Some Tokenized Treasury Funds Let Their Price Climb; Others Pin It at $1 and Mint You More Tokens. The Choice Reveals Whether an Issuer Is Building a Fund or Building Money.
Tokenized Treasury funds hold nearly the same assets and yield nearly the same — about 3.4% right now — but they split, roughly two to one, over how that yield reaches you. About $8.5 billion sits in funds whose token price climbs as interest accrues; about $4.4 billion in funds that hold the price at exactly $1.00 and pay the yield as new tokens. It is the same accumulating-versus-distributing choice European fund investors have made for decades — but onchain it decides something bigger: only the $1.00 design can trade at par and post as collateral, which is why every settlement-minded issuer, BlackRock among them, has chosen it.
- Two tokenized Treasury funds can hold identical assets and yield the same ~3.4%, yet pay you in opposite ways: an accumulating fund's token price rises as interest accrues (Ondo's USDY trades at $1.14), while a rebasing fund's price stays fixed at $1.00 and the yield arrives as new tokens in your wallet (BlackRock's BUIDL). The return is the same; what you hold is not.
- This is not a crypto invention. It is the same accumulating-versus-distributing share-class choice European fund investors have weighed for decades — one reinvests income so the price compounds, the other pays it out. Tokenization imported the structure wholesale.
- Onchain, the choice decides more than tax. Only a token fixed at $1.00 can trade at par and be posted as collateral without a lending market first reading an oracle to learn what a unit is worth — so the $1.00 design is the one that can function as money rather than as a fund share.
- That is why the split isn't random: all four rebasing funds — from BlackRock, WisdomTree, Franklin Templeton and VanEck — come from firms building tokenized cash for settlement. The yield mechanism is a tell for whether an issuer is building a fund or building money. see data →
Put two tokenized Treasury funds side by side and, on the surface, they look like the same product: each holds short-dated US government debt, each pays out the interest, each yields something close to 3.4% right now. Look at their tokens, though, and they behave nothing alike. One costs $1.00 and never moves. Another costs $116. A third sits at $1.13 and ticks up a little every day. Those prices are not telling you which fund is doing better. They are telling you how each fund hands you your yield — and, it turns out, what each issuer thinks a tokenized Treasury is for.
There are two answers, and every tokenized Treasury fund picks one. In the first design — call it accumulating— the yield is baked into the token's price. The fund earns interest, its net asset value rises, and the token rises with it. You hold the same number of tokens; each one is worth a little more each day. Ondo's USDY reads $1.14 today; Invesco's USTB, $11.16; Circle's USYC, $1.13 — and all of them climb at roughly 3.3–3.5% a year. The high face values aren't performance; they're just where each fund set its starting share price. What matters is the drift: the price carries the yield.
| Fund | Issuer | Token price | How the yield reaches you |
|---|---|---|---|
| BUIDL | BlackRock | $1.00 | New tokens, monthly — price stays at par |
| WTGXX | WisdomTree | $1.00 | New tokens, daily — price stays at par |
| BENJI | Franklin Templeton | $1.00 | New tokens, daily — price stays at par |
| VBILL | VanEck | $1.00 | New tokens, daily — price stays at par |
| USYC | Circle | $1.13 | Price climbs (+13% since launch) |
| USDY | Ondo | $1.14 | Price climbs (+14% since launch) |
| EUTBL | Spiko | $1.20 | Price climbs (+20% since launch) |
| USTB | Invesco | $11.16 | Price climbs (higher unit price by design) |
The second design — rebasing, or peg-and-distribute — does the opposite. The token is pinned to $1.00 and kept there. The yield doesn't go into the price; it comes to you as more tokens. BlackRock's BUIDL pays out monthly, minting new tokens into each holder's balance; Franklin Templeton's BENJI does it daily, and WisdomTree's WTGXX and VanEck's VBILL work the same way. If you held any of them and watched only the price, you'd think nothing was happening — the price is always a dollar. What moves is your balance, and the fund's total supply, which grows steadily even when no new money comes in. That growing supply, against a flat price, is the yield showing up onchain.
Finance already made this choice
The split is not new. European fund investors have chosen between the same two structures for decades: an accumulating share class that reinvests income so the price compounds, or a distributing one that pays it out. The decision turns mostly on tax — an accumulating fund defers it until sale, while several countries tax distributed income as it arrives — and the onchain version inherits exactly that trade-off. A climbing price is an unrealized gain, taxable only when sold; freshly minted tokens are income the moment they land. Tokenization did not invent a new way to pay yield. It imported a settled one, and put the choice onchain where anyone can read it off the token.
What is new is what the choice now decides. Off-chain, accumulating versus distributing is a tax preference. Onchain, it determines whether the token can act as money. A price fixed at $1.00 is what lets a token trade at par, settle like cash, and post as collateral without a lending market first reading an oracle to learn what a unit is worth; a price that drifts to $1.14 or $116 cannot do any of those cleanly. That is why the rebasing design is the one every settlement-minded issuer has chosen. BlackRock has wired BUIDL to a facility that lets holders swap into USDC and other stablecoins around the clock — a feature that only makes sense for a token meant to move like money, not to be held to maturity.
The mechanism is a tell
Read that way, the yield design stops being plumbing and becomes a statement of intent. An accumulating token is being built as a fund share: something you buy, hold, and sell, whose price is a live readout of value and whose appeal is a clean compounding return. A rebasing token is being built as onchain cash: a stable unit that circulates, collateralizes, and settles, whose yield is a background drip rather than a price you watch. The four rebasing funds today — BUIDL, WisdomTree's WTGXX, BENJI and VanEck's VBILL — are all issued by firms building toward that second use. The accumulating majority, for now, is largely funds still sold as funds.
The two-to-one tilt toward accumulating, then, is less a verdict than a snapshot of an early market still mostly wrapping existing fund products. The open question is which way the next wave of issuance leans. If tokenized Treasuries keep pushing into collateral and settlement — the use everyone in the market now points to — the pressure is toward the $1.00 design, because that is the one the rails can consume. The number worth watching is not the yield the funds advertise; it is how much of new issuance chooses to look like money, and how much stays content to look like a fund.
NAV per token, July 31, 2026: USYC $1.1326, Ondo USDY $1.1412, Spiko EUTBL $1.2023, Janus Henderson JTRSY $1.1112, Invesco USTB $11.16, Ondo OUSG $116.06, OpenEden TBILL $1.1518 — each drifting up ~3.2–3.6% annualized over recent weeks, a figure stable across 14-, 30- and 60-day windows. Values read from each fund's onchain NAV oracle; face-value differences reflect starting share price, not return. Ten funds use this design.
Verified Jul 31, 2026 · onchainbenchmark.com/research/coverageFour funds hold a $1.00 token and pay yield by minting new tokens — BlackRock's BUIDL (monthly), Franklin Templeton's BENJI (daily), WisdomTree's WTGXX and VanEck's VBILL (daily) — a design each issuer documents publicly. Onchain, their token supply grows steadily even absent new investors, the signature of yield paid as tokens rather than price. Combined, they hold about US$4.4 billion.
BlackRock / Franklin Templeton / WisdomTree / VanEck — fund documentationBoth designs wrap short-dated US Treasury exposure and currently yield close to 3.4% annualized. Of the tokenized Treasury funds we measure, roughly US$8.5 billion (10 funds) uses the accumulating design and about US$4.4 billion (4 funds) the rebasing one — a structural, roughly two-to-one split across US$12.8 billion, not a fringe distinction.
Verified Jul 31, 2026 · onchainbenchmark.com/methodology- How does a tokenized Treasury fund actually pay you yield?
- In one of two ways. Accumulating funds (such as USYC, Ondo's USDY, Spiko's EUTBL, Invesco's USTB — 10 funds, about $8.5 billion) let the token's net asset value climb, so the price rises a little each day and your gain is unrealized until you sell. Rebasing funds (BlackRock's BUIDL, WisdomTree's WTGXX, Franklin Templeton's BENJI, VanEck's VBILL — 4 funds, about $4.4 billion) keep the token pinned at $1.00 and pay yield by minting new tokens into your wallet. The underlying Treasuries and the ~3.4% yield are similar; only the mechanism differs.
- Why does BlackRock's BUIDL stay at $1.00 while Ondo's USDY is $1.14?
- Because they use different yield mechanisms. BUIDL is a rebasing fund: it holds the token at $1.00 by design and distributes yield as additional tokens, so the price never drifts. USDY is an accumulating fund: it lets the price rise with the fund's net asset value, so $1.14 reflects the yield earned since launch. Neither price is a measure of performance — they reflect design choices, not returns.
- Does the yield mechanism affect taxes or accounting?
- It can. A climbing token price is generally an unrealized gain — nothing is typically taxable until you sell, and your token count stays constant. Newly minted tokens from a rebasing fund are generally income as received — potentially taxable when they arrive, and your balance changes continually. Treatment depends on jurisdiction and your circumstances, but the two designs create different reporting profiles from the same underlying asset. This is a description, not tax advice.
- Is $116 for Invesco's USTB expensive compared with a $1.00 fund?
- No — the dollar figure is just the fund's share price, set by its chosen starting unit size, not a measure of value or performance. A $116 accumulating token and a $1.00 rebasing token can hold the same assets and yield the same. What differs is that the $116 token's price rises as yield accrues, while the $1.00 token's price stays fixed and the yield arrives as extra tokens.