Synthetic dollars & yield
Issue a yield-bearing dollar asset that others plug in.
What this layer does
This layer manufactures the dollar itself — a tokenized, often yield-bearing dollar that other products (neo-banks, wallets) plug in. Yield comes from T-bills, lending, or derivatives basis trades.
Where it sits
Underneath the consumer layer — the 'ingredient' a neo-bank embeds to offer savings, and the unit of account moving across the other layers.
What they compete on
Source + sustainability of yield, collateral quality, regulatory standing, redemption guarantees, and how composable the token is.
How to tell them apart
T-bill-backed dollars (Ondo, Mountain) earn the risk-free rate minus a fee; Ethena's USDe earns a derivatives funding rate (higher, but a different risk); Sky's USDS is the decentralized, DeFi-native lineage of DAI.
The players
Ethena
A synthetic dollar backed by crypto and a basis trade, not banks.
Crypto-collateralized via a basis trade (not bank reserves); higher-than-T-bill yield, $500M+ reserve fund, and the 3rd-largest dollar asset in crypto.
Deep dive →Ondo Finance
Tokenized US Treasuries, and the rails to trade them.
RWA category leader: $2.75B+ TVL across USDY + OUSG, instant USDC mint/redeem, multi-chain, and Ondo Chain — a permissioned-validator L1 with TradFi design advisors (Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree).
Deep dive →Mountain Protocol
A regulated, yield-bearing dollar that rebases daily — now wound down post-Anchorage.
Bermuda-regulated (BMA/DABA) T-bill-backed rebasing dollar, composable as plain ERC-20 + 4626 wrapper. Acquired by Anchorage Digital (May 2025); USDM now in orderly wind-down.
Deep dive →Sky (ex-MakerDAO)
The decentralized dollar, rebranded from Maker/DAI.
The DAI lineage — the largest, longest-running decentralized stablecoin. On-chain savings rate + SKY rewards, RWA-backed revenue, and a SubDAO ('Star') ecosystem (Spark) routing $7B+ of reserves across DeFi.
Deep dive →