Tokenized Treasury Fund Comparison Matrix: BUIDL vs BENJI vs OUSG vs USYC vs USTB

Complete Tokenized Treasury Fund Comparison

The tokenized treasury market features five primary products, each with distinct structural, yield, and access characteristics. This matrix provides side-by-side comparison across all key metrics, enabling informed fund selection for institutional allocators, corporate treasuries, and qualified investors.

Product Comparison Matrix

Yield Analysis

All five products invest in substantially similar underlying assets — short-term US Treasury bills and overnight repurchase agreements. Yield differences (3.01-3.45% APY range) reflect expense ratio variations rather than underlying portfolio quality:

• BUIDL (3.45%): Lower regulatory costs (BVI), offset by Securitize platform fees
• USYC (~3.40%): Cumberland/DRW operational efficiency, Circle ecosystem scale
• OUSG (~3.35%): Competitive fee structure, SHV ETF component simplifies portfolio management
• BENJI (3.51%): Highest regulatory costs (SEC registration, 1940 Act compliance)
• USTB (~3.0%): SEC registration costs similar to BENJI

The fee analysis decomposes these cost structures. The yield mechanics page explains how yields relate to the Federal Funds Rate.

Token Model Comparison: Rebase vs Accumulating NAV

A critical structural difference that affects portfolio management, tax reporting, and DeFi composability is how each product distributes yield. The yield mechanics analysis explains these models in detail, but the comparison highlights practical implications.

Rebase Model (BUIDL, BENJI)

Rebase tokens maintain a constant $1.00 per-token price. Yield is distributed by increasing the number of tokens in each holder’s wallet. An investor holding 1,000,000 BUIDL tokens at 3.45% APY would see their balance grow to approximately 1,000,095 tokens after one day (3.45% / 365 days). This model provides intuitive accounting — each token equals one dollar — but creates a large number of taxable events as token counts change daily. The tax implications guide details the tax reporting complexity.

Accumulating NAV Model (USYC, OUSG, USTB)

Accumulating NAV tokens maintain a constant token count while the price per token increases. An investor holding 1,000,000 OUSG tokens sees the same token count each day, but the NAV per token rises from $100.00 to $100.0092 after one day (at 3.35% APY). This model is cleaner for tax reporting (gain/loss is calculated only at sale) and more compatible with DeFi protocols that track token balances rather than token values.

DeFi Composability Impact: Accumulating NAV tokens are generally more DeFi-compatible. When OUSG is deposited as collateral on Flux Finance, the increasing NAV means collateral value grows automatically without requiring rebase integration. Rebase tokens require DeFi protocols to implement special handling for balance changes, which many protocols do not support natively.

Custody and Infrastructure Comparison

The infrastructure supporting each product affects operational considerations for institutional investors. See the custody solutions guide for detailed provider analysis.

BUIDL has the strongest infrastructure stack: Securitize (SEC-registered transfer agent, broker-dealer, and ATS), BNY Mellon (world’s largest custodian with $46T in assets under custody), and compatibility with all major institutional wallet providers. This infrastructure provides the operational reliability that trillion-dollar allocators require.

Redemption Mechanics Comparison

How investors exit positions varies significantly across products and directly affects liquidity planning.

BUIDL: Redemption through Securitize platform. T+0 for amounts within the Circle USDC liquidity facility; T+1 for larger amounts requiring underlying Treasury liquidation. Minimum redemption $250K.

USYC: Redemption through Hashnote/Circle infrastructure. T+0 to T+1, the fastest overall redemption in the market. No published minimum for institutional accounts. Circle’s USDC reserves enable near-instant conversion.

BENJI: Redemption through Franklin Templeton platform. T+1 to T+2, consistent with traditional money market fund redemption timelines. $50K minimum.

OUSG: Redemption through Ondo platform. T+1 to T+2. Alternatively, OUSG can be used as collateral on Flux Finance to borrow USDC without redeeming — a DeFi-native alternative to formal redemption.

USTB: Redemption through Superstate platform. T+1 standard redemption.

The buying guide provides step-by-step purchase and redemption instructions for each product.

Chain Distribution Comparison

Product availability varies by blockchain. Investors seeking specific chain access should evaluate which products are available on their preferred chain. The chain distribution analysis provides detailed chain-by-chain AUM estimates.

BUIDL offers the broadest EVM chain coverage (Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche). BENJI uniquely offers Stellar access. OUSG provides Solana access unavailable from other treasury products. The multi-chain deployment analysis examines cross-chain strategy implications.

Selection Framework

By Investor Type

US Pension/Endowment: BENJI or USTB — SEC-registered funds meeting regulatory mandates under the Investment Company Act of 1940. These are the only products that satisfy fiduciary requirements for registered fund allocation. The regulatory classification analysis details the compliance advantages.

Institutional Allocator (Family Office/RIA): BUIDL — highest yield (3.45%), BlackRock brand confidence, BNY Mellon custody, and the broadest multi-chain deployment. For allocators who accept private placement structures, BUIDL provides the optimal risk-return profile.

Corporate Treasury: USYC — seamless Circle USDC ecosystem integration enables treasury teams already using USDC to activate yield without new platform onboarding. The corporate treasury adoption guide details implementation.

DeFi Protocol/DAO: OUSG — Flux Finance composability enables leveraged yield strategies (effective APY ~4.7% at 2x leverage) impossible with other treasury products. The DAO treasury guide maps allocation frameworks.

Multi-Chain Needs: BUIDL (broadest EVM coverage) or BENJI (unique Stellar access)

By Priority

Maximum Yield: BUIDL (3.45%) — lowest expense ratio among treasury products. For yield above 3.45%, consider syrupUSDC (4.89%) which adds credit risk for higher returns. See treasury vs yield products.

Regulatory Certainty: BENJI or USTB — SEC-registered products with maximum US regulatory clarity

DeFi Composability: OUSG — the only treasury product with a dedicated lending protocol (Flux Finance)

Stablecoin Ecosystem Integration: USYC — native integration with $32B+ USDC circulation through Circle

Lowest Minimum Investment: OUSG or USTB — accessible below $5M, with OUSG available at lower thresholds through DeFi channels

Longest Track Record: BENJI — operational since April 2021, five years of history

Underlying Portfolio Composition Differences

While all five products invest primarily in short-term US Treasury instruments, their underlying portfolio compositions differ in ways that affect yield, risk, and liquidity:

BUIDL Portfolio: Primarily invests in US Treasury bills with maturities under 90 days and overnight tri-party repurchase agreements collateralized by US Treasury securities. BNY Mellon acts as both custodian and collateral agent. The portfolio maintains a weighted average maturity (WAM) under 60 days, minimizing interest rate risk. BlackRock’s fixed-income portfolio management team — the same team managing $2.8T in fixed-income assets globally — manages the BUIDL portfolio.

OUSG Portfolio: Uses the iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF (SHV) as its primary underlying investment, providing indirect exposure to US Treasury bills. This ETF-of-an-ETF structure adds a layer of fee drag (SHV charges 15 bps) but simplifies portfolio management and provides instant diversification across hundreds of individual Treasury positions. Ondo Finance supplements SHV with direct T-bill positions for yield optimization.

BENJI Portfolio: Franklin Templeton manages the BENJI portfolio using its institutional fixed-income expertise spanning 79 years. As an SEC-registered money market fund, BENJI must comply with Rule 2a-7 requirements including liquidity thresholds (daily liquid assets of at least 10%, weekly liquid assets of at least 30%), credit quality restrictions, and diversification limits. These requirements, mandated by the SEC, provide structural protections absent from offshore products.

USYC Portfolio: Cumberland/DRW manages the USYC portfolio through Hashnote, investing in T-bills and overnight repos. The portfolio benefits from Cumberland’s decades of institutional trading infrastructure and prime brokerage relationships, enabling competitive execution and tight bid-ask spreads on Treasury purchases.

USTB Portfolio: Superstate manages USTB as an SEC-registered fund, investing directly in US Treasury bills. The SEC registration imposes the same Rule 2a-7 compliance requirements as BENJI, including liquidity thresholds and diversification mandates.

Inclusion of Yield-Bearing Products for Extended Comparison

For investors considering allocation beyond pure treasury products, the comparison extends to yield-bearing alternatives that accept credit risk for higher returns:

The treasury funds vs yield products comparison and the yield optimization guide provide frameworks for allocating across treasury and credit-enhanced products based on risk tolerance and yield targets.

Selection Framework by Investor Type

Different investor types should prioritize different products based on their unique constraints and objectives:

Corporate Treasuries: Prioritize BUIDL or USYC for maximum counterparty credibility and fast redemption. The corporate treasury guide provides implementation frameworks.

DAO Treasuries: Prioritize OUSG for DeFi composability through Flux Finance, or USDY for permissionless accessibility. The DAO treasury guide covers governance and multi-sig integration.

Compliance-First Allocators: Require SEC-registered products — BENJI ($1.01B, Franklin Templeton) or USTB ($666.8M, Superstate). The regulatory classification analysis maps registration status. The broader RWA market tracked by RWA.xyz — $20 billion across 55,520 treasury holders — is increasingly segmented by these investor-type preferences and mandate-specific product requirements that drive differentiated fund selection across allocator categories. The SEC regulatory framework continues to evolve, and product selection should account for potential regulatory changes.

Redemption Speed and Liquidity Comparison

Redemption speed varies significantly across products and directly affects portfolio liquidity. USYC offers the fastest redemption (T+0 to T+1) through Circle’s infrastructure, followed by BUIDL (T+1 on business days). BENJI and OUSG both offer T+1 to T+3 redemption depending on size. For institutional treasuries managing daily cash flows, redemption speed can matter more than yield differential — a 10 basis point yield advantage is irrelevant if the product cannot deliver same-day liquidity when needed. The platform comparison maps redemption capabilities across all platforms. The broader RWA market tracked by RWA.xyz at $20 billion is increasingly differentiated by liquidity and redemption characteristics.

For head-to-head comparisons, see: BUIDL vs BENJI, BUIDL vs USYC, BUIDL vs OUSG, OUSG vs USDY. For yield-enhanced products, see treasury vs yield products. For the risk metrics framework incorporating all five risk dimensions, see the risk assessment. For the fee analysis decomposing expense ratios, see the fee breakdown. For portfolio construction, see the yield strategy guide. For TVL data, see the TVL tracker. For yield data, see the yield monitor.