Circle USYC

USYC is Circle's tokenized money market fund: its price rises with interest earned on US Treasury bills.

USYC is a token that represents shares in Hashnote International Short Duration Yield Fund Ltd., a Cayman Islands mutual fund licensed by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority. The token was created on Ethereum by Hashnote in May 2023. Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, announced in January 2025 that it had bought Hashnote; the token is now issued by Circle International Bermuda Limited, which is regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

The fund holds short-term US Treasury bills and reverse repurchase agreements (overnight loans secured by US government securities), so it earns roughly the Federal Reserve's short-term rate. There are no payouts: the token price equals the fund's net asset value divided by the number of tokens, so the interest shows up as a rising price (about $1.14 in September 2026). Circle takes 10% of the yield as a performance fee, plus 4 bps on subscriptions and 3 bps on redemptions.

USYC is sold only to institutions outside the United States, with a $100,000 minimum, after KYC checks; only allowlisted wallets can hold it. Investors subscribe and redeem in USDC around the clock, often within one block. It is not traded on ordinary exchanges; its main use is as yield-bearing collateral, for example for Binance's institutional clients' derivatives trading since July 2025. The token runs on Ethereum, BNB Chain, Solana, Canton, NEAR and Circle's Arc network.

The fund's oracle reported about $2.40 billion in assets and about 2.11 billion tokens on 25 September 2026, down from about $3.0 billion in late July 2026; almost all of the tokens are on BNB Chain. Circle's own product page showed a much lower figure (about $313 million) on 27 September 2026, which no source explains. Circle said in March 2026 that USYC had become the largest tokenised fund. The fund's prime broker is Marex, its administrator NAV Consulting and its auditor Cohen and Company.