The 2025 passage of the GENIUS Act in the United States transformed stablecoins from a crypto-native settlement layer into a regulated category of payment instrument. Combined with the explosive growth of tokenized U.S. Treasury funds — BlackRock's BUIDL crossed $4B in AUM by late 2025, Franklin Templeton's BENJI followed — institutional treasurers, payment companies, and broker-dealers now have a coherent set of digital-dollar tools to evaluate.
This guide compares the leading platforms across two related but distinct categories: payment stablecoins (1:1 fiat-backed, no yield to holders) and tokenized money market funds (yield-bearing, security-status, restricted holder pools). The two are converging in workflow but remain legally distinct, which materially affects who can hold what, where, and how.
Snapshot: Platforms at a Glance
The benchmark regulated payment stablecoin. Daily attestations, NYDFS-supervised reserve composition, and the broadest banking-rail redemption network.
Yield to holders: 0% (regulated payment instrument).
Tokenized money market fund on Ethereum & other chains, distributed by Securitize. Institutional only; daily yield distribution via on-chain rebase.
Yield (May 2026): ~4.7% net.
Tokenized note backed by short-duration Treasuries, available to non-U.S. and accredited holders. Smoother UX than BUIDL for treasury teams.
Yield (May 2026): ~4.5% net.
Franklin Templeton's on-chain U.S. Government Money Fund. Multi-chain; strong fit for institutions with existing Franklin relationships.
Yield (May 2026): ~4.6% net.
Paxos-issued, NYDFS-supervised. Differentiated by PayPal/Venmo distribution rail; smaller float but rapid merchant adoption.
Yield to holders: 0%.
Largest by float, dominant offshore, but does not hold a U.S. GENIUS Act issuer license. Onshore institutional usage remains restricted.
Yield to holders: 0%.
Key Findings
- Under GENIUS, payment stablecoins must be 1:1 reserved in cash and short-dated Treasuries, redeemable at par, and may not pay yield to holders. Yield only flows through securitized vehicles like BUIDL and BENJI.
- For corporate treasurers, the practical pattern is: hold operating balances in a regulated payment stablecoin (USDC), sweep excess into a tokenized MMF (BUIDL/BENJI/USDY) overnight.
- Cross-chain availability is now broad — most platforms are on Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Base — but redemption rails and KYC gates remain platform-specific.
- Tether retains scale but is increasingly excluded from U.S.-regulated institutional flows.
Payment Stablecoins: USDC, USDT, PYUSD
Circle USDC remains the institutional default for U.S.-regulated workflows. Circle holds reserves at primary dealer banks and BlackRock-managed government MMFs, publishes daily attestations, and provides direct mint/burn for qualified institutions. Settlement is 24/7 across supported chains with same-day USD redemption for institutional accounts.
PayPal PYUSD is the most credible competitor in the payment-stablecoin lane and is differentiated by distribution: existing PayPal and Venmo merchant relationships create a natural retail surface that USDC has had to build piecemeal.
Tether USDT dominates offshore markets and crypto trading venues but lacks a GENIUS Act issuer license, which excludes it from most U.S. bank, broker-dealer, and corporate treasury programs.
Tokenized Treasuries: BUIDL, USDY, BENJI
BlackRock BUIDL (distributed by Securitize) is structured as a feeder into a BlackRock-managed Treasury fund and is restricted to qualified purchasers. Daily yield is delivered via on-chain rebase, making it operationally compatible with DeFi treasury management tools.
Ondo USDY is structured as a note rather than a fund, available to non-U.S. and certain accredited U.S. investors. UX is smoother than BUIDL for treasury teams who want to hold a single ERC-20 that accrues value.
Franklin BENJI is the on-chain share class of the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund. For institutions already in the Franklin ecosystem, it is the lowest-friction option.
Regulation After GENIUS
The GENIUS Act established federal and state pathways for payment stablecoin issuers, mandated 1:1 reserves in high-quality liquid assets, imposed monthly reserve audits, and prohibited yield payments to holders of payment stablecoins. Tokenized MMFs and tokenized notes continue to be governed under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (or Reg D/Reg S for notes), creating the bifurcation described above.
EU MiCA imposes a parallel but stricter regime; large EUR-denominated stablecoins remain limited in transaction count by issuer, which has slowed European stablecoin growth relative to U.S.-denominated equivalents.
Institutional Use Cases
- Corporate treasury: USDC for operating float, BUIDL/BENJI for overnight sweeps.
- Cross-border payments: USDC or PYUSD on Solana or Base for sub-cent settlement cost.
- Broker-dealer collateral: Tokenized MMFs are now accepted as collateral at select clearing venues.
- DAO and protocol treasuries: Predominantly USDC plus BUIDL or USDY for yield.
Related reading: Crypto Analytics Platforms · On-Chain Analytics Platforms · Treasury Management Systems.