BUIDL vs USYC vs BENJI: tokenized money market funds

BlackRock's BUIDL, Circle's USYC and Franklin Templeton's BENJI all pay roughly the T-bill rate, but each one limits who can hold it and when it pays out. A fintech paying customers usually reaches them through a stablecoin vault with a USDC buffer.

Take a fintech holding $10 million of customer USDC in a tokenized money market fund. It's Saturday, 10am. A customer asks for $50,000 back. BlackRock's BUIDL redeems daily from $250,000, and its 24/7 route is a Circle contract that buys shares for USDC. Circle's USYC pays out in one block while the request fits its instant capacity. Franklin Templeton's BENJI processes redemptions only in business hours on business days, and Ondo's OUSG redeems in USDC at any hour from $5,000. Timing differs.

For a fintech Earn program, few customers can hold these funds themselves. BUIDL takes US qualified purchasers, OUSG takes qualified purchasers, USYC takes non-US investors from 100,000 USDC, Superstate's USTB takes accredited investors and qualified purchasers, and BENJI is open to US retail investors from $20. A treasury investing its own cash can subscribe to whichever fund its investor status and minimum allow.

A fintech paying customers usually reaches the fund through a stablecoin vault. The vault holds the fund's tokens next to a USDC buffer, which pays weekend withdrawals while the fund waits for a business day.

How do BUIDL, USYC, BENJI, OUSG and USTB compare?

APYs are 7-day figures from each fund's rwa.xyz page on 4 October 2026 and move with US short-term rates; none is guaranteed. USTB's own site shows $744.1 million in assets, because it counts book-entry shares that rwa.xyz leaves out. Its 30-day yield there was 3.61%.

How does BlackRock's BUIDL work?

BUIDL, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, launched on 20 March 2024 and held $2.25 billion across 106 holders on 4 October 2026, according to rwa.xyz. It takes US qualified purchasers from 5,000,000 USDC and redeems daily in amounts of at least 250,000 USDC. Minimums are high. Securitize tokenizes the fund and acts as its transfer agent, and BNY is administrator and custodian.

BUIDL runs on nine chains, and the fee depends on the share class. BlackRock's November 2024 share-class release set 50 basis points on Ethereum, Arbitrum and Optimism and 20 basis points on Aptos, Avalanche and Polygon. Dividends accrue and are distributed onchain, and holders can transfer shares 24/7 to other approved investors. In April 2024 Circle launched a USDC smart contract that buys BUIDL shares from holders at any hour. That contract gives holders a way out at weekends. Payment is in USDC.

How does Circle's USYC work?

Each USYC token is a share in the Hashnote International Short Duration Fund, a Cayman Islands mutual fund holding T-bills and reverse repo. Circle International Bermuda, licensed by the Bermuda Monetary Authority, administers the token. It's open only to non-US persons, from $100,000, and yield shows up as a rising token price.

Circle charges 10% of the yield and no management fee. Mints cost 0.04% and redemptions 0.03%, both waived on the first $1 million of combined daily volume. Redemptions below Circle's instant capacity settle in one block, and larger ones settle T+0 or T+1. USYC also works as margin collateral at Binance, Deribit and Cumberland. On rwa.xyz it held $2.40 billion across 35 holders on 4 October 2026, a little more than BUIDL's $2.25 billion (spread across far fewer holders).

What makes Franklin Templeton's BENJI different?

BENJI is the token for the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX). It's a US-registered mutual fund that has recorded share ownership on a blockchain since April 2021. Its summary prospectus of 1 August 2026 sets a $20 minimum and a 0.20% net expense ratio. Purchases and redemptions run through the Benji app or an institutional portal, and only during normal business hours on business days. Of the five, it's the one open to ordinary US investors. On rwa.xyz it held $751 million across 1,128 holders on 4 October 2026, about two-thirds on Stellar.

Franklin also runs iBENJI for non-US institutions and US qualified institutional buyers, with a $5,000,000 minimum. Tokenized treasuries compared sets it next to WisdomTree's WTGXX and J.P. Morgan's JLTXX.

Where do Ondo's OUSG and Superstate's USTB fit?

Both sell to US investors who qualify, and both run instant USDC routes.

• Ondo's OUSG mints and redeems instantly in USDC, 24/7, including weekends and bank holidays, from $5,000 with no fee. It's a fund of funds: on 2 October 2026 it held State Street's SWEEP fund (47.33%), BUIDL (31.85%), BENJI (12.92%) and Fidelity's FYOXX (6.91%). Those funds still redeem on their own business-day schedules underneath. Its management fee is capped at 0.15% and waived until 1 January 2027.
• Superstate's USTB is the Invesco Short Duration US Government Securities Fund, with BNY Mellon as custodian. USDC redemptions settle immediately each market day (USD redemptions have a 1pm ET cutoff), and protocols can mint or redeem in a single Ethereum transaction. Aave on Ethereum held about $11.9 million of USTB as collateral on 4 October 2026.

What happens to a weekend withdrawal at each fund?

The token can move on a Saturday. Paying out USDC is another matter, since standard redemptions need the fund to sell T-bills and settle through banks that close at weekends. A Saturday request for USDC goes one of these ways:

• BUIDL: approved holders can transfer shares or sell them to Circle's USDC contract, up to the USDC it holds.
• USYC: instant in one block up to Circle's instant-redemption capacity.
• BENJI: the request waits for business hours on Monday.
• OUSG: instant from $5,000.
• USTB: liquidity each market day, per Superstate.

WisdomTree added another route in February 2026, when the SEC approved 24/7 trading of WTGXX at a fixed $1 with WisdomTree's broker-dealer, settled in USDC. Each instant route pays from USDC that someone holds ready, such as Circle's contract, a dealer's inventory or a vault's buffer. Upshift's own version is Upshift Clear, an LP-funded USDC pool that prices a tokenized asset with a Chainlink oracle, pays the holder in one transaction and redeems with the issuer in the background.

Which fund fits a fintech Earn program, and which fits a treasury?

A US company that qualifies as a qualified purchaser and holds more than $5 million can subscribe to BUIDL. One holding $100,000 to $5 million can look at USTB or OUSG, and a non-US entity can use USYC from 100,000 USDC. The company holds the shares on its own balance sheet and lives with each fund's redemption window. How companies earn yield on treasury cash covers the policy side.

A fintech paying customers has a harder time. Few customers are qualified purchasers, and BENJI's retail route runs through Franklin's own app with business-day redemptions. The fintech can buy fund shares in its own name and credit customers a rate. Customers then hold a claim on the fintech, and that usually needs legal review in each market.

Or the fintech can hold the fund through a vault, where depositors hold a receipt token for their share of the vault. The issuer has to approve the vault contract as a holder first. A vault leaves the fund's eligibility rules in place. US rules look through a vehicle set up to invest in a qualified-purchaser fund. A vault holding BUIDL, OUSG or USTB needs depositors who qualify themselves. Customer products use funds open to those customers, such as USYC for non-US holders or BENJI for US retail, or serve customers outside the US, and the vault's allowlist holds deposits to whoever the fund's terms admit. Counsel should review the issuer's terms and the vault's permissioning together.

Why hold a tokenized fund through a vault and not directly?

A fintech that qualifies can hold BUIDL, USYC or OUSG itself, and some of these funds already pay out USDC at any hour. The vault does its work on the customer side, where thousands of people hold small amounts and withdraw at random times.

The vault is an extra layer, with its own smart contract and oracle risk. Its USDC buffer earns little and trims the rate a few basis points. A fintech putting its own treasury into one fund, in large amounts, can often hold the fund directly. The vault fits customer balances: many holders, small sizes and withdrawals at any hour.

How does a fintech offer a 24/7 T-bill rate through a vault?

The vault holds one or more tokenized funds for most of the balance and keeps a USDC buffer sized to a normal day of withdrawals. Customer withdrawals come out of the buffer at any hour. The vault refills it in large amounts, through a fund's 24/7 USDC route where one exists (BUIDL through Circle, USYC, OUSG) or through the fund's next daily redemption. The fund keeps earning. Money market funds accrue income for every calendar day, weekends included, and the vault's share price rises with it. Stablecoin yield without DeFi walks through the vault mechanics step by step.

Upshift is onchain yield infrastructure for fintechs and asset managers with stablecoin balances. Its Conservative band holds tokenized Treasury and money market funds, at an indicative 3-4% before fees, and a cash-management version adds a buffer for daily settlement. Partners launch the vault under their own name through the Upshift SDK (npm package @augustdigital/sdk), the API or the Upshift app. They set the fee and who can deposit. They can add Core or Enhanced vaults on the same integration later.

Every Upshift vault processes redemptions daily, with its own lag, and most offer instant redemption for a fee, subject to liquidity. Each vault's owner is a Gnosis Safe multisig, and the contracts have had 11 smart contract audits by 6 independent firms. Upshift has reached $550 million+ in peak deposits across 50+ vaults on 30+ chains, for 66,000+ users. How card programs earn yield on customer float covers the card version of the same setup.

What risks come with each route?

• Holding a fund directly: issuer terms that can change, business-day redemption windows, high minimums, allowlisted wallets only, and thin secondary markets.
• Instant facilities, including OUSG's, Circle's and Upshift Clear: they pay only up to the USDC in the pool, and they rely on contract code and price feeds.
• A vault holding a fund: smart contract, oracle and liquidity risk on top of the fund's own, plus a buffer that earns little and trims the headline rate.
• Rates: every fund here earns the short-term Treasury rate, which falls when the Federal Reserve cuts. The T-bill calculator shows what a balance earns at a given rate.

Vault yields vary and aren't guaranteed, and there's no deposit insurance on any of these products. Vault provider due diligence lists the questions to send any provider.

Always make sure to do your own research and be aware of the above and any other risks before depositing.

Frequently asked questions

BUIDL vs USYC vs BENJI: which tokenized money market fund should a fintech use?

For its own treasury, a US fintech that qualifies as a qualified purchaser can hold BUIDL from $5 million, a non-US fintech can hold USYC from 100,000 USDC, and BENJI is open from $20 through Franklin's app. For customer balances, a fintech can hold one of them inside a vault the issuer has approved; whitelisted vault providers compares the permissioned options.

Do tokenized money market funds redeem on weekends?

Standard issuer redemptions follow US business days and cut-off times, with USYC taking requests between 9am and 2pm ET. Weekend exits run through instant facilities funded with USDC: Circle's BUIDL contract, USYC's instant capacity, OUSG's 24/7 redemptions, WisdomTree's dealer for WTGXX, or a vault's buffer.

How can a fintech offer a 24/7 T-bill rate on customer stablecoin balances?

It deposits customer USDC into a vault that holds tokenized Treasury funds plus a USDC buffer, and shows the vault's rate in its Earn tab. Tria went live with Upshift vaults two weeks after starting its SDK integration, according to the Tria case study.

Why not hold BUIDL or USYC directly instead of through a vault?

A fintech can, for its own treasury, if it meets the issuer's eligibility rules and minimums. Customer balances are where the vault helps. Its USDC buffer pays small withdrawals at any hour, below the fund's redemption minimum, and the vault keeps each depositor's share and income on its own books. The fintech also skips onboarding with each fund, because the issuer approves the vault once. The fund's eligibility rules still apply to the vault's depositors.

Which tokenized money market funds can non-US fintechs access?

USYC is limited to non-US persons, from $100,000, and Franklin's iBENJI and J.P. Morgan's JLTXX take non-US institutions from $5,000,000 and 1,000,000 USDC. BUIDL, USTB and BENJI are sold to US investors, and OUSG to qualified purchasers in the countries Ondo lists.

Can tokenized money market fund shares be used as collateral?

Yes, where a venue accepts them. Circle lists Binance, Deribit and Cumberland as USYC collateral venues, and Superstate lists Aave and Kamino as lending markets that accept USTB.

What fees do BUIDL, USYC and BENJI charge?

BUIDL charges 0.20% to 0.50% a year depending on the chain, and USYC takes 10% of the yield. BENJI's net expense ratio is 0.20% (0.22% before Franklin's waiver). A vault holding one of them adds its own management and performance fees.

Keep reading

• Tokenized money market funds vs stablecoin vaults. Holding a fund directly against holding it through a vault.
• How to tier vault strategies by risk. Adding lending and credit bands above the T-bill band.
• Upshift Clear instant RWA redemptions. How the LP-funded USDC pool pays out against tokenized funds.
• How neobanks and fintechs offer stablecoin yield. Product patterns when the depositor is a consumer.