Stablecoin yield options for fintechs
Three indicative bands, from tokenized T-bills to market-neutral strategies, each run as a non-custodial vault under your brand.
Build your Earn menuLaunch with one conservative band and add more later
Platforms usually open Earn with a single low-risk product and add a higher-yield band once it has a track record. Some want no DeFi exposure at all and start with tokenized money market funds or an offchain lending facility.
Each band carries its own risk disclosures, and your risk team reviews them one at a time. Balances stay in USDC or USDT throughout.
From T-bills to market-neutral
The 24/7 T-bill rate
The most conservative band. Idle USDC or USDT goes into tokenized Treasury and money market funds and earns the T-bill rate around the clock, weekends included, held onchain and redeemable at NAV. A cash-management version keeps a liquid buffer sized to daily settlement and pays out instant redemptions from it, and platform float earns until the moment it's needed.
- Yield from
- Short-dated US Treasury yield through tokenized funds
- Watch for
- Fund issuer and redemption terms; the rate moves with US short rates
- Suits
- Treasury cash, platform float and a first onchain allocation
- Tokenized T-bill and money market fund allocation
- Cash-management account with instant redemptions
Diversified lending and tokenized credit
A professional manager allocates across blue-chip lending, fixed-rate positions and funding-rate capture. The real-world-asset version holds managed baskets of tokenized credit and bond funds instead, with no crypto-market exposure.
- Yield from
- Borrow interest, fixed-rate carry, perp funding, or coupons on tokenized credit
- Watch for
- Protocol risk, funding-rate compression, or credit and issuer risk on the RWA side
- Suits
- A core allocation targeting a return above T-bills
- Live: Sentora USD, earnAUSD
- Private vault: offchain lending facility to institutional borrowers
- Private vault: tokenized credit and bond basket
Market-neutral and looped carry
Quant rate arbitrage and options with no directional exposure, a basket of yield-bearing RWAs looped against stablecoin borrowing, or tokenized equities hedged with equity perps to earn funding.
- Yield from
- Rate spreads, option premium, equity perp funding and looped carry
- Watch for
- Leverage and execution risk, capacity caps and longer withdrawal windows
- Suits
- Allocators with an 8%+ hurdle and a longer horizon
- Live: NEMO USDC Prime (capped)
- Private vault: looped RWA basket or equity basis
Bands group the indicative yield of the underlying assets before vault fees. Rates float with market conditions and no return is guaranteed.
Live vaults in the mid and high bands
Ethereum
Monad
EthereumThe same controls in every band
Non-custodial
Depositors hold the receipt token and redeem at NAV under each vault's published withdrawal terms.
Independent NAV
Upshift's multi-oracle engine prices every position, and the curator has no say in its own mark. The price is visible in real time.
Onchain limits
The policy engine restricts deployment by chain, protocol, token and contract function. Anything outside the mandate reverts.
Live vault or your own
Plug into a live vault through the SDK today, or have a new vault built to your mandate, permissioned or open. Read the Tria case study or the Kraken Institutional case study.
FAQs
What does each band actually hold?
Low holds tokenized Treasury and money-market funds. Mid holds blue-chip lending and fixed-rate positions, or tokenized credit and bond funds. High runs market-neutral strategies, looped carry or equity basis. Every position is readable onchain and on app.upshift.finance.
Can we offer yield without any DeFi exposure?
Yes. Three options stay clear of DeFi lending protocols entirely: tokenized money market funds holding short-dated US Treasuries, a cash account with instant redemptions for platform float, and offchain lending facilities that lend vault liquidity to vetted institutional borrowers against collateral, with margin and liquidations handled offchain. Each has its own trade-off, fund issuer terms for the first two and borrower credit risk for the third, disclosed band by band.
Do balances have to leave stablecoins?
No. Deposits stay in USDC or USDT the whole time and earn a 24/7 T-bill rate, with no off-ramp to fiat and back.
Are these rates guaranteed?
No. The bands group indicative yields to make the menu readable. Live vault rates float with market conditions and are shown on each vault page.
Who holds the funds?
Upshift vaults are non-custodial. The vault contract holds the pooled assets, and each depositor holds a receipt token they redeem at NAV under the vault's published withdrawal terms. Curators can only move funds between whitelisted protocols. Institutions that need a qualified custodian can allocate from their Kraken qualified custody account.
Can we run a band under our own brand?
Yes. You can plug into a live vault or have a new one built to your mandate, and either can be permissioned (KYC and an allow list of depositors) or open to anyone. Users deposit through your own front end via the SDK, or through a branded page Upshift hosts for you.