The eight asset classes the MBA Standard defines, organized along three binary axes. Pure structural description: what each class is, what its parameters are, what configurations the standard recognizes.
This document defines the eight asset classes the MBA Standard recognizes, in pure structural terms. The taxonomy is internal to the standard: it describes what configurations the standard supports, what each class is built from, and how they relate to one another along the three structural axes.
This document does not compare these classes to traditional financial instruments. It does not develop the legacy-financial-system context. It does not argue for the standard's positioning relative to existing crypto categories. Those questions are addressed in separate documents — Traditional Asset Types and Backing Standards covers the existing-finance taxonomy; Deviant — Presentation and Comparison develops the comparative positioning.
Here: only the standard itself, on its own terms.
The MBA Standard recognizes asset classes along three binary axes:
Backing. Does the asset carry a protocol-enforced backing rate to BCH? Fixed rate (MBA family) or no rate (Token family).
Mint rule. Can any participant produce new units of the asset, or is issuance gated to a specific authority? Permissionless (any spender can satisfy the mint covenant) or managed (mint authority delegated to a specific address).
Supply. Is the total issuable supply bounded? Unlimited (no cap declared at genesis) or limited (genesis-declared maximum supply).
Two binary axes (mint × backing) define four quadrants. Each quadrant contains two sub-classes distinguished by supply. Total: eight classes.
Seven of the eight class names are the regular form — a positional acronym that reads mint × supply × category — because the regular names describe each class directly by its axes and don't need a separate mnemonic. The exception is DEA: it keeps its 3-letter code because it names the standard's flagship configuration, but the acronym now expands as Direct Emission Asset.
The structural pattern reads as mint × supply × category:
Applying this pattern, the eight classes read as:
| Code | Full name | Decomposition | Prior canonical |
|---|---|---|---|
| DEA | Direct Emission Asset (flagship; regular form would be PUA) |
P · U · A | DEA · was "Deviant Equilibrium Asset" |
| PLA | Permissionless Limited Asset | P · L · A | PLA · unchanged |
| MUA | Managed Unlimited Asset | M · U · A | MCA · was "Managed Certificate Asset" |
| MLA | Managed Limited Asset | M · L · A | MTA · was "Managed Tranche Asset" |
| PUT | Permissionless Unlimited Token | P · U · T | PTU |
| PLT | Permissionless Limited Token | P · L · T | PTL |
| MUT | Managed Unlimited Token | M · U · T | MTU |
| MLT | Managed Limited Token | M · L · T | MTL |
On the DEA asymmetry. DEA keeps a semantically-loaded 3-letter code because it names the standard's flagship configuration; the other seven classes now use the regular positional form so the acronym describes the class directly. The name "Deviant Equilibrium Asset" is reserved for a specific asset the project mints — an asset whose taxonomy class is DEA (Direct Emission Asset) but whose ticker and name reference the Nash equilibrium property. The class-vs-asset distinction: the class describes the mechanism; the asset carries a project identity within that class. The earlier canonical names (MCA · "Managed Certificate Asset", MTA · "Managed Tranche Asset", the PTU/PTL/MTU/MTL forms with "Token" in the middle) are retired — those framings implied use cases that didn't fit the mechanics.
The four MBA classes share a single defining property: a protocol-enforced backing rate to BCH, set at genesis and immutable thereafter. Each unit of an MBA represents a fixed, redeemable claim on a specific quantity of BCH locked at the contract level. The rate cannot be modified, the contract cannot be terminated, and the redemption mechanism is the contract itself — no custodian, no off-switch, no institutional layer mediates the claim.
The four classes within the MBA family are distinguished by mint rule and supply.
On the supply property. Under the current CashScript implementation, redemptions reduce the issued supply (redeemed units are burned rather than returned to the issuance pool). For DEA and MUA — unlimited supply — this is operationally irrelevant. For PLA and MLA — limited supply — this produces deflationary supply dynamics under redemption pressure. This is a property of the present implementation, not an intrinsic property of the standard. Future implementations may modify the reservoir behavior to return redeemed units to the issuance pool.
On the rate property. The rate is fixed at genesis. The contract has no mechanism to modify it. The rate cannot be voted on, governed, oracle-fed, or administratively adjusted. Whatever rate is declared at the moment of contract deployment is the rate that applies to every issued and redeemed unit for as long as the contract operates — which is indefinitely.
The four Token classes share a single defining property: no protocol-enforced backing claim. The contract does not lock BCH at a fixed redemption rate. The unit's value is determined entirely by market dynamics, issuer reputation, and traded liquidity. No redemption mechanism exists at the protocol level.
Tokens are not lesser instruments — they are valid CashTokens applications whose use cases do not require the rate-backed redemption guarantee. Tickets, credentials, memberships, governance tokens, collectibles, and conventional unbacked tokens all sit naturally in the Token family. The MBA Standard recognizes them as a categorical neighbor with a different parameter set.
On swap eligibility. The Atomic Swap Mechanism (ASM) operates on the MBA family because the fixed rate provides a deterministic conversion relationship — the Universal Exchange Rate rateA / rateB defines how one MBA exchanges for another at the protocol level. The Token family has no rate; ASM cannot operate because no protocol-defined conversion exists. A token-for-token swap would require external price discovery, which is outside the MBA Standard's scope.
On collateralized-debt ("CDP") stablecoins (amended 2026-05-27, ADR-0033). A CDP stablecoin (MakerDAO/DAI-class) shares the permissionless-mint surface of an MBA — anyone locks collateral and mints — which can make it look like a backed asset. It is not. The collateral backs the debt position (the vault, a liability), not the circulating token: a holder has no protocol-enforced redemption claim on the collateral, the token's value is market-determined, and its peg is breakable (cf. TerraUSD). By the consensus-backing test it carries no per-unit rate-to-BCH invariant, and by the unilateral-redemption test the holder cannot realize base-unit value without a market or counterparty — so it is not an MBA. A permissionless CDP stablecoin classifies as PUT (no backing claim · permissionless · unlimited), distinct from a custodial stablecoin (USDC/USDT), which is managed-mint and classifies as MUT. The on-chain collateralization is a property of the debt vault (a soft-backed liability), never of the token. See ADR-0033 and asset-landscape.md.
A given CashToken UTXO is classified by inspecting three properties:
OP_RETURN tag with a rate field. In Phase 2, this is a native CashTokens NFT commitment field with rate encoding. If present, the unit is in the MBA family; the rate value defines the fixed conversion rate. If absent, the unit is in the Token family.| Backing | Mint | Supply | Class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed rate | Permissionless | Unlimited | DEA |
| Fixed rate | Permissionless | Limited | PLA |
| Fixed rate | Managed | Unlimited | MUA |
| Fixed rate | Managed | Limited | MLA |
| None | Permissionless | Unlimited | PUT |
| None | Permissionless | Limited | PLT |
| None | Managed | Unlimited | MUT |
| None | Managed | Limited | MLT |
The MBA Standard is defined by what it does structurally — not by what it offers as a service, what it markets as a feature, or what comparisons it invites to existing instruments. The following properties hold for every MBA class:
Rate immutability. The rate is set at genesis and cannot be modified by any party, including the deployer, the issuer (for managed classes), or any holder. The contract has no mechanism to alter the rate. No governance, no oracles, no votes, no administrative actions can change it.
No off-switch. The contract cannot be terminated, paused, or killed. It has no admin functions for termination. It operates indefinitely at its deployed address. The "standard" property holds for the contract's entire operational life, which has no defined endpoint.
No custody in the redemption path. The contract is the redemption mechanism. No party holds the underlying BCH on the holder's behalf and makes a commitment to honor redemption. The BCH is locked in the contract, governed by the contract's invariants, and released to redeemers according to those invariants. No institutional layer mediates between the holder and the underlying.
No issuance ceiling for DEA. Specifically for the DEA configuration (permissionless · unlimited), no party can close issuance. The supply has no cap; the mint covenant is open. Issuance continues for as long as the contract operates — indefinitely.
For the managed classes (MUA, MLA), the issuer can choose not to mint. But the contract continues to operate for the units already issued, and the issuer's choice not to mint does not affect existing holders' redemption rights. For the limited classes (PLA, MLA), issuance closes when the supply cap is reached, but the contract continues to operate for redemptions of the issued units.
These properties are structural. They follow from the contract's code, not from the deploying party's intentions, the operator's policies, or any institutional commitment. The standard is functional independent of who deployed it, who holds it, or who interacts with it.