The treasury: where the spice is kept

Four parts of the treasury

• The BTC treasury

  38.2% of every SPICE mint buys bitcoin, the spice, for the desk's treasury. It is held for the long Golden Path.

• The STRC reserve

  61.8% is the STRC share. STRC is Strategy’s preferred stock, held long term on a third-party platform. Its dividends are a payout funding source.

• The Spice Pool (USDC)

  A USDC reserve on Sui that pays the desk’s running expenses (storage, domain, gas). Money from new SPICE mints deposited in the Spice Pool helps fund accrual, payouts and redemptions.

• The hBTC vault

  The desk’s own hBTC vault, planned inside the Spice Melange trading desk app. It will hold the compounded sats as hBTC. It is off until Hashi launches.

Where each $100 of a sale is kept

Every SPICE mint is kept by the split below. Money from SPICE mints deposited in the Spice Pool can fund accrual, payouts and redemptions, so payouts may be paid from new purchases. Siaynoq Seal sale proceeds are not split this way: they are kept out of the Spice Pool; part buys STRC and the rest buys bitcoin.

We build the reserve first. The $23.61 share stops only when both (1) the redemption vault holds 3 times the average monthly total of buybacks paid over the last 3 calendar months (recalculated monthly) and (2) the Spice Pool covers 3 months of expenses plus 90 days of payouts. If either level later falls short, the $23.61 share starts again until both are met. These are rules for keeping mint money, not a promise of payouts.

What pays holders: the funding sources

SPICE payouts are not guaranteed: they can be late, reduced or missed. Under the final SPICE terms, accrual and payouts are funded from these sources:

• STRC dividends. STRC is held long term.
• The marketplace fees. The buyer-paid 6% royalty on SPICE resales and 2% on other collections.
• Money from SPICE mints deposited in the Spice Pool. This means payouts may be paid from new purchases, not only from earnings. That is a serious risk.
• Last resort: selling treasury bitcoin to cover a shortfall, with Sajan’s approval each time.

Not a funding source: Siaynoq Seal sale proceeds. They are kept out of the Spice Pool; part buys STRC and the rest buys bitcoin. No leverage and no borrowing is used to pay accrual, payouts or redemptions.

• The Spice Pool covers expenses. The desk’s only expenses are storage, the domain and network gas. Before hBTC nothing is paid out, so the compounded sats are a growing balance owed to holders, recorded in the master ledger.

The master ledger and the hBTC vault

Every day at 6:00 AM Pacific Time the desk checks which rations are held and adds that day’s interest, compounded, to each one in the master ledger. A ration that isn’t held earns nothing that day. Each day’s accrual will be recorded, sealed, and posted on the desk: see Daily records (coming soon).

Hashi will bring bitcoin to Sui as hBTC. When hBTC exists and the desk’s hBTC vault is built, the vault holds the compounded sats as hBTC, and payouts are made from it in hBTC on Sui to holders’ wallets (amounts may be counted in sats). Until then the vault is off and the sats live only in the ledger. Interest accrues daily, counted in sats. Auto-compound is the default; each holder can switch a ration to daily payouts, which go out in hBTC on days the accrued total reaches hBTC’s minimum. See §7 of the Spice terms.

If the sources fall short

Then a day's payout can be smaller, late or missed. As a last resort, the desk may sell treasury bitcoin to cover a shortfall, with Sajan's approval each time. Payouts are not guaranteed, and a missed day is not owed later. Separately, Sajan may give a goodwill credit, case by case and approved by him each time; it is not a backfill, and no one is entitled to it. No leverage and no borrowed money is used to pay.

The honest part: the Golden Path is a bet

17% is the fixed accrual rate, not a promise of payment. It is above STRC's recent dividend rate, and the gap is a bet that bitcoin grows faster than 17% a year. If it doesn't, the treasury shrinks and payouts may fall short.

The desk treasury is kept separate from anyone’s personal accounts. Spice and treasury money use no leverage and no borrowed money. The desk’s trading agents may use leverage.

Daily records · What SPICE is · How it works and the payout rules