Last reviewed: 2 October 2026
In brief
- Payment stablecoins such as USDC and USDT pay holders nothing from the issuer. The EU’s MiCA bars issuers from paying interest, and the US GENIUS Act will once it takes effect.
- Yield-bearing dollar tokens earn from Treasury bills, from derivatives trades or from a lending protocol’s income, and most are fund shares, notes or vault tokens rather than payment stablecoins.
- Our 2 October 2026 comparison of five products found stated or measured rates of 3.6% to 4.8% for four of them, minimums from none stated to $5 million, and very different rules on who may buy and redeem.
A yield-bearing stablecoin is a dollar token that pays its holder a return, usually by rising in value or by adding tokens to the wallet. The return has to come from somewhere: short-term government debt, a derivatives trade or a protocol’s lending income. Each source brings its own risks, and most of these tokens give up something an ordinary stablecoin offers, such as open access or a fixed $1 redemption.
Why don’t ordinary stablecoins pay interest?
An issuer like Circle or Tether earns interest on the reserves behind its coins and keeps it. Lawmakers have written that model into law. Section 4(a)(11) of the GENIUS Act says no permitted or foreign payment stablecoin issuer may pay holders “any form of interest or yield” solely for holding, using or keeping the coin. The ban names issuers; the text does not mention exchanges or other third parties. The Act takes effect by 18 January 2027 at the latest, or 120 days after final regulations if that comes sooner. Our guide to the GENIUS Act covers the rest of the law.
The EU goes further. MiCA Article 50 bars both e-money token issuers and crypto-asset service providers from granting interest. For that ban, any benefit tied to how long someone holds the token counts as interest, including compensation or discounts that reach the holder through third parties. Article 40 does the same for asset-referenced tokens. Details are in our guide to MiCA’s stablecoin rules.
The GENIUS Act’s definition of a payment stablecoin also excludes securities. Several yield-bearing tokens are offered under US securities rules instead: BUIDL is a privately placed fund, FOBXX is a registered money market fund and USDY is a note sold under Regulation S.
Where does the yield come from?
There are three main models.
- Tokenized Treasury funds and notes. The token is a share in a money market fund or a note backed by short-term US Treasuries, repo and bank deposits. The yield is the interest on those assets, minus fees. BlackRock’s BUIDL, Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX (BENJI) and Ondo’s USDY work this way.
- Synthetic dollars. Ethena backs USDe with several assets and pairs the volatile ones, such as crypto, with short futures positions of about the same size, so price moves roughly cancel out. Staking USDe into sUSDe earns funding and basis payments on those shorts plus staked-ether rewards. Ethena’s staking documentation says rewards can fall to zero when funding turns negative.
- Protocol savings rates. Sky’s sUSDS pays the Sky Savings Rate, which Sky describes as a variable rate “funded from aggregate Sky protocol surplus”, and says it “can change over time”.
Products can be stacked. Ondo’s OUSG, a fund for qualified purchasers, held mostly other tokenized funds on 1 October, including BUIDL and BENJI, so its holders bear those funds’ expenses as well as OUSG’s own structure (its management fee is waived until 1 January 2027).
How do the main products compare?
We collected these terms on 2 October 2026 from each issuer’s own pages, SEC filings and, for sUSDS and sUSDe, our own reads of their Ethereum contracts.
| Product | Yield source | Stated rate | Who may buy or redeem | Minimum | Exit route | Legal form |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BlackRock BUIDL | Treasuries, repo | Not published | Qualified purchasers, KYC | $5m via Securitize (its SEC Form D lists $100,000) | Redeem for USD each business day | BVI fund shares, private offering |
| Franklin FOBXX (BENJI) | US government securities | 3.73% 7-day yield (1 Oct) | Investors who pass KYC in the Benji app or portal | $20 for most accounts | Redeem in the app or portal, processed on business days | SEC-registered money market fund |
| Ondo USDY | Treasuries, bank deposits | 3.75%, set monthly | Non-US investors only | $5,000 to mint or redeem on some chains; USD wires from $100,000 | Redeem daily; USD only by wire to non-US banks | Tokenized note |
| Ethena sUSDe | Futures funding, staked ETH | 4.82% 30-day average to 30 Sept (Ethena) | Not offered to EU or EEA residents; other wallet holders can stake; only whitelisted users can mint or redeem USDe | None stated | Unstake to USDe after a 1-day wait, or sell on a market | Token under Ethena BVI terms |
| Sky sUSDS | Protocol surplus | 3.60% (on-chain) | Wallet holders; app closed to listed countries, including the UK | None stated | Withdraw USDS any time, no Sky fee (network costs apply) | Smart-contract vault |
Two checks of our own. Reading the sUSDe contract, its value in USDe rose from 1.2462 on 2 September to 1.2511 on 2 October, about 4.85% a year, close to Ethena’s stated average. The sUSDS contract’s rate matched the 3.60% on Sky’s site, while the older DAI Savings Rate stood at 1.25%.
What do these products cost you?
Access. BUIDL, FOBXX and USDY all require know-your-customer checks before you buy from the issuer, and some add investor tests. Securitize lists BUIDL for qualified purchasers with a $5 million minimum. Ondo’s USDY is sold under Regulation S, so US persons cannot buy it from Ondo or redeem it. FOBXX is open to retail, but only through Franklin’s own app or portal.
The $1 promise. A payment stablecoin issuer must redeem its coins for a fixed amount of money, such as $1. A fund share is worth its net asset value. FOBXX’s summary prospectus says it seeks to keep $1 per share but “cannot guarantee it”, and that the sponsor need not cover losses. USDY’s price rises as yield accrues, so it is not meant to stay at $1. Under Ethena’s terms, a USDe holder who is not a whitelisted Mint User has no right to redeem with Ethena and depends on market buyers.
Strategy risk. Treasury-linked yields tend to fall when short-term interest rates fall. For sUSDe, Ethena’s risk pages list funding, custody and exchange-failure risks. sUSDS pays only what Sky’s surplus supports, at a rate Sky says can change. All five carry some blockchain or smart-contract risk, though a permissioned fund record and an open vault fail in different ways.
Control. BUIDL and FOBXX shares can only sit in approved wallets. Franklin’s prospectus says its transfer agent can correct transactions and limit transfers, and Ethena’s staking contract has a role that can freeze sanctioned addresses and an admin who can lengthen the unstaking wait to up to 90 days.
What should you check before holding one?
- What exactly is the token: a fund share, a note, or a vault deposit? Read the legal terms, not the marketing page.
- Where does each percentage point come from, and can it go to zero?
- Can you redeem with the issuer yourself, in what currency, how fast and with what minimum?
- Is it offered where you live? Several products exclude the US, the EU or the UK.
Rates in the table are snapshots and will change. Holding a token that pays is different from holding a stablecoin built for payments, and our guide to what stablecoins are explains the second kind. The next thing to watch is how US regulators, writing the GENIUS Act rules, treat rewards that exchanges pay on stablecoins.
Sources
- GENIUS Act, Public Law 119-27, sections 2(22) and 4(a)(11); Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA), Articles 40 and 50
- Securitize, BlackRock BUIDL fund page, and SEC Form D/A for BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund Ltd. (23 July 2026)
- Franklin Templeton, Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund summary prospectus (filed 3 August 2026) and fund page yields as of 1 October 2026
- Ondo Finance, USDY page and USDY documentation (2 October 2026)
- Ethena, staking documentation, USDe terms and yield data; Sky, sky.money savings page; sUSDS, Pot and sUSDe contract reads on Ethereum block 26,106,478 (2 October 2026, by Cryptured)
