Circle brings its tokenized treasury fund USYC to Solana

Stablecoin issuer Circle on Wednesday expanded the availability of its tokenized money market fund, USYC, to the Solana blockchain. The firm said the token represents shares in a short-duration U.S. government TMMF.

USYC can be redeemed for USDC, Circle’s dollar-backed stablecoin, in real-time. The token is also currently available only to non-U.S. institutional investors who pass know-your-customer (KYC) checks. 

Circle aims to expand USYC beyond other blockchains

USYC is permissioned by design, compared to other digital assets commonly used in decentralized finance (DeFi). The initiative aims to expand USYC beyond Ethereum, BNB Chain, and the planned addition of Near and Canton networks. 

Circle acknowledged that it chose Solana for its design features, which are engineered for low-latency transaction confirmations and high throughput. The firm also noted that tokens on Solana are composed via the Solana Program Library (SPL), which enables deterministic settlement and granular account-level control. 

Circle confirmed that participants on Solana can incorporate USYC as a tokenized money market fund (TMMF) for borrowing and lending. The firm stated that USYC in the lending market enables the token to serve as yield-bearing collateral, allowing suppliers to earn the fund’s underlying yield while providing liquidity. USYC will also enable borrowers to experience lower net interest costs because posted collateral will continue to accrue yield.

Participants on Solana can use USYC as margin collateral on derivatives on perpetual DEXs to continue to accrue yield during trading activities. They can also deploy USYC as a base asset within automated yield vaults, which Circle said will layer programmatic strategies on top of the fund’s daily price updates.

Circle also warned that developers may need to be qualified before being onboarded to USYC. The firm stated that participants can implement token and custody flows using the SPL Token-2022 program, which confirms that only eligible wallets are allowed to deposit and withdraw.

Participants can also block non-eligible transfers in the program logic once their program manages custody. Participants on Solana will then iterate the USYC price-per-share feed and can use it to drive interest accrual, risk parameters, and liquidation logic. 

Circle maintained that USYC functions are programmable and have yield-accruing collateral since accrual occurs via the token price, which removes the need for separate reward claims. The firm explained that near-real-time redemptions and supply into USDC support the token’s operational liquidity and simplify collateral rebalancing.

Circle acquires USYC’s issuer Hashnote

Cryptopolitan previously reported that Circle acquired Hashnote, the issuer of USYC, in January. The firm said the integration of USYC with USDC will enable the tokenized fund to emerge as a preferred form of yield-bearing collateral in the crypto sector.

Allaire also stated that Circle invented cash and is now leading the tokenized money markets sector, which he believes will become essential to the future of the global financial system. CEO of Hashnote, Leo Mizuhara, explained that the initiative to join Circle enhances the company’s ability to rapidly scale adoption by pairing USDC with USYC. 

RWA.xyz data revealed that USYC ranks fifth among tokenized treasury products, with a market capitalization of $634 million. The data also shows the broader tokenized treasury market has grown to $8 billion, driven by institutional demand for yield-bearing digital assets backed by real-world securities.

JPMorgan analysts also attributed the strong growth to yield-bearing stablecoins, a category that includes tokenized money market funds (MMFs) and Treasury bill products. Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, managing director at JPMorgan, believes that tokenized treasury products could grow to represent as much as half of the stablecoin market. He also thinks that tokenized MMFs will likely take the lead in scenarios where stablecoins remain barred from offering yield directly.

Get up to $30,050 in trading rewards when you join Bybit today