An overview of the interest-bearing stablecoin track: Which projects are helping you make money?

Stablecoin Update May 2025

Source: Artemis

Compiled by Bitpush

In the crypto market, stablecoins are no longer just "stable" - they are quietly helping you make money. From US Treasury yields to perpetual contract arbitrage, yield-bearing stablecoins are becoming a new revenue engine for crypto investors. Currently, there are dozens of projects with a market cap exceeding $20 million, with a total value of over $10 billion. This article will break down the revenue sources of mainstream yield-bearing stablecoins and review the most representative projects in the market to see who is truly making "money generate money" for you.

What are Yield-Bearing Stablecoins?

Unlike ordinary stablecoins (such as USDT or USDC) that only serve as a store of value, yield-bearing stablecoins allow users to earn passive income during the holding period. Their core value lies in maintaining the stablecoin's price anchor while generating additional returns for token holders through underlying strategies.

How are Yields Generated?

The revenue sources of yield-bearing stablecoins are diverse and can be summarized as follows:

• Real World Assets (RWA) Investment: Protocols invest funds in low-risk real-world assets such as US Treasury bills, money market funds, or corporate bonds, and return these investment yields to token holders.

• DeFi Strategies: Protocols deposit stablecoins into DeFi liquidity pools, engage in farming, or adopt Delta-neutral strategies to extract profits from market inefficiencies.

• Lending: Deposits are lent to borrowers, with the interest paid by borrowers becoming the token holders' income.

• Debt Support: Protocols allow users to lock crypto assets as collateral and issue stablecoins. Revenues primarily come from stability fees or interest generated by non-stablecoin collateral.

• Hybrid Sources: Yields come from a combination of tokenized RWAs, DeFi protocols, centralized finance (CeFi) platforms, etc., achieving diversified returns.

Yield-Bearing Stablecoin Market Overview (Projects with Total Supply of Approximately $20 Million and Above)

Below is a list of current mainstream yield-bearing stablecoin projects, categorized by their primary yield generation strategies. Note that the data represents total supply, and this list primarily covers yield-bearing stablecoins with a total supply of $20 million or more.

1. RWA-Backed (Primarily through US Treasuries, Corporate Bonds, or Commercial Papers)

These stablecoins generate returns by investing funds in low-risk, yielding real-world assets.

• Ethena Labs (USDtb – $1.3 billion): Supported by BlackRock's BUIDL fund.

• Usual (USD 0 – $619 million): Liquidity deposit token of the Usual protocol, backed 1:1 by ultra-short-term RWAs (especially aggregated US Treasury tokens).

BUIDL ($570 million): BlackRock's tokenized fund, holding US Treasuries and cash equivalents.

• Ondo Finance (USDY – $560 million): Fully backed by US Treasuries.

• OpenEden (USDO – $280 million): Yields from reserves supported by US Treasuries and repurchase agreements.

• Anzen (USDz – $122.8 million): Fully backed by a diversified tokenized RWA portfolio, primarily including private credit assets.

• Noble (USDN – $106.9 million): Composable yield-bearing stablecoin, supported by 103% US Treasuries, utilizing M 0 infrastructure.

• Lift Dollar (USDL – $94 million): Issued by Paxos, fully backed by US Treasuries and cash equivalents, with daily automatic compounding.

• Agora (AUSD – $89 million): Supported by Agora reserves, including US dollars and cash equivalents like overnight reverse repos and short-term US Treasuries.

• Cygnus (cgUSD – $70.9 million): Backed by short-term Treasuries, operating as a rebase ERC-20 token on the Base chain, automatically adjusting balance daily to reflect yields.

• Frax (frxUSD – $62.9 million): Upgraded from Frax Finance's FRAX stablecoin, a multi-chain stablecoin supported by BlackRock's BUIDL and Superstate.

2. Basis Trading/Arbitrage Strategy

These stablecoins generate yields through market-neutral strategies, such as perpetual contract funding rate arbitrage and cross-exchange arbitrage.

• Ethena Labs (USDe – $6 billion): Supported by a diversified asset pool, maintaining its anchor through spot collateral delta hedging.

• Stables Labs (USDX – $671 million): Generating yields through delta-neutral arbitrage strategies across multiple cryptocurrencies.

• Falcon Stable (USDf – $573 million): Supported by a crypto asset portfolio, generating yields through Falcon's market-neutral strategies (funding rate arbitrage, cross-exchange trading, native staking, and liquidity provision).

• Resolv Labs (USR – $216 million): Fully supported by an ETH collateral pool, with ETH price risk hedged through perpetual futures, assets managed by off-chain custody.

• Elixir (deUSD – $172 million): Using stETH and sDAI as collateral, creating delta-neutral positions by shorting ETH and capturing positive funding rates.

• Aster (USDF – $110 million): Supported by crypto assets and corresponding short futures on AsterDEX.

• Nultipli.fi (xUSD/xUSDT – $65 million): Earning yields through market-neutral arbitrage on centralized exchanges (including Contango arbitrage and funding rate arbitrage).

• YieldFi (yUSD – $23 million): Supported by USDC and other stablecoins, yields from delta-neutral strategies, lending platforms, and yield trading protocols.

• Hermetica (USDh – $5.5 million): Backed by delta-hedged Bitcoin, using short perpetual futures on major centralized exchanges to earn funding fees.

3. Lending/Debt-Supported

These stablecoins generate yields by lending deposits, collecting interest, or through stability fees and liquidation revenues from collateralized debt positions (CDP).

• Sky (DAI – $5.3 billion): Based on CDP. Minted by collateralizing ETH (LSTs), BTC LSTs, and sUSDS on @sparkdotfi. USDS is an upgraded version of DAI, used to earn yields through Sky Savings Rate and SKY rewards.

• Curve Finance (crvUSD – $840 million): Over-collateralized stablecoin backed by ETH and managed through LLAMMA, with its anchor maintained through Curve's liquidity pools and DeFi integration.

• Syrup (syrupUSDC – $631 million): Supported by fixed-rate collateralized loans to crypto institutions, yields managed by @maplefinance's credit underwriting and lending infrastructure.

• MIM_Spell (MIM – $241 million): Over-collateralized stablecoin minted by locking yield-bearing cryptocurrencies into Cauldrons, with yields from interest and liquidation fees.

• Aave (GHO – $251 million): Minted through collateral in the Aave v3 lending market.

• Inverse (DOLA – $200 million): Debt-supported stablecoin minted through collateralized lending on FiRM, yields generated by staking into sDOLA, which earns from lending revenues.

• Level (lvlUSD – $184 million): Supported by USDC or USDT deposited into DeFi lending protocols like Aave to generate yields.

• Beraborrow (NECT – $169 million): Native CDP stablecoin of Berachain, backed by iBGT. Yields generated through liquidity stability pools, liquidation revenues, and leveraged PoL incentives.

Summary

The above highlights interest-bearing stablecoins with total supply around or above $20 million, but remember that all interest-bearing stablecoins come with risks. Yields are not risk-free and may face smart contract, protocol, market, or collateral risks.