Sierra Protocol has deployed a set of smart contract upgrades that make Vaults issued by Sierra more accessible, more configurable and more secure. The upgrade introduces permissionless minting and redemptions, claimable redemptions, daily minting rate limits, a dedicated Deposit Role protected by a timelock, and OFAC sanctions blacklist.

Each of these features is configurable for each Vault issued by Sierra. These upgrades enable every Vault to be tailored to the needs of its users, curators and partners, while the flagship SIERRA vault keeps the user experience its holders are familiar with.

Permissionless Mint and Redeem

Vaults issued by Sierra Protocol can now be configured to allow any wallet to mint and redeem directly. This brings Sierra in line with leading vault protocols such as Aave and Morpho, where access is open to any onchain user.

Until now, minting and redemption were limited to Authorized Participants: market makers and other institutional clients who completed KYB and were onboarded by Sierra. This model worked well, but introduced friction for adoption for some permissionless use cases. It also meant all other users relied on secondary market liquidity, which is costly to provide and must be rebalanced as trades occur and the exchange rate of the Vault appreciates over time.

With permissionless minting and redemption:

• Any wallet can mint and redeem directly with the protocol, without relying on an intermediary

• Dependence on secondary market liquidity is reduced

• Integrations become simpler for neobanks, DeFi applications and builders

Permissionless access is configured on a vault by vault basis. Not every vault issued by Sierra Protocol will have permissionless access, and vaults that require a permissioned model can continue to use the Authorized Participant framework.

Claimable Redemptions

Vaults issued by Sierra Protocol can now support a claim step for redemptions. This was a feature request from clients building Earn offerings powered by Sierra, whose product workflows need more control over when funds are delivered.

In the standard redemption flow, once a request is processed, the protocol atomically burns the vault tokens and sends the corresponding amount of USDC to the user simultaneously. With claiming enabled, redemption becomes a three-step flow:

• The user requests a redemption

• The redemption is processed by the protocol

• The user claims their USDC to complete the redemption

Claiming is configured per vault and is not required for every vault issued by Sierra Protocol.

Daily Mint Rate Limits

Minting is now subject to a configurable daily rate limit, which caps the total amount of a token that can be issued in a 24 hour period. This safeguard was requested by curators and provides an upper bound on the impact of any unauthorized issuance.

The limit is set for each vault individually and can be raised over time as total supply grows, so the safeguard scales with the protocol rather than constraining it.

Dedicated Deposit Role with Timelock

Special deposit functions have moved to a new, dedicated Deposit Role, which will be governed by a timelock. This responds directly to curators and hedge funds, who raised a concern about the ability to mint tokens without a corresponding USDC deposit.

These special deposit functions exist to serve institutional clients, fintechs and neobanks that want to deposit into a vault issued by Sierra Protocol using:

• USDC on another blockchain than where native minting occurs

• Another approved stablecoin, such as USDT on Ethereum or another blockchain

• USD via wire transfer

Isolating these functions in their own role, behind a timelock, means Sierra can continue supporting these institutional workflows while providing stakeholders an additional layer of protection. Any action involving the Deposit Role emits events onchain, and curators and other members of the Sierra community can use monitoring tools such as Hypernative to be notified the moment one is queued.

OFAC Sanctions Screening

Vaults issued by Sierra Protocol now screen deposits, redemptions and transfers against a blacklist of OFAC's sanctioned addresses. If an address is added to the list, it can no longer interact with any vault issued by Sierra.

This strengthens Sierra's compliance posture and gives institutional partners, fintechs and neobanks additional confidence when integrating vaults issued by Sierra into their products and platforms.

What This Means for SIERRA

The flagship SIERRA vault will keep permissioned minting through Authorized Participants and will not require a claim step for redemptions, so the existing experience for SIERRA holders remains exactly the same.

SIERRA does gain the new security and compliance enhancements of:

• Daily mint rate limits

• The dedicated Deposit Role with timelock for special deposit functions

• OFAC sanctions screening

These upgrades build on Sierra's existing security stack, including audited smart contracts, Fireblocks MPC custody, disaster recovery backups, 24/7 monitoring and the timelock governing all administrative roles.

What's Next

Permissionless minting wasn't built in a vacuum. It was purpose-built for a new vault issued by Sierra, launching as part of an exciting upcoming partnership. Stay tuned, and follow us on X and Telegram to be the first to know.