Yield-bearing stablecoin is a useless label.
Payment rails, bill pass-throughs, delta-neutral books, and managed credit all wear it. They share almost nothing under the hood though.
Comparing them on headline APY is comparing a money market fund to a basis trade and pretending the scale is the same.
1. Payment stables are a dollar claim. The classic model parks reserves in bills & keeps the income. Holders get utility - not the yield.
2. RWA pass-throughs send the bill yield to the holder, but the engine still lives offchain: custodians, an SPV, a redemption pipe. When that pipe is closed, you are back on bank settlement clocks.
3. Delta-neutral books harvest funding and basis with a hedge designed to cancel direction. Hot when leverage demand is hot. A different product when funding compresses. Exactly why we’re pushing for more strategies in YieldVault right now.
4. Managed credit is underwriting. A desk prices borrowers. You take manager risk and first loss under a stablecoin ticker.
Wherever a label hides the engine, I see opacity. That is usually where the cost sits.
The only useful question is the source of the yield. Name that engine in one sentence - then name how it fails.
If a product can't do the first sentence, you are underwriting a brand.
