We are excited to announce the successful first distribution of $ENSURE, the nature-based currency. Members who completed the recent questionnaire have received their allocations, split between their main wallet and their .basin account. If you haven’t yet completed the questionnaire, please reach out via email or DM TMO to receive your share.

As with any flywheel, getting it started is the hardest part.

Today marks a key milestone for the BASIN SITUS nature finance flywheel. $ENSURE plays a crucial role in Ensurance as the currency layer, helping to safeguard ecosystems and the vital benefits they provide, all rooted in real asset fundamentals. Before diving into what $ENSURE can do and where it's headed, let’s first explore the four core components of Ensurance that form the backbone of this flywheel.

Ensurance, developed by BASIN, offers a practical and actionable pathway to perpetually protect and steward ecosystems by valuing natural capital in relation to real asset costs. It mirrors natural flywheels such as the water cycle, ecological succession, and trophic cascades—self-sustaining systems that build momentum and resilience over time.

The ultimate goal is to protect ecosystems in perpetuity by placing real assets ENTRUST. Unlike traditional conservation easements, we aim to put entire real assets into a Common Asset Trust—what we call ENTRUST. Think of this as protocol-owned assets, where nature, as the protocol, effectively owns itself. From an operational standpoint, this represents HoldCo, while from a socio-cultural perspective, it aligns with the Commons.

To place ecosystems ENTRUST, we rely on the best tools available: real assets, property law, and real estate fundamentals. When an Ensurance Policy is written for an ecological asset, it safeguards the ecosystem from T-Zero and ensures its permanent protection at the end of the policy period. Ensurers—real asset or blended finance investors—underwrite and fund these policies, seeking passive, market-rate yield. The beauty of this model is that investors don’t need to care about nature, climate, or well-being—they only need to care about yield. Yield drives the financial capital into natural capital, doing the heavy lifting for us. These market-rate returns scale the outcomes we aim for: putting ecosystems ENTRUST. In operational terms, this is PropCo, and from a natural capital perspective, these are the STOCKS.

The crux of the Ensurance model involves either a) having enough lump sum capital on hand for land purchases, or b) generating yield to attract real asset investors to provide that lump sum (yield can range from 0% to 10%, or more, depending on investor preferences and what the Ensured are willing to pay). The model achieves this while simultaneously breaking the rent-seeking and flipping cycles common in real estate. Certificates of Ensurance create a revenue model as a form of payment for ecosystem services (PES), and these certificates can be either direct or indirect.

Direct certificates are tied to specific properties and are based on actual ecosystem condition, which determines the natural capital value in dollars. Indirect certificates, on the other hand, are linked to broader benefits, purposes, or places, offering more qualitative and impact-based value. Certificates of Ensurance function as shares of the protocol, entitling holders to patronage rewards (such as rebates, refunds, or dividends). They are also tradable, salable, and burnable. From an operational standpoint, this is the OpCo, and from a Natural Capital perspective, these are the FLOWS.

The STOCKS and FLOWS of Natural Capital are inseparable—two sides of the same coin. This interconnectedness is embodied in $ENSURE, the nature-based currency. While Certificates of Ensurance are semi-fungible and typically issued at a one-to-one dollar ratio, $ENSURE is fully fungible and trades freely at market value. Converting Certificates into $ENSURE means forgoing patronage rewards, but it unlocks a wide range of innovative use cases in decentralized finance, offering flexibility and liquidity in the market.

As a blended finance vehicle, Ensurance offers a place for everyone, regardless of their motivations or goals. It spreads the cost of real assets over many years, ensuring that the RealValue of Natural Capital is safeguarded from day one—generating greater impact earlier than traditional land trust models.

$ENSURE, as the outermost part of the flywheel, holds the most realistic potential to help bridge the $1 trillion biodiversity finance gap.

As a native Ethereum currency, $ENSURE is available on multiple chains, including Base, Optimism, Arbitrum, Celo, Zora, Polygon, Ethereum Mainnet, BNB, and several other EVMs. You can bridge or transfer your $ENSURE across chains here.

1. Convert to Certificates of Ensurance: Convert $ENSURE into patronage shares by buying assets of your choice. Whether you want to support a species, a city, a bioregion, or an ecosystem service, the choice is yours. You can make these purchases through your main wallet or your .basin account. Assets held in .basin accounts are eligible for greater rewards.

2. Provide Liquidity & Earn Fees: Pair $ENSURE with other currencies in liquidity pools across Base and other EVMs, earning fees while helping to maintain liquidity.

3. Play Arbitrage: Take advantage of arbitrage opportunities both cross-chain and within $ENSURE-to-$ENSURANCE conversions. Currently, there are price discrepancies on exchanges, with spreads exceeding $1 per token. Some certificates are priced well below the standard 1:1 issuance rate, offering lucrative arbitrage potential.

As an ERC-20 token, the potential use cases for $ENSURE are nearly limitless. We’re working on expanded applications in lending and borrowing (e.g., Aave), collateralization (e.g., 4626 vaults and stablecoins), and derivatives.

In addition, we are considering capping the total supply of $ENSURE to create scarcity and increase its value as a finite asset, with the goal of more closely reflecting nature’s infinite value.

BASIN is the founding member of the SITUS Protocol, which provides tools for people to care for the places they love, fostering place-based resilience. Ensurance will be expanding beyond BASIN to become a core asset and currency for SITUS OG's (Onchain Groups). The v1 UI/app for SITUS is nearing completion, so stay tuned for its release.

As always, we build in public. Feel free to reach out with any questions, whether publicly or privately.