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Circle just made it cheaper to move in and out of its tokenized money market fund. The company is rolling out an automatic zero-fee tier for USYC, eliminating subscription and redemption fees on up to $1 million in combined daily volume per wallet across Ethereum and Solana.
The keyword there is “automatic.” There’s no opt-in, no application, no hoops to jump through. If your daily volume stays under the threshold, you pay nothing. Go above it, and standard fees kick in: 0.04% on subscriptions, 0.03% on redemptions.
What USYC actually is, and why this matters
Think of USYC as a bridge between old-school Treasury investing and the on-chain world. It’s a tokenized version of the Hashnote International Short Duration Yield Fund, which parks capital in short-term US Treasuries and reverse repo agreements.
Circle acquired Hashnote and its flagship product in January 2025. The fund originally launched back in May 2023 with a $100K minimum investment, a bar that still stands today.
Since the acquisition, the fund has scaled considerably. USYC’s assets under management sit at approximately $3 billion as of late May 2026. It places the product among the larger tokenized Treasury funds in the market.
One design choice worth noting: USYC token prices reflect accumulated yields rather than distributing periodic payments. Recent token prices have ranged from $1.12 to $1.13, meaning the price itself climbs as the underlying Treasuries generate returns.
The fund also charges a 10% performance fee on generated yields. So the zero-fee tier applies to getting money in and out, not to the yield itself.
Who can actually use this
USYC is designed primarily for non-US institutional investors. If you’re a US person, this product isn’t built for you. Circle has been clear about that constraint, which stems from the regulatory framework governing the underlying fund.
For eligible investors, USYC allows near-instant redemptions into USDC within capacity limits. That’s a meaningful advantage over traditional money market funds, where redemption timelines can stretch into days.
USYC is available on Ethereum and Solana, where the zero-fee tier applies, but also on Base, Canton, and NEAR. That breadth matters for institutional users who operate across multiple blockchain ecosystems and don’t want their Treasury exposure locked to a single network.
What this means for investors
The zero-fee move is a competitive play, plain and simple. The tokenized Treasury market has gotten crowded. BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, Franklin Templeton’s on-chain offerings, and a growing roster of DeFi-native products are all fighting for the same institutional dollars.
At 0.04% on subscriptions, you’d save $400 on a $1 million transaction. For investors moving in and out regularly, those basis points compound over time.
The integration with USDC is arguably the bigger strategic picture. Every dollar that flows through USYC reinforces Circle’s stablecoin ecosystem. Investors redeem into USDC, use USDC for other on-chain activities, and the flywheel spins.
The risk calculus hasn’t changed, though. USYC still carries the standard considerations: smart contract risk across multiple chains, counterparty exposure to the underlying fund structure, and the ever-present regulatory uncertainty around tokenized securities for non-US investors. The zero-fee tier makes the product cheaper, not safer.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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