Have you recently seen platforms offering 12% annualized yield on USDC deposits?

This is not a gimmick. In the past, stablecoin holders were essentially "zero-interest depositors," while issuers invested the idle funds in safe assets like U.S. Treasury bonds and bills, earning massive profits—USDT/Tether and USDC/Circle are prime examples.

Now, the exclusive benefits once reserved for issuers are being redistributed. Beyond the interest subsidy wars for USDC, a growing number of next-gen yield-bearing stablecoin projects are breaking down this "yield wall," allowing token holders to directly share in the interest income from underlying assets. This not only changes the value proposition of stablecoins but could also become a new growth engine for the RWA and Web3 sectors.

By definition, yield-bearing stablecoins are those whose underlying assets generate yield, which is then distributed directly to holders (typically from U.S. Treasuries, RWA, or on-chain yields). This stands in stark contrast to traditional stablecoins like USDT/USDC, where the yield goes to the issuer, and holders only benefit from the dollar peg without earning interest.

Yield-bearing stablecoins turn the act of holding into a passive investment tool. The core idea is simple: redistribute the Treasury yield that Tether/USDT monopolizes to stablecoin holders. An example might make this clearer:

Take Tether’s USDT issuance process. Essentially, crypto users "buy" USDT with dollars—when Tether issues $10 billion USDT, it means crypto users have deposited $10 billion with Tether to acquire that $10 billion USDT.

After receiving the $10 billion, Tether isn’t required to pay interest to these users. This means Tether obtains real dollar capital at zero cost from crypto users. If it then buys U.S. Treasuries, the interest income becomes risk-free profit with zero cost.

According to Tether’s Q2 attestation report, it directly holds over $157 billion in U.S. government bonds ($105.5 billion direct and $21.3 billion indirect), making it one of the largest holders of U.S. Treasuries globally. Messari data shows that as of July 31, 2025, Tether surpassed South Korea to become the 18th largest holder of U.S. Treasuries.

Even at a ~4% Treasury yield, this translates to ~$6 billion in annual profit for Tether (roughly $1.7 billion per quarter). Its Q2 operating profit of $4.9 billion confirms the lucrative nature of this model.

Meanwhile, imToken’s market practice—based on the idea that "stablecoins are no longer a one-size-fits-all tool; their usage varies by person and need"—has categorized stablecoins into multiple explorable subsets.

Under imToken’s classification, yield-bearing stablecoins are singled out as a special subset that provides ongoing yield to holders. They fall into two main categories:

1. Native Yield-Bearing Stablecoins: Users earn yield simply by holding these tokens, similar to a bank’s demand deposit. The tokens themselves are interest-bearing assets, e.g., USDe, USDS.

2. Stablecoins with Official Yield Mechanisms: These may not inherently bear interest, but their issuers or governing protocols provide official yield channels. Users must take specific actions—such as depositing into designated savings protocols (e.g., DAI’s DSR), staking, or converting to yield-bearing certificates—to earn interest, e.g., DAI.

If 2020-2024 was the "expansion phase" for stablecoins, 2025 may mark the "dividend phase." With compliance, yield, and liquidity in balance, yield-bearing stablecoins could become the next trillion-dollar subset of the stablecoin market.