KiloEx (KILO) is a user-friendly DEX for perpetuals trading, offering high leverage, rewards, LSTfi integration and a robust multi-chain ecosystem.

 trading is one of the most lucrative areas for cryptocurrency enthusiasts if you know how to navigate the sometimes complex world of these contracts. Unlike standard futures, perpetual futures contracts have no expiration date, allowing traders to hold onto their positions as long as they prefer. You only exit a crypto perpetual (or “perp”) contract when you feel it’s the best time to execute your long or short trade. The lack of an expiration period makes these contracts attractive for traders.

Unfortunately, many crypto perpetual contract trading platforms are far from user-friendly. It seems like many perpetual crypto exchanges assume that only professional traders dabble in these contracts, and along with that assumption goes a second one — that these pros can navigate even the most complex user interfaces. As a result, finding a user-friendly perps platform is a challenge in the world of crypto trading.

 (DEX) that aims to change the status quo by providing a user-friendly environment for traders. Its platform also offers high leverage ratios, integration into the wider liquid staking token finance (LSTfi) ecosystem and generous reward programs for referrers and affiliates.

Thanks to its numerous benefits, this DEX caters to the needs of traders at all levels of expertise who are interested in crypto perpetuals. Operational since mid-2023, KiloEx launched its native token, KILO, in March 2025 to further enhance its platform's reward, staking and governance mechanisms.

 (BNB) that specializes in crypto perpetual futures trading.

 The platform prides itself on offering a user-friendly interface, high 

 ratios of up to 100x, multi-token vaults with generous APYs and a number of reward programs for referrers and affiliates.

Co-founded by Joey Ni (CEO) and Charles Gong (COO), KiloEx was originally launched on BNB Chain's mainnet in June 2023. As of mid-April 2025, the platform has additionally expanded its service coverage to five 

 (B2). This coverage allows KiloEx to access the ecosystems of three leading blockchain platforms — 

Manta, Base and Taiko are Ethereum-focused Layer 2 solutions, while opBNB is an efficient and low-cost optimistic rollup for the BNB Chain, while B

 is a platform linked to Bitcoin that acts as a major Bitcoin DeFi (BTCFi) enabler.

Because it’s a BNB-native platform, KiloEx's industry footprint is most notable within this blockchain's broader ecosystem. In fact, as Apr 17, 2025, KiloEx is the top DEX on the opBNB network by 

Using Layer 2 chains allows KiloEx to offer its users fast and low-cost transactions, which isn't always possible on a typical Layer 1 network. It's true that BNB Chain, the primary Layer 1 used by KiloEx, generally has much lower gas fees than Ethereum, the industry's leading 

 chain that’s notorious for its exorbitant costs. However, KiloEx's partner Layer 2 networks help drive costs and transaction times even lower. BNB Chain's current average gas fee is slightly over $0.10, while the opBNB Layer 2 rollup's comparable fee is only about $0.005.

In 2024, the platform introduced one of its most innovative features — the 

, which allows liquidity providers to stake multiple assets to earn high yields. That same year, KiloEx significantly expanded its partnership network, becoming an active player in the LSTFi ecosystem. LSTFi is a new stream within the DeFi industry that allows you to use 

 (LSTs) on various protocols for additional yield.

Having solidified its market presence in 2024, the project launched its native token, KILO, in March 2025. However, in mid-April 2025, KiloEx 

 and halted trading on April 15 as a risk management measure, pending investigation of the damage.

The Hybrid Vault is among the most innovative features offered by KiloEx. Essentially, it acts similarly to liquidity pools on other exchanges. Liquidity providers can contribute their crypto funds to the vault to support trading activity on the DEX and earn interest on their contributions, based on the fees earned by the protocol.

You can contribute a mix of coins to a KiloEx vault. Supported assets include 

Depending upon trading activity and the mix of coins contributed, you can earn APYs as high as 30%, making KiloEx one of the most lucrative choices for liquidity providers in this niche.

KiloEx uses a health factor calculation for this type of vault to keep your funds and the entire ecosystem safe. Based on the health factor score of your contribution to the vault, your funds could be liquidated if their value drops dangerously low.

Discounts are also offered for fixed-term deposits for established assets, such as USDT and USDC. Withdrawals for the fixed deposits are processed upon maturity, while all other withdrawals are processed within one to three "epochs," with each epoch on the platform lasting about three days. Thus, depending upon your contributed funds, you’ll wait anywhere from three to nine days to receive your crypto back.

The KiloEx platform also runs a generous referral program under which you can earn rewards for referring your friends to the platform. The amount you earn depends upon the trading volumes generated by the people whom you’ve referred. Additionally, your referees to the DEX can also benefit from fee rebates, again depending upon the volume of trade they generate.

There’s a tiered system, comprising nine levels, based on which you and your friends earn commissions and rebates. Under this system, even those referred traders whose monthly volume is at the lowest level (below $5,000) can still benefit from 5% rebates, while you also earn a 10% commission.

The table below shows the structure of this referral system with percentages for commission and rebates based on monthly trading volumes.

KiloEx offers an affiliate program for key opinion leaders (KOLs) with a certain level of social media following and influence in the crypto market. KOLs may apply to join the program by filling out an application, which is then considered by the project team within 48 hours.

To qualify for affiliate status, a KOL must have: 

Approved affiliates are provided a link to the platform, and are encouraged to invite their followers to trade on the KiloEx. If they invite at least five followers who trade at sufficient levels, the affiliates can start earning their commission. KOLs can earn up to 55% commission, depending upon the referred followers' trading activity.

KiloEx’s native utility token, KILO, is a 

 asset launched on BNB Chain. It’s used on the platform for governance, fee discounts on trades, rewards via 

, liquidity provision incentives and staking.

KILO is a supply-capped asset, with a maximum and total supply of 1 billion. The token’s supply allocation shares are shown in the chart below.

xKILO is an escrowed version of the KILO token. You can convert KILO to xKILO at a fixed rate of 1:1. The primary utility of xKILO is to provide boosted liquidity provision, which makes it possible to receive staking rewards. By locking xKILO on the platform, you can access special discounts and other benefits reserved for VIP-level users. Holding xKILO also grants you governance power to vote and influence the platform's future direction.

Unlike KILO, xKILO is nontransferable and isn’t tradable on the secondary market. The only ways to obtain xKILO are either to buy it with KILO or receive it via airdrops.

Platform users can earn points to qualify for KILO airdrops. Typically, you accumulate points by trading, depositing funds, referring others to the DEX, checking in to the platform and completing other specified eligible activities.

The project’s initial airdrop, Genesis Season, had an eligibility snapshot taken back in July 2024. Under the currently running airdrop campaign, Pioneer Season, users can earn points to receive KILO tokens for 180 days past the token generation event (TGE) in late March 2025 (i.e., until late September 2025).

Additionally, you can earn KILO tokens on Bybit simply by participating in the 

 event and holding BNB in your account. Every day at various random times, Bybit will take snapshots of your BNB holdings in your Funding and Unified Trading Accounts to calculate the number of KILO tokens you’re eligible for. The campaign will run through Apr 25, 2025, 11:59PM UTC, and you’ll have your share of KILO airdropped seven days after this date.

 market as a swap pair with USDT. If you don't have a Bybit account, you can easily 

, and access opportunities across hundreds of trading pairs and crypto products on the exchange's Spot and Derivatives markets.

As of Apr 17, 2025, the KILO token is trading at $0.039, which is 76.2% lower than its ATH of $0.1648 on Mar 27, 2025, and 17.3% higher than its ATL of $0.03344 on Apr 12, 2025.

Long-term price forecasts for KILO are mostly bullish. CoinCodex 

 at $0.0387 in 2027 and then rise to $0.135 in 2030 while PricePredictions 

When it comes to perpetuals trading, both traditional 

 (CEXs) and DEXs have often struggled to offer an intuitive trading experience. In contrast, KiloEx has made user-friendliness a cornerstone of its operations. With KiloEx, you can enjoy a streamlined trading process, access market trends info for thorough research, get an overview of the cryptocurrency market and conduct other activities via an interface that’s designed for anyone, irrespective of their familiarity with decentralized trading.

The platform also boasts a diverse range of other benefits not easily found in the world of perpetuals-based cryptocurrency trading — generous leveraged trading options, trading fee discounts, lightning-fast trades, low trading fees and an innovative Hybrid Vault system. Many of these benefits are thanks to KiloEx's collaboration with several Layer 2 decentralized platforms, which provide the technical infrastructure to enable low costs and fast order processing.

If you’re a crypto perpetuals enthusiast, KiloEx is definitely a platform to peruse.

Intermediate

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KiloEx (KILO): More than a DEX — a rewarding ecosystem

In this article, Bybit Learn breaks down how the RFC meme coin was launched by the 'ifindretard' community, what’s driving its popularity and how to trade the RFC meme coin on Bybit.  

RFC quickly became one of the most talked-about and actively traded meme coins in early April 2025. In this article, we’ll break down how the token started, what’s driving its popularity and show you how to trade RFC on Bybit.  

Meme coins have always relied on humor to capture a wide audience and RFC is no different. The coin is inspired by the 

 X account that posts right-leaning, political and social posts on the platform. The account quickly became popular and gained over 718,000 followers as of mid-April 2025. 

 the launch of RFC, a Solana-based meme coin with a core mission of becoming the definitive meme coin for their community. The project aims to counter the prevalence of rug pulls and scams and create a token that is fair and community-centric.

The RFC token was launched on Mar 24, 2025, on the 

 platform. Within a few hours of its launch, the token graduated from the bonding curve and was placed in the liquidity pool. The initial post from the @ifindretards account is likely the major cause of the parabolic rise in the price of the token on the pump.fun platform. 

In the following days, the popularity of RFC experienced a significant surge, largely fueled by an enthusiastic community that rallied around the project. The coin’s 

 on Solana and its allocation of 96% of the supply to the public attracted a lot of attention from the meme coin community. Such community-centric characteristics quickly boosted the coin’s profile. According to 

, over 216 KOLs have mentioned the coin, with 124 being bullish and only five being bearish. This positive momentum was soon reflected in the price surge of RFC.

Following the graduation from the bonding curve, the price momentum continued and the coin reached a peak market cap of around $8 million, but quickly retraced to $1.2 million the next day. Over the next few days, the coin consolidated in the $1 million to $5 million range. 

On Mar 31, 2025, the coin broke out of this range and witnessed a 2-week staggering rally that saw the market cap rise as high as $138 million on Apr 14, 2025. This is a 25x increase from the first day’s close of $5.5 million. The coin has since retraced slightly, and as of Apr 15, it’s currently trading at a valuation of around $91 million market cap. 

The total supply of RFC is fixed at 1 billion tokens. The distribution of these tokens is heavily weighted towards the public, with 96% allocated for a public fair launch. Notably, only 4% of the total supply was allocated to the developer wallet, and the project explicitly states that there were no airdrops or presales.

If you’re interested in riding the RFC wave, you can go long or short on the token with up to 20x leverage on Bybit through its 

 RFCUSDT perpetual contract. Whether you're bullish or bearish, you can dive into the action and start trading the 

Retard Finder Coin RFC.png

RFC: Trending meme coin with a strong community

Yield-bearing stablecoins offer price stability plus passive income, transforming DeFi with returns from tokenized assets, yield strategies and more.

 are among the most popular cryptocurrency types in the market. Their rate stability and inherent link to traditional fiat currencies have drawn millions of crypto natives to use them for storing value and moving funds between blockchain and 

 (TradFi) sources. However, one of the most significant drawbacks of traditional stablecoins is their lack of yield: these assets are designed to be pegged to a major fiat currency, often the US dollar, but don't generate any interest on the principal amount.

This scenario starkly contrasts with fiat money held in deposit accounts at banks, as cash parked at a traditional banking institution earns you yield in the form of interest. Cash investments aren't known for stellar returns, but they can still protect your funds from value erosion due to inflation. Although stablecoins were envisioned as digital equivalents of fiat currencies, they don't earn interest when simply held in a crypto wallet.

Yield-bearing stablecoins are a relatively new trend in the crypto market, and are specifically designed to address this issue. As their name suggests, yield-bearing stablecoins allow you to earn yield, making them ideal for any investor who wants both rate stability and return potential.

The yield-bearing stablecoin niche has been growing quickly, as evidenced by a 583% increase in the category's market cap in 2024. Their surge in popularity has continued into 2025 as well. In February 2025, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 

 — a yield-bearing stablecoin offered by digital asset firm Figure Markets — as a security. This pivotal event is widely expected to further boost the already impressive growth of this segment. As of mid-April 2025, YLDS remains the only stablecoin of this kind to receive regulatory approval. 

In this article, we’ll examine yield-bearing stablecoins and their benefits and risks, and consider the leading assets of this type currently dominating the rankings.

Yield-bearing stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that maintain a peg to an established fiat asset — similarly to traditional stablecoins — while also generating yield on the principal amount via various decentralized protocols or tokenized traditional finance instruments.

Traditional stablecoins have long been used to maintain the value of crypto funds tied to fiat national currencies. These cryptos, the first of which appeared over a decade ago, are tightly pegged to an asset or basket of assets. The most popular traditional stablecoins are typically pegged to the US dollar, and backed by cash and cash-equivalent reserves held by their issuers or authorized custodians.

Another type of stablecoin maintains its peg through 

Regardless of how the peg is maintained, traditional stablecoins aren’t yield-generating assets. When you buy such a stablecoin, your funds retain their nominal value in the pegged fiat currency — but you earn no interest on the principal.

This lack of yield has long been seen as a core drawback of traditional stablecoins. This contrasts with fiat currencies held in bank accounts, which typically generate yield through accrued interest. While cash deposits don’t typically offer high returns as compared to more risky financial instruments, they can at least help offset inflation-driven erosion of the principal value.

This erosion has become a bigger issue in recent years. In June 2021, US monthly inflation rose above 5% for the first time since mid-2008. The rest of 2021 and the following two years saw inflation levels not experienced in decades. As of April 2025, inflation is down, compared to the 2022 and 2023 peaks — but it’s still historically high.

Multiple years of elevated inflation rates have shone the spotlight on a key problem of traditional stablecoins: their lack of yield-generating capacity. While fiat deposits may soften the blow of inflation through interest, stablecoin holdings pegged to those same currencies are slowly losing their real value.

Major stablecoin issuers like Circle, the issuer of 

, and Tether, the company behind USDT, use the fiat reserves backing their coins in yield-generating instruments. But instead of sharing those yields with holders, they keep the earnings. The result is that USDC, USDT and most other stablecoins offer no yield to users, while issuers pocket the income from the cash reserves backing the coins.

Yield-bearing stablecoins have emerged as a key answer to this issue — and it’s no surprise they’re now gaining traction as investors wake up to the limitations of holding traditional stablecoins in a high-inflation world.

Yield-bearing stablecoins generate returns for their holders primarily from: 

Some stablecoins generate yield via DeFi protocols' native solutions. Typically, you submit your funds to a protocol that uses them in various interest-generating activities, such as 

. As the protocol earns income through these activities, a portion of it is shared with the stablecoin holders via regular distributions. DeFi protocols may earn such income from charging protocol fees, position and vault liquidations, interest charged on borrowed funds and more.

Another primary yield source for stablecoins is through crypto derivatives based on 

. Such tokens represent an underlying crypto asset, such as 

 (BTC). When the original underlying asset earns interest 

 (for example, via staking), the yield accrues to its liquid representation.

In turn, yield accumulated by the LST or LRT is then shared with holders of the yield-bearing stablecoin that tracks these liquid tokens.

This is how it typically works: let's say a protocol issues an LST in the form of 

 (stETH) to anyone staking Ether. Additionally, there's a yield-bearing stablecoin based on that LST. Users with ETH funds deposit into the protocol, and are issued stETH, the LST that accrues their staking rewards. As staking rewards are added to stETH, a portion is also shared with your stablecoin. In essence, you earn yields by holding the stablecoin as a derivative asset without needing to stake crypto yourself.

Some yield-bearing stablecoins are tokenized, on-chain representations of RWAs and traditional financial instruments. For instance, a stablecoin may represent your investment in a tokenized fund that generates yield by investing in Treasury bills, corporate bonds, equities and other traditional assets. As the fund earns yield through these financial instruments, it’s shared with stablecoin holders.

One key benefit of yield-bearing stablecoins is the ability to 

 while enjoying the stability provided by these assets. The crypto market is well known for 

, and stablecoins generally offer unmatched stability as compared to any other type of cryptocurrency. Thanks to their peg to the US dollar or other established fiat currencies, your funds are well-protected from losing their real-world value — even if Bitcoin and other cryptos decline markedly — giving you peace of mind combined with steady, even if modest, income from these coins.

Returns from yield-bearing stablecoins are typically 

. This is particularly the case for stablecoins representing tokenized TradFi instruments. At the same time, you can enjoy these low-risk returns regardless of your location because these assets reside on-chain.

Most traditional low-risk investments in the US (e.g., Treasury bills and other cash equivalents) are highly regulated by the country’s securities laws. Foreigners residing in the US may need an international brokerage account, and to meet additional qualification requirements in order to invest in these assets. In contrast, purchasing, holding and trading yield-bearing stablecoins is open to anyone with a crypto wallet. These stablecoins provide ready access to steady, low-risk returns for both US residents and foreigners.

Investing in traditional stablecoins preserves the nominal value of your funds at the time of investment, but generates no yield. Therefore, these assets lose their real value over time due to inflation. In contrast, yield-bearing stablecoins provide additional income that grows on top of the principal. As such, investing in these stablecoins provides a better deal than parking your funds in their traditional counterparts.

In general, any investment in low-risk and low-return assets carries opportunity cost. By holding your funds in these kinds of investments, you forego the earnings potential offered by higher-risk asset types. However, this opportunity cost is lower with yield-bearing stablecoins as compared to traditional ones for the reason above: the former accrue yield on top of the principal, while the latter do not.

Like most other cryptocurrencies, many yield-bearing stablecoins may be used in various DeFi protocols for further yield. This may vary by each specific coin, as some issuers impose certain limitations on such 

The utilization of yield-bearing stablecoins in DeFi protocols is something that the traditional assets they represent (such as cash and cash equivalents) lack. You can’t simply lock Treasury bills in a growth-focused DeFi lending protocol, but you may well be able to do so using a yield-bearing stablecoin that acts as a tokenized representation of the bills.

Earning interest from yield-bearing stablecoins isn’t rocket science — even for crypto beginners. Many protocols automatically distribute yield in the form of additional tokens of the same kind, a process known as rebasing. Other issuers may pay yields in some other token, specifically used as a reward cryptocurrency. 

Regardless of the method used, the stablecoin holders usually receive their yields directly into their wallets without having to worry about performing any additional crypto operations. In most cases, you earn yield from these assets simply by holding on to them, ensuring a smooth and simplified UX.

Yields earned via yield-bearing stablecoins aren’t fixed, and may fluctuate. Market volatility may affect the returns these assets generate. Some yield-bearing stablecoins, especially those that generate yields through DeFi protocols, may be affected by the typically high volatility of the crypto world. In addition, incomes earned by DeFi protocols and shared with holders of the stablecoins can vary widely, depending upon transaction activity within a given protocol.

Even stablecoins tied to low-risk RWAs such as government bonds are affected by interest rates set by the Federal Reserve. These rates may change based on factors like underlying inflation in the economy, unemployment figures, business spending levels, credit market conditions and geopolitical risks.

Sudden and drastic devaluation of collateral is also a risk for yield-bearing stablecoins. Although they’re pegged to established fiat currencies, the reserves backing them may consist of much more volatile assets, such as BTC or ETH. Any significant declines in the value of these collateral assets can potentially lead to instability and 

The risk of collateral devaluation isn't limited to stablecoins backed by cryptocurrencies, and such risk is also present for RWA-backed, yield-bearing coins. For instance, if a stablecoin is backed by tokenized real estate investment trusts (REITs) and a severe downturn occurs in the property market, it could act as a catalyst for the stablecoin’s collateral devaluation.

Sufficient liquidity may also be an issue for yield-bearing stablecoins. Limited trading volumes and inflexible redemption mechanisms are typical characteristics of some of these assets. These factors may exacerbate liquidity crunches during sudden surges in trading activity for them. For instance, if many investors try to redeem their stablecoins at the same time, the issuer may struggle to accommodate the requests. Any delays in redemption beyond normally agreed-upon times may lead to a panic among investors, who could rush to redeem their funds, causing a liquidity crisis for the issuer.

Since yield-bearing stablecoins are based on blockchains, there are always technological risks. The operational mechanism of these stablecoins is typically managed via on-chain 

, which could be compromised during hacking attempts.

Network outages unrelated to hacking exploits also occur on blockchains, which can affect a stablecoin’s flow of operations. Although the largest smart contract chain in the industry, Ethereum, is well known to have never experienced a major outage, several other popular chains, including 

 (ARB), have had at least one significant network disruption event in the past few years.

Regulatory risks also exist for yield-bearing stablecoins. As of April 2025, the US still doesn’t have a comprehensive, federal-level law regulating stablecoin assets. In early 2025, the 

 were introduced to the Senate and the House of Representatives, respectively. These acts specifically deal with stablecoin cryptocurrencies. Both bills are still being considered by US lawmakers.

If and when these bills are passed into law, some yield-bearing stablecoins — depending upon their operational mechanisms, collateral types, issuer standing and other key factors — might find themselves struggling to satisfy new regulatory requirements.

 (SKY), formerly known as MakerDAO (MKR). It represents a rebranded version of the protocol’s original 

 (DAI) stablecoin. Users can mint USDS via Sky Protocol by depositing collateral in various eligible assets, such as ETH, USDC and certain tokenized RWAs.

After minting USDS, you can use it throughout the DeFi ecosystem, as with other major stablecoins. USDS maintains an algorithmic peg to the US dollar, with overcollateralized reserves backing the coin.

You can also generate yield from Sky Protocol by depositing your USDS into a savings smart contract. Upon depositing your funds, you’re issued the sUSDS coin (SUSDS), which represents the yield-accruing version of USDS.

 (ENA) DeFi protocol offers a synthetic stablecoin, 

, whose value is maintained via advanced trading strategies. Pegged to the US dollar, USDe is minted by depositing BTC, ETH, stETH or USDT. USDe’s peg and its collateral stability are ensured via the use of 

 trading strategies, which attempt to balance the risks for the traded asset by taking directionally opposite positions through related financial instruments such as 

 contracts. For instance, to hedge against the risk of the decline in ETH’s collateral value, Ethena may purchase an Ether-based short futures contract.

As the delta-hedging strategies (hopefully) deliver positive returns (e.g., via positive funding rates for the futures held by Ethena), your USDe investment accumulates yield. You may also earn yields with USDe via the Ethena protocol by 

. Ethena uses your funds to stake on the underlying Ethereum blockchain, delivering regular staking rewards distributed via sUSDe, the staked version of USDe.

BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL)

 (BUIDL) provides a stablecoin that represents ownership in a tokenized money market fund managed by BlackRock, the world's largest asset management firm. This fund invests in various cash and cash-equivalent instruments, such as Treasury bills and repurchase agreements.

As the fund's investments earn interest, this interest is distributed to the holders of the BUIDL stablecoin. BUIDL is an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency, but under the fund's rules, it's not tradable on the crypto market. As such — unlike most other stablecoins — BUIDL's rate will theoretically stay fixed at exactly $1, although the issuer doesn’t guarantee this rate.

The fund's yield is calculated daily, and is distributed to BUIDL holders once a month.

The Ondo US Dollar Yield (USDY) token is another stablecoin that generates yield via traditional RWA instruments. Offered by 

 (ONDO), which specializes in institutional-grade DeFi solutions, USDY is backed by US Treasury bills and bank demand deposits.

Before you can mint USDY via the protocol, you’ll need to go through a formal onboarding process, during which you’ll be asked to submit your identity documents and the crypto wallet address to receive the stablecoin, as well as any necessary tax documents. If all documentation is in order, you can then acquire USDY by depositing either US dollars (for amounts of $100,000 or more) or a minimum of 500 USDC.

USDY is somewhat different from the other stablecoins we’ve mentioned above, since yields generated for token holders aren’t distributed separately as new USDY tokens using the rebasing system. Instead, the yields are added to each unit of USDY held. Due to this mechanism, the price of the USDY stablecoin is normally higher than $1 because it includes the accumulated yield in addition to the principal.

Ondo also offers a rebasing variation of the USDY stablecoin, rUSDY, for which yields are sent to holders as new tokens of the same kind by increasing the supply of the cryptocurrency.

Usual USD (USD0) is a yield-bearing stablecoin offered by 

 (USUAL). USD0 is pegged to the greenback, and is fully backed by RWAs, such as Treasury bills. You can mint USD0 by providing collateral in eligible RWA assets. Alternatively, you can also obtain the stablecoin by depositing USDC collateral.

By staking USD0, you can receive the token’s liquid version, USD0++. As an LST, USD0++ is a composable asset that’s used throughout the DeFi ecosystem for yields. These yields are distributed in USUAL tokens, the native 

 is that the mandatory locking period for USD0 to benefit from USD0++ yields is four years. As such, it may suit crypto users with a long-term approach to investing.

Yield-bearing stablecoins have breathed new life into the stablecoin market. For years, stablecoins lacked yield accumulation, making these assets less than optimal for preserving the real value of your investment — especially during times of high inflation. Now, with the explosive growth of the niche, a crypto investor has many choices at their fingertips — native DeFi yield coins, crypto derivatives–based coins, and assets backed by traditional finance instruments.

These yield-bearing stablecoins offer numerous benefits to investors — a passive income source with low volatility, borderless access, lower opportunity costs than for traditional stablecoins, major composability in DeFi and a simplified UX. With all these advantages on offer, it’s no surprise that the category of yield-bearing stablecoin cryptocurrencies is growing by leaps and bounds. As a result, 2025 may well become the first year this previously modest segment of the stablecoin market becomes its driving force.

yield bearing stablecoins.png

Yield-bearing stablecoins: What are they — and how are they reshaping DeFi?

Raydium introduces new features for creators and developers through its LaunchLab program.

The S&P 500 dropped 2.24% as chip stocks tumbled and Fed Chair Powell warned tariffs could fuel inflation, offering no clear rate outlook. Gold hit a record $3,343, up 3.5%, as U.S.-China trade tensions and a weaker dollar drove safe-haven demand. Falling yields and Fed inflation concerns added support. The Coindesk Indices, which tracks the broader crypto market, are up by 0.10%, with Bitcoin up 0.40% and Ether down 1.36% over the past 24 hours. Trade these markets and more with up to 500x leverage on Bybit MT5 using this 

Today's top performer is LAYER, up 5.1%, after the launch of the Emerald Card Program with $LAYER rewards.

Solayer (LAYER), launched in August 2024, is Solana's first native restaking protocol, allowing users to earn yield by securing decentralized apps with staked SOL or LSTs. Solayer has 

 the Emerald Card program, offering rewards in $LAYER for users who sign up, make a purchase, and share their purchase on X. Refunds are now available for users in restricted countries or who failed KYC. Pre-orders will be accepted starting today.

Check out the latest prices, charts, and data of 

 new features for creators and developers through its LaunchLab program. Creators can now earn 10% of trading fees from the AMM pool post-graduation. Tokens launched via LaunchLab have a simple fee structure, with 50% going to the community pool, 25% for $RAY buybacks, and 25% for program fees. The platform also offers a referral program, where users can earn 0.1% of swap volume in SOL. Additionally, LaunchLab provides enhanced distribution for developers, allowing tokens to be visible across trading apps and terminals from Day 1. Raydium has partnered with leading apps like Axiom.

Yesterday, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw $201.7M in net outflows, all from non-GBTC funds, while GBTC had no change.

, a verifiable data infrastructure platform using ZKPs and MPC, has launched its ONProver node. Users can run the lightweight node, complete tasks, and earn $ON tokens redeemable at TGE. The project has raised $12M and is live on the Monad Testnet. Early participants can join the airdrop by signing up, connecting an EVM wallet, and running the Prover.

Beginner

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Raydium launches new features with creator rewards, referral program, and enhanced developer distribution

Bybit Learn

Crypto Insights

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Since DeFi summer brought about the 2020 bull market, everyone anticipated “institutional adoption” to come to DeFi. Integration between TradFi and DeFi mainly happened on the trading front, where centralized exchanges became a middle ground for TradFi crypto adoption. Market makers and proprietary funds alike began executing carry and price arbitrage on centralized and decentralized venues. To accommodate billions of dollars of flow, key on-chain trading infrastructure projects were incubated and funded by these institutions. An example of such an infrastructure is Pyth, where 70+ institutional trading firms, with the likes of Jump Crypto and DRW Cumberland, publish price discovery and create market efficiency across different venues. The completion of decentralized infrastructure in financial trading allowed sophisticated trader flows to enter crypto native markets. 

Looking past financial trading, there is a second type of institutional capital brewing in DeFi —  these are private credit funds that received traction after the centralized lenders imploded in May 2022. Before the liquidity crunch in May this year, centralized lending desks originated a phenomenal amount of crypto loans, for example, Celsius, Genesis, and BlockFi together issued 

. Main customers for these loans were institutional traders,  who were willing to pay 10%+ APY on daily liquidity. 

With the fast de-leveraging of these centralized entities, there was a void of liquidity in the market and profitable crypto-native institutions turned to DeFi solutions to fill in the space. The market saw the rise of Orthogonal Credit, M11 Credit, and Blocktower Credit, which are credit funds that provide direct lending on venues such as Maple finance to market makers, e.g. Wintermute, Auros and Flow Traders, allowing them to draw USDC at 8.5-10% and draw wETH at 5-6%.

Source: @scottincrypto, https://dune.com/scottincrypto/Maple-Deposits

Asset management products have also moved on-chain, democratizing investment strategies that historically were only available to large institutional clients. Leveraging smart contracts and unique crypto-native non-linear yields, strategies such as DeFi Option Vaults (DOVs) saw breakout volumes in 2021, with $1 Billion in Total Value Locked (TVL) at its peak. Vaults like Ribbon Finance, Friktion, and Antimatter, provide simple UI/UX to allow retail investors to tap into vanilla option premiums. From underwriting out of money covered calls and vanilla puts, retail investors saw these option premiums reeling in 20 to 40% of returns at the time, which looked very competitive and more sustainable compared to incentive based yield farms. On the back of these retail underwriting, institutional options market makers would buy the entire vault of options and sell on exchanges such as Deribit which saw 90% of total crypto option flow at some point. Currently option vaults face lower volumes due to several reason:

While DeFi volumes today depend on trading players whose health dictates how active DeFi is, a more balanced ecosystem would welcome players beyond traders, who can leverage the efficiency and transparency of this new paradigm. With the US Fed Funds target rate turning to 3.75 to 4.00%, the DeFi spread (the difference between DeFi borrowing rate and US treasury) has turned to -1.2%, which begs the question — Does it still make sense to invest DeFi capital in Compound’s cUSDC pools where yields are less than 2%? Where will DeFi capital go? 

With the above background and questions, this report will delve into the current development of DeFi’s real-world usage, difficulties that hinder such developments, and possibilities in DeFi’s integration with TradFi. 

The first phase of DeFi arguably revolved around TradFi capital flows into DeFi, as well as how new capital is deployed to bring TradFi functions to DeFi, including exchanges, trading, lending, derivatives, payments, etc. So far, DeFi applications have been mainly used by crypto-native users. Unfortunately, due to an extended bear market, DeFi usage declined in the face of muted speculative activities. As a result, DeFi protocols turned their focus from retail investors to institutional investors and from crypto trading to tokenized real assets. 

The next phase of DeFi seems to be for native DeFi protocols to add the support of real-world assets and enlist real-world players as DeFi users. In this section, we will dive deeper into how DeFi currently interacts with real-world assets.

In order to expand its usage outside the crypto-native community, DeFi ventured into the traditional world of finance. DeFi’s real-world lending caters to institutional needs, for simplicity  DeFi’s real-world lending in this article only refers to DeFi protocols’ lending to real-world institutions, excluding lending to retail investors. 

Top DeFi lending protocols, such as Aave and Compound, offer on-chain over-collateralized loans without the procedures of KYC and credit assessment. In contrast, real-world institutions that are sensitive to capital efficiency loathe over-collateralized loans due to lower leverage, leading to the emergence of DeFi protocols that lend solely to real-world players with under-collateralized or un-collateralized loans, such as Maple Finance. 

Despite low capital efficiency, over-collateralized loans in DeFi have a role to play in real-world lending due to lower borrowing rates, with MakerDAO being the pioneer and leader. However, over-collateralized loans often only attract large financial institutions, such as banks, with premium assets as collaterals but not smaller-sized private credit firms. For example, without credit assessment, MakerDAO only charges 30 bps above 5-year treasury loans for its lending to syndicated loans managed by 

 credit risk premium for high-quality bonds. 

A Brief Timeline of DeFi’s Real-World Lending

With the assistance of real-world asset pools on Centrifuge, MakerDAO ushered in real-world lending back in 2020 on the back of the approval of the 

 for the DAO to onboard off-chain real-world assets (RWA). On the other hand, uncollateralized institutional lending came to light with the launch of 

 in mid-2021. Stepping into 2022, as DeFi space reels from crypto winter, 

, among other protocols that target institutional borrowing, continue to enter the space. 

The most prominent protocol with over-collateralized real-world lending is  

. As of the time of writing, MakerDAO owns eight RWA pools with an outstanding supply of DAI to the tune of 

. Among them, four lending pools are based on RWA pools from Centrifuge, with collateral including loans to real estate investors, freight invoices, short-term trade receivables, and revenue-based financing assets. Another three lending pools are through a trust structure, with cooperation from 6s Capital, a fund that lends to real estate developers, Huntingdon Valley Bank (HVB), a bank located in the United States, and lastly, Societe Generale, a prominent French bank. The last RWA pool is made up of investments in a high-quality bond scheme with Monetalis to seek higher yields in TradFi. 

Centrifuge plays a critical role in MakerDAO’s RWA ambition by tokenizing collateral assets. Investors are separated into two tranches, junior and senior tranches. The junior tranche is open to professional investors looking for higher returns but comes with higher default risks. The RWA pools on Centrifuge cover industries such as real estate bridge loans and fintech debt financing, among others. 

While most end borrowers may be linked with real-world usage, the largest RWA pools are Monetalis and the HVB pool, representing 

 of the total RWA pools’ DAI supply as of the time of writing, suggesting that Centrifuge-connected pools are a minority among RWA pools. 

Moreover, large RWA pools on MakerDAO in connection with Centrifuge were launched in 2020 or early 2021. As uncollateralized lending protocols gained traction in late 2021, MakerDAO lost its luster due to lower leverage from over-collateralized loans, while small borrowers flocked to under-collateralized lending platforms.

It is important to note that the supply of DAI on RWA accounts for a small fraction of the total DAI supply, approximately 5.4% as of the time of writing. However, with continuous investments in treasury yields, the RWA proportion is likely to rise in the foreseeable future.

All in all, despite early-stage developments, MakerDAO’s RWA scheme has set a great example for the integration of TradFi and DeFi. Not only do real-world players borrow on the platform, but MakerDAO, sitting with more than 3 billion PSM reserves in USDC, has started to seek yields from traditional assets. As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, TradFi capital used to flow into DeFi for higher yields. With treasury interest rates hiking and DeFi yields shrinking, it is natural that DeFi capital flows back to TradFi, ushering in a new era of TradFi-DeFi integration.

Source: rwa.xyz (data as of Nov 16, 2022)

Real-world assets collateralized by DeFi institutional lendings are mainly private credits. As of the time of writing, there are active loans amounting to $359 million with an average APY of 11.47% that offer on-chain loans to real-world borrowers. The top real-world borrowers are from fields such as fintech, real estate, and carbon projects, among others. 

Source: Dune Analytics@blakewest; Protocol Websites (data as of Nov 14, 2022)

Maple Finance is the leader that offers under-collateralized lending from DeFi to real-world borrowers, with the highest TVL at around $136.2 million. Uncollateralized lending on DeFi targets institutional investors, both crypto-native and real-world players. After rigorous KYC and credit assessment, institutional investors can create a pool on Maple Finance, TrueFi, and ClearPool for borrowing from DeFi users. 

However, these under-collateralized lending platforms may not directly serve real-world borrowers. Crypto market makers form a large portion of borrowing demand on TrueFi and ClearPool, which strictly do not qualify as real-world borrowers. On the other hand, Goldfinch, which promotes itself as a true lender to developing countries for real yields, integrates better with real-world players and may continue to drive value to the platforms.

Credix is a new institutional lending protocol launched this year on Solana, with a similar model to Goldfinch, connecting global capital to Latin American Fintech borrowers. Credix sets itself apart from the previously mentioned institutional lending protocol by underwriting over-collateralized loans themselves, lowering the default risks for liquidity pool investors while offering an attractive yield. 

Synthetic Assets (Tokenized Real-World Assets)

Moving the trading of real-world assets on-chain is another way to expand DeFi’s real-world usage. The possible real-world assets include equities, currencies (FX), commodities, and complex derivatives, among others. 

DeFi Meets TradFi — The Integration and Challenges Faced

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