Chateau

Organization Name – Chateau

Category – Banking & DeFi

About

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Chateau Capital is a DeFi protocol focused on bringing Wall Street-style private market investments on-chain as institutional-grade real-world assets (RWA). Its core mission is to unlock traditionally… illiquid asset classes—such as private credit, hedge fund strategies, and pre-IPO private equity—and make them accessible to on-chain investors through programmable, composable tokens.

Positioned at the intersection of decentralized finance and private capital markets, Chateau aims to serve as an infrastructure layer for “programmable capital formation.” The protocol’s design is intended to extend the reach of private market products beyond traditional gatekeepers and long lock-ups by issuing blockchain-native instruments that can plug into DeFi lending, leverage, and liquidity strategies.

Origins, Team and Strategic Vision

Chateau presents itself as a hybrid finance project built by a team of hedge fund managers, OTC brokers, licensed custodians, and DeFi engineers who believe that the future of finance is “hybrid” rather than purely centralized or decentralized. Its published materials describe a vision to “unlock trillions of dollars worth of assets in the private capital markets and bring them on chain,” emphasizing liquidity, underwriting discipline, and regulatory alignment rather than speculative token launches.

The protocol’s strategic positioning is framed as:
• Extending Wall Street private markets into programmable finance
• Building risk, compliance and reporting rails tailored for allocators and institutional-style users
• Creating a unified marketplace where family offices, banks, hedge funds and Web3 investors can interact via tokenized assets rather than paper contracts alone

Chateau has announced pre-seed and seed financing rounds led by Hack VC, alongside other investors, which it uses as a signal of institutional backing and ecosystem credibility.

Core Product Stack and Architecture

Chateau’s product stack currently revolves around a dual-token system and RWA wrappers designed to connect private credit and other institutional strategies to DeFi users and protocols.

chUSD – Synthetic Dollar with Private Credit Exposure
Chateau USD (“chUSD”) is a synthetic dollar designed to be fully backed by on-chain collateral and private credit yields. In its documentation, Chateau describes chUSD as combining:
• Stablecoin-style collateral (USDC, USDT and other approved assets over time)
• Yield exposure sourced from institutional private credit strategies

The token is intended to maintain a soft peg to the U.S. dollar via a mix of RWA collateral, on-chain mint/redeem mechanisms, and arbitrage incentives for approved participants.

schUSD – Yield-Bearing Counterpart
Users can stake chUSD into schUSD, a yield-accruing ERC-4626 vault token. Yield is generated by private credit strategies managed by Covenant VC, a New York–based hedge fund with a long track record in institutional credit. schUSD represents the second half of Chateau’s dual-token system: chUSD is the liquid synthetic dollar, while schUSD is the yield-bearing instrument with an unstaking period and associated liquidity considerations.

chAssets – Tokenized SPV Wrappers (Planned)
Beyond synthetic dollars, Chateau has outlined plans for “chAssets” — tokens that wrap specific real-world assets inside legally structured SPVs (special purpose vehicles). These are described as fully collateralized on-chain representations of stakes in off-chain asset vehicles, with the goal of providing investors with legal recourse and an asset-class-agnostic framework spanning private equity, credit, funds, commodities, and derivatives.

Private Markets Focus and Partnerships

Chateau is explicitly oriented toward private markets rather than publicly traded securities. Public materials and partner announcements highlight access to:
• Tokenized private credit funds
• Hedge fund strategies and structured credit
• Pre-IPO shares and private equity funds, including exposure to well-known technology companies
• Additional institutional strategies that were historically reserved for large allocators

A notable partnership is with Plume Network, a modular L1 focused on real-world asset finance (RWAfi). Together, Plume and Chateau have announced initiatives to tokenize over $500 million of private market investments as composable ERC-20 tokens, with minimum allocations starting as low as $1 for certain offerings. This collaboration is marketed as a way to democratize access to institutional-grade private market deals via a combination of Chateau’s protocol and Plume’s infrastructure.

Chateau also emphasizes its relationship with Covenant VC, which it describes as an SEC-regulated credit hedge fund managing hundreds of millions of dollars in institutional credit strategies. Covenant’s role is to provide the underlying private credit exposure that powers yield for chUSD→schUSD flows, with Chateau acting as the DeFi layer on top.

Risk Management, Disclosures and Audits

Chateau publishes a dedicated Risks & Disclosures section for chUSD and related products. It highlights multiple categories of risk associated with holding an RWA-backed synthetic dollar and participating in private credit-linked instruments, including:
• Credit risk arising from underlying borrowers and strategies
• Market and liquidity risk across RWA and on-chain venues
• Operational and counterparty risk from custodians, SPVs, and service providers
• Legal and regulatory risk associated with the evolving treatment of tokenized securities and stablecoins

The project positions transparency as a “foundational principle” and notes that yield comes from real businesses paying interest in the real economy, rather than from purely speculative DeFi incentives. At the same time, its disclosures make it clear that users are relying on off-chain legal structures, credit performance, and counterparties beyond the purely on-chain environment.

On the security side, Chateau lists external smart contract audits for the chUSD and schUSD vaults and the CHT token, including a report from Zenith. This indicates that at least some components of the protocol have undergone third-party review, although—like any audit—this does not guarantee the absence of vulnerabilities or business-level risks.

Position in the RWA / DeFi Landscape

Chateau operates in a fast-moving and competitive RWA sector where multiple protocols are exploring tokenized treasuries, credit, and alternative assets. Its differentiation lies in a strong narrative around:
• Wall Street-grade private market access
• Private credit and hedge fund strategies as core yield engines
• Hybrid finance design, combining regulated funds and on-chain distribution
• A dual-token synthetic dollar + yield vault model (chUSD / schUSD)

For allocators and on-chain investors, Chateau’s model may appeal as a way to gain exposure to institutional private credit and other private market strategies via DeFi-native instruments. Conversely, the protocol’s reliance on off-chain SPVs, complex legal structures, and concentrated partnerships means that risk remains multi-dimensional. Any independent review has to weigh both the potential for expanded access to private markets and the layered risks inherent in RWA-backed stablecoins and credit products.

This VaaSBlock profile is intended to summarize Chateau Capital’s technology, structure and claims; it does not assess or predict financial performance and does not replace independent legal, financial, or technical due diligence.

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Chateau Capital Frequently Asked Questions

What is Chateau Capital?
Chateau Capital is a DeFi protocol focused on bringing private capital markets on-chain as real-world assets (RWA). It tokenizes exposures to private credit, hedge funds, and pre-IPO equity into blockchain-native instruments so that DeFi participants can interact with institutional-grade strategies through composable tokens.

How does Chateau bring private markets on-chain?
Chateau works with off-chain vehicles, custodians, and regulated partners to hold underlying assets. It then issues on-chain tokens—such as chUSD, schUSD, and planned chAssets—that represent economic exposure to those portfolios. These tokens are designed to be fully collateralized and are built to plug into DeFi lending, leverage, and liquidity protocols, subject to the constraints of the underlying SPV and legal structures.

What are chUSD and schUSD?
chUSD is Chateau’s synthetic dollar, designed to be backed by a mix of on-chain collateral and private credit yields while maintaining a soft peg to the U.S. dollar. Users can stake chUSD into schUSD, an ERC-4626 vault token that accrues yield from private credit strategies managed by Covenant VC. This dual-token system separates liquid stable value (chUSD) from yield-bearing exposure (schUSD).

Which assets does Chateau aim to tokenize?
Public announcements and partner communications describe a focus on tokenizing hedge fund strategies, private credit portfolios, pre-IPO shares, and private equity funds, with some initiatives targeting more than $500 million in private market investments. The project’s materials also reference a broader, asset-class-agnostic framework that could extend to other private market exposures over time.

Who are Chateau Capital’s key partners and investors?
Chateau has announced pre-seed and seed financing led by Hack VC and supported by other investors. On the product side, Covenant VC is highlighted as the institutional credit partner behind schUSD yields, and Plume Network is a strategic blockchain partner for tokenizing private market deals and distributing them on-chain.

How does Chateau handle risk and transparency?
The project maintains a published Risks & Disclosures section outlining credit, market, liquidity, operational, and legal/regulatory risks associated with chUSD and related products. Chateau emphasizes on-chain transparency for collateral and yield flows, but also makes it clear that users remain exposed to off-chain counterparties and structures, which introduces non-trivial RWA-specific risks.

Has Chateau undergone any smart contract audits?
Chateau’s documentation lists external smart contract audits for the chUSD and schUSD vaults and the CHT token, including a report by Zenith. As with any audit, these reviews reduce but do not eliminate security risk, and they do not address business, legal, or credit risk associated with the underlying real-world assets.

Is Chateau Capital suitable for all investors?
Chateau targets non-U.S. and institutional-style investors who understand RWA and private credit risk. While its design aims to make private markets more accessible, participation still involves exposure to complex, multi-layered risks spanning DeFi smart contracts, off-chain legal structures, and underlying credit portfolios. Prospective users should carefully review Chateau’s documentation, risk disclosures, and independent analyses before allocating capital.

How does Chateau compare to other RWA protocols?
Chateau differentiates itself by emphasizing private credit and hedge fund strategies, synthetic dollars backed by private credit yields, and partnerships aimed at deep integration with RWA-focused chains. However, it operates alongside other protocols exploring treasuries, credit, and alternative assets. A thorough comparison requires evaluating each project’s legal structures, collateral quality, transparency, and track record rather than relying on narratives alone.
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