> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.metalntwx.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Assets

> How Metal represents and moves stablecoins and other tokenized financial assets

Metal can represent fungible financial assets such as stablecoins,
tokenized deposits, fund interests, securities, commodities, and internal
settlement units. The issuer defines what an asset represents and which rights
its holders have.

Metal provides two connected models for holding and moving this value onchain:

* MIP20 for transparent balances, transfers, policy controls, and transaction fees
* MIP410 for notes backed by MIP20 balances held in a shared shielded pool

> [!WARNING]
>
> Deploying a token does not create a legal claim, reserve, redemption right,
> security, deposit, or commodity interest. Those properties come from the
> issuer, governing documents, custody and reserve arrangements, and applicable
> law.

## Asset models

![An issuer defines an asset and issues transparent MIP20 balances. Shielding transfers balances to the MIP410 pool to back MIP410 notes.](https://mintcdn.com/nexus-ed339086/CdWwGT0bcT9zD-Uw/images/start/asset-models.svg?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=CdWwGT0bcT9zD-Uw\&q=85\&s=a58df604b1607fd33f378ae1594ad590)

MIP20 records transparent balances against onchain identities. Shielding
transfers MIP20 balances to the pool, which creates MIP410 notes representing
that value.

## Transparent assets with MIP20

MIP20 is Metal's standard for transparent payment tokens. MIP20 assets
can move as payments, apply identity-scoped policy, and pay transaction
fees without requiring users to hold a separate native gas currency.

MIP20 provides:

* ERC-20-compatible balances and transfers
* receive rules for each recipient, with rejection or quarantine of refused credits
* ERC-3009 authorizations that let another account submit a signed payment
* canonical deployment through the MIP20 factory

Factory deployment adds the token to the MIP20 allowlist so it can pay
transaction fees. For issuable MIP20 assets, the deployer becomes the token
owner and can mint additional supply or transfer ownership.

## Shielded value with MIP410

MIP410 is Metal's shared shielded pool. It represents supported MIP20 assets as
notes, hiding the asset, amount, sender, and recipient while value
remains inside the pool. The pool holds and accounts for the MIP20 balances that
back those notes.

The [private payments](https://docs.metalntwx.com/start/private-payments.md) guide explains what the network exposes
and how privacy changes at the pool boundary.

## Paying transaction fees

Metal has no native gas currency. Every transaction pays its fee in a MIP20
token.

The account that signs the transaction pays the fee from its MIP20 balance. The
validator that includes the transaction receives the fee. Metal designates a
default MIP20 for standard transactions and also supports other MIP20 tokens,
so users do not need a separate native gas currency.

## Who controls what

| Participant | Responsibility |
| - | - |
| Asset issuer | Defines the financial product and manages token supply and administration |
| Institution or individual operating an onchain identity | Configures the policy for that identity's incoming and outgoing payments |
| Metal | Executes the token contract and configured identity policies, then finalizes the result |

The same organization may be both the issuer and the institution operating an
identity. Its policy does not automatically apply to every holder of the
asset, so different institutions can hold the same MIP20 while enforcing their
own requirements.

## Continue

> [card] [MIP20](https://docs.metalntwx.com/learn/mip20/token-and-account-model.md)
>
> Understand balances, transfers, gas, identity policy, and issuance.

> [card] [Private payments](https://docs.metalntwx.com/start/private-payments.md)
>
> See how supported MIP20 assets move through the shielded pool.


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