Stablecoins enter a new era of interest-bearing

Stablecoins, once a stagnant asset, are now experiencing a renewed vitality. Traditionally, issuers have profited from investing user funds in U.S. Treasuries, while holders have been reduced to "interest-free savers." This unfair structure is being broken. For a long time, stablecoin holders have been in an awkward position: while their assets are stable, their returns are zero, while issuers invest user funds in safe assets like U.S. Treasuries, reaping billions of dollars in annual returns. Data disclosed by Tether shows that it holds over $157 billion in U.S. Treasuries, making it the 18th largest holder of U.S. Treasuries globally. Its operating profit in the second quarter of 2025 reached $4.9 billion.

But this pattern is being completely overturned.The rise of income-generating stablecoins is upgrading stablecoins from "value-anchoring tools" to "interest-bearing assets", ushering in the "dividend era" of stablecoins.

Income-based stablecoins: redefining stable value

The core of income-based stablecoins is that their underlying assets can generate income and distribute this income directly to holders through smart contracts.

This is in stark contrast to traditional stablecoins (such as USDT and USDC) - the former allows holders to become "interest-free depositors", while the latter transforms currency holdings into passive investment tools.

Its operating logic can be simplified as follows:

• Users deposit US dollars to buy stablecoins

• The issuer allocates funds to interest-bearing assets (such as US Treasury bonds, pledge income)

• The income is automatically distributed to the coin holders through the on-chain mechanism

• Coin holders enjoy the dividend of "holding and earning interest"

This model breaks the barrier of issuers' exclusive profits and returns traditional financial income such as U.S. Treasury bond interest to users in the form of tokenization. Leading Projects: A Diverse Spectrum of Returns and Risks The current landscape of yield-generating stablecoins has formed a multi-tiered ecosystem, catering to diverse risk appetites: • Ethena’s USDe: Utilizing a delta-neutral strategy of “ETH staking + perpetual swap hedging,” USDe boasts an annualized return of up to 30% and currently stands at approximately 9.31%. Its market capitalization has surpassed $10 billion, making it a leading traffic generator in the sector. • Ondo Finance's USDY: Anchored to short-term US Treasuries, it offers a stable yield of approximately 4%-5%. Essentially a tokenized note, backed by Treasuries and bank deposits, it appeals to conservative investors. • PayPal's PYUSD: Expected to be an interest-bearing stablecoin in 2025, users will be able to earn interest on the underlying US Treasury bonds while making payments.

• MakerDAO’s USDS:An upgraded version of DAI, user deposits can enjoy a 4.75% savings rate (SSR), with a deposit size of nearly US$2 billion.

Value reconstruction: the leap from "tool" to "asset"

The outbreak of income-generating stablecoins is not only a technological iteration, but also an innovation in the economic model:

1. Redistribution of financial value

The tens of billions of U.S. Treasury bond income exclusively owned by the issuer will be returned to users through an on-chain mechanism. For example, if the U.S. Treasury bond yield is 4%, the trillion-dollar stablecoin market can generate $40 billion in interest each year - income-generating stablecoins allow users to change from bystanders to sharers. 2. Opening up the core pipeline of RWA (real-world assets) Tokenized treasury bonds are the underlying support for yield-generating stablecoins. As of 2025, the market value of on-chain tokenized treasury bonds exceeded US$5.8 billion, expanding at a quarterly rate of 25%. Stablecoins have become a "compliant bridge" for traditional income to flow into the crypto world. 3. Activating DeFi composability Users can use USDY as collateral for borrowing in Aave or market making in Curve to generate additional income. For example, USDY's base yield of 4.5% can be increased to 6%-8% through DeFi strategies, forming a closed loop of "interest-earning and reinvestment." Market forecasts indicate that driven by regulatory compliance, expansion of cross-border payments, and integration with traditional finance, the stablecoin market is expected to exceed US$1.4 trillion to US$4 trillion by 2030, with yield-generating stablecoins accounting for over 15% of the total stablecoin market. Yield-bearing stablecoins mark the evolution of stablecoins from 1.0 (anchored instruments) to 2.0 (interest-bearing assets). They are not only a product of technological innovation but also a historical process of redistributing financial power—distributing the risk-free returns once monopolized by institutions to every coin holder through code. The "interest-bearing era" of stablecoins is essentially the crypto market's reinvention of the traditional financial profit distribution mechanism. It not only provides a secure and efficient trading environment, but also maximizes the potential of yield-bearing stablecoins through DeFi components.

In the future, as the scale of RWA tokenization continues to expand, the integration of stablecoins and the real economy will become closer.