Wavestar Markets · Class V lease market
Spectrum-hours. ITU-coordinated, cleared, leased.
- 2030 addressable spend
- $20B
- Clearing take
- 1%
- Avg cleared lease
- 200 MHz-hr · $400
- Settlement
- T+0 atomic · USDC
What you trade
1 MHz × 1 hour over a defined ITU coordination zone.
- 01
Unit of trade
1 MHz × 1 hour over a named ITU coordination zone, bound to the lessor's authorised frequency band, coverage area, and orbit class. - 02
v1 scope — short-term lease
Leases ≤ 30 days on rights the lessor already holds under ITU SNS + FCC IBFS (or equivalent national administration). No new authorisation required. - 03
v2 scope — long-term transfer
Multi-year transfers require regulatory consent in most jurisdictions. Activates after Wavestar's SEC ATS-N registration clears. - 04
Coordination zone
Zones are defined by ITU Region (Region 1/2/3), orbital shell (LEO/MEO/GEO), and frequency band. A lease is valid only within its named zone. - 05
Attestation
Independent RF monitoring — NSR Kratos, Analytical Graphics ComSpOC, national regulator monitoring networks — signs the actual occupancy. Wavestar reconciles against the registered lease. - 06
Filing reconciliation
Every cleared lease mirrors into ITU SNS correspondence and FCC IBFS records (or the relevant national administration's system) via a daily reconciliation feed.
Contract specification
Spectrum-Hour (SPEC) · Rulebook exhibit 4.8.5.
SPEC · Short-term lease contract
- Ticker
- SPEC · [band] · [coord-zone] · [hour]
- Unit of trade
- 1 MHz × 1 hour within a named ITU coordination zone
- Lease tenor
- 1 hour minimum · 30 days maximum (v1)
Long-term rights transfer (> 30 days) activates in v2 after SEC ATS-N clears.
- Tick size
- $2 per MHz-hour
- Minimum block
- 50 MHz-hours
Matches common short-term coordination scheduling granularity.
- Delivery attestation
- Independent RF monitoring signature + ITU SNS / FCC IBFS reconciliation
- Settlement
- T+0 · atomic · USDC primary · Fedwire / SWIFT optional
- Initial margin
- 15%
Reflects counterparty risk on continuing authorisation validity during lease term.
- Variation margin band
- 4%
Daily mark on cleared curves per named coordination zone and band.
- Prohibited pairs
- OFAC · national-security · end-use controls
Every counterparty pair is screened on match. Cross-border leases carry additional authorisation checks.
- Position limit
- 5% of cleared zone open interest per lessee; 25% per lessor
Market dynamics
A $4B gray market made legible.
- Reference price · Ka · Region 2
- $3.50 / MHz-hr
- Cleared zones
- 0
- Avg lease tenor
- 14 days
- Reconciliation cadence
- Daily to ITU + FCC
Rolling 30-day midpoint; Ka-band leases in ITU Region 2 are the primary activation liquidity.
Coordination zones live by M4. 2030 steady state targets all ITU regions × all commercial bands.
Design-partner target. Short-leg leases concentrate around launch, commissioning, and contingency windows.
Every cleared lease mirrors into SNS correspondence and IBFS records within 24 hours. Divergence is an alert.
Counterparties and observers
Operators, regulators, RF monitors.
- LES
Lessors
Operators with surplus authorised capacity. GEO fleet operators with underused transponder inventory are a large early source; LEO broadband constellations supply shorter-window leases. - LEE
Lessees
New-entrant fleets, contingency-access buyers, government and civil agencies needing short-term coverage, and brokers aggregating leases for downstream resale. - ITU
ITU · Bureau of Radiocommunication
Master International Frequency Register is the authoritative source. Wavestar mirrors entries and reconciles cleared leases daily. See /regulatory/itu. - FCC
FCC · International Bureau
IBFS is the U.S. authorisation system of record. Wavestar is a mirror, not the source of truth, and reconciles lease state nightly. See /regulatory/fcc-ibfs. - MON
RF monitoring observers
NSR Kratos, AGI / Ansys ComSpOC, and comparable providers operate independent monitoring networks whose signatures form the Attest quorum on actual occupancy. - NAT
National administrations
Ofcom (UK), Bundesnetzagentur (Germany), MIC (Japan), ANATEL (Brazil), and others hold analogous filing records; leases touching their territory reconcile into their system as well.
Regulatory context
Leasing authorised rights, not transferring licences.
- ITU Radio Regulations
- Lease lives inside the lessor's assigned rights
v1 leases do not constitute a transfer under Article 5, Article 11, or Article 23 of the Radio Regulations. They are short-term use-rights granted by the filing operator.
- FCC Part 25
- Filing operator retains Part 25 licence
Part 25 authorisations are non-transferable without FCC consent. Wavestar's v1 scope is leasing of use-rights under the existing Part 25 licence.
- SEC ATS-N
- Filing underway · long-term transfers activate post-clearance
Long-term rights transfers — v2 scope — require the SEC Alternative Trading System registration. Filing status at /regulatory/sec-ats.
- National export controls
- Counterparty screening on every match
OFAC, Commerce BIS entity list, and equivalent national lists are screened on every match. Cross-border leases carry additional authorisation checks before release.
- Sanctions posture
- Hard-block on prohibited counterparties · per /compliance/sanctions
No cleared lease between sanctioned counterparties. Pending-status entries blocked pending counsel review.
ITU spectrum filings and orbital slots — a gray secondary market exists. Transactions go through law firms and bilateral cash deals. No standardised rights representation. That is literally the 1995 OTC bond market for rights in orbit.
Lease book open · M4
Clear a 30-day Ka lease between breakfast and market open.
Design-partner lessors clear zero-fee through the first $10M of short-term lease notional. RF-monitoring partners earn observer stipends per attested lease. Long-term transfer book opens after SEC ATS-N.