Over $1.2 trillion flows through US Treasuries daily, on average. Until recently, though, you couldn’t access them directly, unless you had a US brokerage account, a qualified custodian arrangement, or a minimum 6-figure ticket size. Tokenized treasuries change that by unlocking US government debt minted as a blockchain token, held in a self-custody wallet by anyone who can pass KYC and connect onchain.

As of 2026, more than $14 billion in tokenized treasury assets sit onchain, across Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, Arbitrum, and several other networks — up from roughly $100 million in early 2023. But the products in this market differ in structure, yield, chain, minimum investment, and regulatory treatment, which makes understanding the whole category more useful than knowing any single product.

That’s why, in this guide, we explain what tokenized treasuries actually are, how the mechanics work, how the live products compare, what the cross-chain access problem means in practice, and LI.FI’s intents-based architecture solves it. Let’s dive in.

Key Takeaways

• Tokenized treasuries are blockchain-based tokens representing US government debt (T-bills, bonds, or money-market-fund shares) that pay government-rate yield onchain. The category has grown from about $100 million in early 2023 to $14+ billion in 2026. 

• Three structures sit under the label: tokenized T-bills, tokenized T-bonds, and treasury-backed money market funds, each with different duration and regulatory treatment. 

• Yields cluster in a narrow band around the Fed funds rate (~3.3–3.7% in mid-2026), so the real differentiator between products is who can hold them: US qualified purchasers (OUSG, BUIDL), accredited US investors (USTB), or non-US-only products (USDY, USYC). 

• Most products are native to a single chain, so actually using them means cross-chain routing: bridging stablecoins, settling into the right asset on the right network, and respecting compliance rules along the way. 

• LI.FI Intents and LI.FI Composer provide that routing layer, moving capital into tokenized-treasury products across chains in a single, compliance-aware transaction.

What are tokenized treasuries? 

A tokenized treasury is a blockchain-based representation of US government debt, typically comprising Treasury bills (T-bills), Treasury bonds, or money market funds that hold government securities. The token grants the holder economic exposure to the underlying asset, while accruing yield. And you can redeem it for the underlying value at maturity or on demand, depending on the product structure.

As for the three products that commonly underlie the ‘tokenized treasuries’ umbrella, they can be summarized as follows: 

• Tokenized T-bills are short-duration instruments (4 to 52 weeks) where the issuer purchases T-bills through a qualified custodian, holds them as collateral, and issues tokens representing ownership. Because T-bills trade near par and mature quickly, tokenized T-bill products behave like yield-bearing stablecoins, insofar as they can hold their value while earning government-rate interest. OUSG (Ondo Finance) and BUIDL (BlackRock/Securitize) are two of the largest examples. 

• Tokenized T-bonds carry longer duration and greater interest-rate sensitivity. A rising-rate environment hurts bond prices, whereas a falling one helps. Fewer tokenized bond products have launched at scale because that duration risk is hard to explain and even harder to manage for DeFi users. 

• Tokenized treasury-backed money market funds (MMFs) tokenize a share in a fund that holds T-bills and other short-duration sovereign instruments. However, the distinction matters because MMF shares are classified as securities under a different regulatory framework than direct T-bill holdings.

To better understand why institutions are tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs), check out our complete guide: Real-World Assets (RWAs) in crypto.

How tokenized treasury products work

The lifecycle of a tokenized treasury runs through five stages.

First, issuance. An issuer (Ondo Finance, BlackRock via Securitize, Superstate, Circle, OpenEden, and others) purchases the underlying T-bills or government securities through a licensed broker-dealer and places them with a qualified custodian.

Second, custody verification. The custodian holds the securities. In some products, oracle networks — like Chainlink Proof of Reserve — publish an onchain attestation that the backing exists and matches the circulating token supply.

Third, token minting. Once custody is confirmed, tokens representing ownership claims are minted on a supported blockchain. While most major products to date have launched first on Ethereum and then expanded to other chains, Solana has also emerged as a go-to chain for tokenized treasury issuance.

Fourth, yield distribution. Tokenized treasuries redistribute the yield earned on the underlying instruments, and currently, this is done in two main ways: 

1. Accumulation: The token balance remains constant (unless the holder acquires more), while the token’s price appreciates as interest accrues. Ondo’s OUSG and USDY, and Circle’s USYC work this way.

2. Rebasing: The token maintains a fixed price (typically $1.00), but holders’ balances grow through yield accrual. BlackRock’s BUIDL, for instance, distributes its daily-accrued dividends as new tokens, and Ondo offers rebasing variants (rUSDY, rOUSG) for holders who prefer a stable unit price.

Both mechanisms deliver similar economic returns. But they serve different use cases, given their unique accounting and composability parameters.

Fifth, redemption. When holders submit a redemption request, the issuer sells the underlying instrument, receives USD, and either delivers stablecoins to the holder’s wallet or, for institutional counterparties, wires fiat. Off-chain settlement typically takes 1–2 business days, but some emerging products are exploring instant settlement with stablecoins. 

Why tokenized treasuries are growing

Onchain treasuries grew from about $100 million in 2023 to $14+ billion in 2026, backed by two key drivers: T-bill yields spiked as the Fed raised rates, and DeFi yields collapsed at the same time. Protocol treasuries sitting in stablecoins earning 0% went looking for yield, and tokenized treasuries offered government-rate return, accessible onchain. And several factors, mostly structural, have been compounding this demand.

• 24x7 settlement: Traditional T-bill purchases settle T+1, during banking hours. An onchain treasury position can transfer between counterparties at 3am on a Sunday, on block time rather than bank time.

• Programmable yield: Tokenized treasury tokens are smart contracts, so they can be used as collateral in lending protocols or plugged into automated treasury-management strategies and multi-step DeFi workflows. Superstate’s USTB and Centrifuge’s JTRSY, for example, are accepted as collateral on Aave’s institutional Horizon market, while Circle’s USYC and Ondo’s USDY can be used on Morpho.

• Genuinely global access: Institutional investors outside the US who previously faced friction reaching the Treasury market can now get dollar-denominated government yield through a KYC-compliant token purchase. It’s a meaningful shift for global capital allocation. 

Besides these, onchain treasuries serve as an alluring solution for idle, unproductive stablecoin. Protocols can hold a tokenized Treasury token, earn government-rate yield on reserves, and still post collateral for operations. Sky’s Spark allocator alone committed over $1 billion to tokenized treasuries through its Tokenization Grand Prix, splitting it across BlackRock’s BUIDL, Superstate’s USTB, and Centrifuge’s JTRSY.

Top tokenized products in 2026

As one of the fastest-growing sectors in crypto, new tokenized Treasury products arrive on the market daily. To help you make informed choices against this backdrop, here’s an overview of the top instruments available as of June 2026: 

Notably, the yield offered on the above instruments depend on the Fed funds rate, held at 3.50–3.75% as of mid-2026. And since these 7-day figures move with shifts in monetary policy, it’s worth checking the issuer’s live rate before committing capital.

Moreover, it’s important to consider two recent developments in the tokenized treasuries space if you’re exploring it today — more so, because most older guides don’t clarify this. USYC (Circle) overtook BlackRock’s BUIDL as the largest tokenized treasury fund, while Superstate’s USTB is now managed by Invesco. Superstate still manages tokenization and transfers for the fund, but Invesco took over USTB in 2026. These altered the liquidity and counterparty dynamics of the funds involved (USYC, BUIDL, and USTB), which is a critical evaluation point for investors.

That said, the eligibility criteria for each fund matters more than its yield rate, since the yields largely cluster around the current Fed funds rate. OUSG and BUIDL are restricted to US qualified purchasers, besides a $5+ million minimum ticket size. They thus present a higher, stricter bar than the accredited-investor standard. USDY targets non-US investors. OpenEden, on the other hand, adopted a novel, jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction approach with TBILL, integrating LI.FI to let users across 15+ chains swap into stablecoins and mint TBILL in a single transaction.

Cross-chain access to tokenized treasuries

Most tokenized treasury products are native to one chain, which creates an access problem that’s often glossed over. 

BUIDL, for instance, is centered on Ethereum. OUSG’s primary market is Ethereum. USDY has expanded across a dozen networks, but not every chain where capital actually sits. So if an institution holds USDC on Arbitrum and wants exposure to OUSG on Ethereum, that is not a single-step operation. Rather, it involves a bridge, stablecoin delivery, and a separate subscription request. Closing that gap takes several layers of infrastructure working together.

Selecting a reliable bridge is the first step. Besides introducing a point of trust and potential failure, this choice affects speed, cost, and how much slippage hits the stablecoin leg.

Then comes stablecoin settlement. Since most tokenized treasuries accept USDC for purchase, getting from any stablecoin, on any chain, to the right stablecoin on the right chain requires routing optimized for low slippage. The LI.FI Stablecoin API helps with this, routing cross-chain stablecoin moves with a 0.1% default slippage and capped 2% price impact, tuned for treasury-scale transfers.

Besides cross-chain access and viable routing costs, compliance-aware execution is another prerequisite for institutional use of tokenized treasuries. Most available bridges and DEXs don’t serve this need, which is why LI.FI Intents as built. 

Rather than choosing a bridge, an issuer or integrator expresses an intent — ‘Deliver this asset to XYZ address on ABC chain — and a network of professional solvers competes to fill it. Compliance is built into this execution path, with wallet-level OFAC screening, a solver network of KYB-verified legal entities, and integrator-controlled solver selection. It’s not bolted on, thus giving regulated issuers granular control over which counterparties are permitted to execute its flows. 

The Intents-driven UX enhancements for regulated users isn’t limited to compliance, though. Token-standard compatibility is evolving as well, with Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Token (CCT) standard emerging as an interoperability layer for RWAs, which LI.FI supports natively. So any Treasury token issued issued under CCT is routable across chains from day one.

And finally, multi-step composition ties the three actions of using Arbitrum-based USDC to deposit into a Ethereum-based Treasury product — bridge, swap, and deposit — to complete the workflow. LI.FI Composer bundles the swap, bridge, and deposit into a single signed transaction across EVM chains, so a user signs once and pays gas once instead of managing three separate steps. 

Together, these layers are what let the ‘internet capital markets’ actually function: a routing layer connecting tokenized real-world assets to the pools of capital that want them.

Risks and regulatory status

Tokenized treasuries carry risks distinct from both traditional T-bills and standard DeFi protocols. While they aren’t stalling the sector’s growth, it’s worth noting them briefly for anyone who’s willing to put serious money into these instruments. 

First, custodial risk. If the custodian holding the underlying T-bills fails, token holders are creditors in a bankruptcy proceeding, not holders of the securities themselves. That parallels money market fund risk, not direct T-bill ownership.

Second, smart contract risk. Treasury tokens are smart contracts, and exploits or bugs can affect them even if the underlying securities are intact. All major issuers publish audit reports, but audits reduce risk rather than remove it.

Third, issuer durability risk. In 2025, Mountain Protocol wound down its USDM treasury token after being acquired by Anchorage Digital, halting yield and redeeming holders out. It showed how a tokenized treasury is only as durable as the entity issuing it, and the roster of issuers is still consolidating.

Fourth, duration risk. Tokenized T-bond products are sensitive to interest-rate moves, whereas short-duration T-bill products are largely immune, because they mature and roll over frequently. The distinction matters for institutions with rate-sensitive balance sheets. 

Besides these, access restrictions are still there at a jurisdictional level. US persons, for example, are excluded from products like USDY, or face high minimums on the likes of BUIDL. Thus although cross-chain access is largely being solved, geography and real-world regulations still determine which tokenized Treasury product is available to whom in the first place. The landscape is evolving on this front, but there’s a long way to go. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What yield do tokenized treasuries currently pay?

As of 2026, most tokenized T-bill products yield roughly 3.3–3.7% APY, tracking the federal funds rate (held at 3.50–3.75% in mid-2026). Yields change as the Fed adjusts policy. Check each issuer's current rate directly — rwa.xyz publishes live yield data for the major products.

Are tokenized treasuries safe and regulated?

The underlying US Treasuries are among the world's safest assets, but the tokenized wrapper adds layers of risk: smart contract risk, custodial risk, and issuer operational risk. Major products (USYC, BUIDL, OUSG, USDY) are run by regulated entities with published audits. But they are not equivalent to holding T-bills directly at TreasuryDirect, where the minimum is $100 and there is no smart-contract or issuer layer between you and the security.

Can non-US investors buy tokenized treasury products?

Yes — several are built specifically for them. USDY (Ondo) is available to non-US persons after KYC, and OpenEden's TBILL serves accredited and professional investors across jurisdictions. OUSG and BUIDL, by contrast, require US qualified-purchaser status and focus on institutional investors.

What is the difference between USYC, BUIDL, OUSG, and USDY?

USYC (Circle, via its Hashnote acquisition) is the largest tokenized treasury fund, backed by T-bills and reverse repo, available only to non-US persons (Reg S) with a $100,000 minimum. BUIDL is BlackRock's institutional product (via Securitize), with a $5M minimum and multi-chain deployment — now the second-largest fund, behind USYC. OUSG is a tokenized share in a BlackRock-backed T-bill fund, restricted to US qualified purchasers with a $5,000 minimum. USDY is Ondo's yield token for non-US investors, backed by T-bills and bank demand deposits, with no minimum and chain coverage spanning eleven networks.

Can tokenized treasuries be used as DeFi collateral?

Yes, and it is one of the category’s main draws. Superstate’s USTB and Centrifuge’s JTRSY are accepted on Aave’s institutional Horizon market, and Ondo’s USDY and Circle’s USYC are used as collateral on Morpho. Posting a yield-bearing treasury token as collateral lets a holder earn T-bill yield on assets they have pledged — an improvement over posting USDC, which earns nothing.

What blockchains support tokenized treasury products?

Ethereum hosts the largest share of tokenized treasury value, but it is no longer alone. BNB Chain has become a major host — driven by USYC's use as exchange collateral — with Solana, Arbitrum, and Base also growing. USDY alone now spans eleven chains. Coverage keeps expanding as issuers deploy more widely and as cross-chain infrastructure matures.

Try it!

Tokenized treasuries turned idle onchain dollars into government-rate yield. The open question is no longer whether US government debt can live onchain — more than $14 billion says it can — but how that yield reaches the capital that wants it, across chains, without breaking compliance or settlement quality.

That is the routing layer LI.FI provides. With LI.FI Intents, the core of the Ethereum Foundation-backed Open Intents Framework, it fills cross-chain orders for tokenized assets through a competitive solver network. It serves regulated issuers as well, giving them granular control with wallet-level OFAC screening, KYB-verified solvers, and integrator-controlled solver selection built in from day one. Moreover, LI.FI Composer bundles the bridge, swap, and deposit into a single signed transaction, so stablecoins on one chain reach a treasury vault on another in one step. 

Check out our documentation to start building, or reach out to our team to scope the RWA routing infrastructure your product needs.