How to invest in government bonds: CETES, Tesouro, US Treasuries
How government bonds pay, what can go wrong, how to buy them directly in Mexico, Brazil, and the United States, and how bond tokens work in Lex.
In this guide
- A loan to a government
- What can go wrong
- Buying directly from the government
- What a bond token adds, and what it changes
- Government bonds in Lex
- An example: one bond, two results
- Before you buy
A loan to a government
A government bond is a loan to a government. You hand over money today, and the government promises to repay it on a set date, with interest. Investor.gov describes bonds as debt securities: the buyer is a lender, not an owner, which is the basic difference from a share.
The interest can be paid in two ways. Some bonds pay a coupon at regular intervals. Others pay nothing along the way and are simply sold for less than the amount they repay. Mexican CETES work like this, and so do US Treasury bills: TreasuryDirect explains that bills are sold at a discount or at face value, and the holder is paid the face value at maturity. The difference between the two amounts is the return.
People use short-term government bonds for money they will not need for a few months or a few years and want to keep in something steadier than shares. They sit between the money you use every day and the money you invest for decades.
What can go wrong
Government bonds are often called safe. A more useful description is that their risks are specific and can be named. Investor.gov lists them. Credit risk: the issuer may fail to pay on time. Interest rate risk: if rates rise after you buy, a bond sold before maturity may be worth less than you paid. Inflation risk: a fixed payment buys less when prices rise. Liquidity risk: you may not find a buyer when you want to sell.
Maturity is what connects these. Held to maturity, a bond repays its face value if the issuer pays. Sold earlier, it is worth whatever the market offers that day. The longer the bond, the more its price moves when rates change, so a short bill behaves very differently from a ten-year bond.
Currency is the fifth risk, and for anyone saving across borders it is often the largest. A bond in pesos pays in pesos; a bond in dollars pays in dollars. A high interest rate in one currency can be cancelled out by a fall in that currency against the one you spend. Compare bonds in the currency of your goal, not by the headline rate alone.
Buying directly from the government
Several governments run retail programs, and for residents they are hard to beat. In Mexico, cetesdirecto lets individuals buy CETES without account or transaction commissions; registration asks for official identification, a CURP, an RFC, and a Mexican bank account in your name. In Brazil, Tesouro Direto offers bonds linked to the Selic rate, fixed-rate bonds, and inflation-linked bonds online and in small amounts.
The United States sells bills directly too, from a minimum of $100. But the TreasuryDirect account requirements include a Social Security number, a US address of record, and an account at a US bank, which rules out most people living elsewhere. Banks and brokers offer other routes under their own conditions.
If you qualify for your own country’s program and want bonds in your own currency, start there. The friction appears when you want another country’s bonds, or when your money and your life are spread across more than one country.
| Program | Currency | Who it is built for | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| cetesdirecto (Mexico) | Mexican pesos | People with Mexican identification and a Mexican bank account. | Terms available, how reinvestment works, and tax withholding. |
| Tesouro Direto (Brazil) | Brazilian reais | People who can open an eligible account in Brazil. | Which bond type fits your date, custody charges, and tax by holding period. |
| TreasuryDirect (United States) | US dollars | People with a Social Security number, a US address, and a US bank account. | Eligibility first; otherwise a bank or broker that offers Treasuries to you. |
What a bond token adds, and what it changes
A bond token is a way to hold exposure to government bonds in a wallet. Etherfuse issues tokens it calls Stablebonds, backed by government debt: CETES for Mexican government debt, TESOURO for Brazilian, USTRY for US Treasuries, and others. Etherfuse buys and holds the underlying securities through its own custody arrangements, and the token represents exposure to them under the issuer’s terms.
Two things change compared with buying directly. First, you are no longer the government’s direct creditor. You rely on the issuer and its custodians as well as on the government, so the issuer’s documents, eligibility rules, and redemption terms become part of what you own.
Second, the token is not pegged to one unit of currency. Its value reflects the underlying portfolio and the returns that have accrued, so it tends to drift upward over time and can move with interest rates. A price quoted in a market can also differ from the issuer’s own net asset value. A bond token is an investment. It should not be confused with a stablecoin, which aims to stay at one dollar or one peso.
Government bonds in Lex
Lex supports five Etherfuse bond tokens on the Base network: CETES, TESOURO, EUROB, GILTS, and USTRY. You can hold and transfer all five in the same self-custodial wallet as your currencies, and each has its own page with the token contract to verify.
Buying and selling in the app is currently available for CETES, in supported versions of Lex and when a valid quote is available. Add money by bank transfer and make sure you hold US Dollar; in Mexico, a SPEI transfer credits wMXN, and converting it to US Dollar is a separate quoted step. Open Government bonds, choose CETES, select Buy, and enter the amount. Review the amount of CETES you will receive, the total cost, the minimum receipt, and the quote’s expiry, then approve with your passkey.
To exit, open the holding and request a sell quote. Selling returns US Dollar; withdrawing to a bank is a separate operation with its own availability and costs. A purchase in Lex is a market trade. It is not a subscription or redemption with Etherfuse, and if Lex cannot produce a valid quote, the trade is unavailable.
For TESOURO, EUROB, GILTS, and USTRY, Lex does not currently provide buy or sell quotes. Read Before you invest for the questions that apply to any of these.
An example: one bond, two results
Illustrative figures only; this is not a forecast, and it ignores trading costs and taxes to show a single effect. Andrés holds US Dollar in his wallet and moves the equivalent of US$1,000 into CETES for one year. Suppose that, over the year, the token’s value in pesos rises 9%.
In the first case, the peso ends the year where it started against the dollar. Measured in dollars, Andrés is up about 9%. In the second case, the peso weakens 12% against the dollar over the same year. His holding is still worth 9% more in pesos, but those pesos now convert to fewer dollars: about US$959, a loss of roughly 4%.
Neither result says anything about the bond failing; the government paid in both. The difference is the currency. If Andrés plans to spend the money in Mexico, the peso result is the one that matters and the first number is his return. If his goal is in dollars, he took a currency position along with the bond. The same logic runs in reverse for someone who earns pesos and buys a dollar bond.
Before you buy
Name the date you will need the money and choose a term that ends before it. Decide which currency your goal is in, and treat any bond in a different currency as a currency decision too.
Check whether you can buy directly through your own government’s program. If you choose a token instead, read the issuer’s documents and find out who holds the underlying bonds and how redemption works. Ask for a buy quote and a sell quote on the same day to see the round-trip cost, and confirm how you would move the proceeds to your bank.
Bonds and bond tokens are investments. They are not bank deposits and are not covered by deposit insurance, and selling before maturity can produce a loss. Rates shown today are not a promise about the future. Ask a local adviser how interest and gains are taxed where you live. This guide is general information, not investment or tax advice.