the maximum exposure is limited to the total amount of reserves for that particular backing. Which means that if the stablecoin that crashed in value constitute 10% of the total reserves, then the value of IRMA can drop by at most 10%. This risk is mitigated by choosing the top six stablecoins for backing, to start with. Along the way, if another stablecoin not in the list catches up and gets better than any of the six, the worst of the six will be replaced by this new and better stablecoin. There will be constan pruning of the six reserve stablecoins in terms of market cap and number of users.
