Circle USYC vaults

USYC began life at Hashnote, a digital-asset firm led by Leo Mizuhara and incubated by Cumberland Labs. It is the onchain version of the Hashnote International Short Duration Yield Fund, a regulated Cayman-domiciled fund that invests mainly in short-dated U.S. Treasury bills alongside repurchase agreements backed by U.S. government securities. Rather than paying out separate rewards, the token itself gradually gains value as the underlying portfolio earns short-term interest.

In January 2025 Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, announced that it had acquired Hashnote and USYC, together with a strategic partnership with trading firm DRW and its Cumberland arm. The deal brought what was then described as one of the largest tokenised treasury funds of its kind under the same roof as USDC, and USYC is now issued through Circle International Bermuda Limited while continuing to represent an interest in the underlying regulated fund.

USYC is aimed at institutions rather than the general public: it is a permissioned token available to eligible, onboarded investors, who subscribe and redeem using USDC. It is used across several blockchains as yield-bearing collateral that can be moved between cash and returns at any time.