Overview
Tessera is a DeFi lending protocol for tokenized stocks on Robinhood Chain. Borrow USDC against tAAPL, tTSLA, or tSPY; earn USDC yield by supplying liquidity. The autonomous AI agent called the Watcher monitors every position around the clock and works to head off liquidations before they happen — though it cannot guarantee protection against a severe enough gap.
The Problem
Tokenized stocks trade 24/7 on Robinhood Chain, but the underlying US stock market closes at 4 PM Eastern daily and stays closed weekends and holidays. When it reopens, prices gap sharply. If you borrow USDC against your tokenized stock and the market opens against you over a weekend, your collateral value drops so fast that you hit the liquidation line before you wake up. That's the danger Tessera solves.
How It Works: Two Sides
Tessera has two complementary sides: a lend side where you earn yield on USDC, and a borrow side where you unlock liquidity against tokenized-stock collateral.
Lend Side (Earn Yield)
You supply USDC into the protocol vault. That USDC is lent to borrowers who post tokenized stock as collateral. As borrowers pay interest on loans, you earn that yield. The more demand to borrow, the higher your yield. You can withdraw your USDC plus accrued interest anytime liquidity allows.
Borrow Side (Unlock Liquidity)
You deposit tokenized stock (tAAPL, tTSLA, or tSPY) as collateral and borrow USDC against it. How much you can borrow depends on your collateral's risk-adjusted value, expressed as a Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio. For tAAPL, the max LTV is 50%, meaning you can borrow 0.50 USDC for every 1.00 of tAAPL. That conservative limit exists because tokenized stocks gap overnight.
The Watcher: Your Liquidation Shield
The Watcher is an autonomous AI agent running 24/7. It watches your position's health factor every 10 seconds. If your health factor starts to slip, especially during off-hours, it takes three actions: (1) sends you a plain-English alert; (2) if pre-approved, it auto-repays your debt to push you back to safety; (3) if that's not enough, a permissionless backstop liquidates only as a last resort.
Conservative Risk Parameters
The protocol is built on defensive assumptions about overnight and weekend gaps.
| Asset | Max LTV | Liquidation Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| tAAPL | 50% | 65% |
| tTSLA | 40% | 55% |
| tSPY | 60% | 75% |
Max LTV is the maximum loan-to-value ratio. Liquidation Threshold is where your position becomes liquidatable. The gaps buffer overnight volatility.
No Token Ever
Tessera will never launch a token. The protocol earns revenue through a 15% reserve factor on borrow interest, a transparent share of what borrowers pay. That reserve is first-loss capital. It aligns the protocol's incentives with safety, not coin sales.