Circle has changed the investment strategy for USYC, its tokenized money market product. The fund previously relied mainly on overnight reverse repurchase agreements. It now invests in U.S. Treasury bills with maturities of up to six months. Circle says the USYC token and USDC-based subscription and redemption processes are unchanged. But Circle has shared too little about the portfolio to show how the shift affects risk or yield.
- Portfolio: Treasury bills with maturities of up to six months; it is unclear whether reverse repos have been eliminated.
- Operations: Circle says the USYC token and USDC subscription and redemption processes are unchanged.
- Still undisclosed: The fund’s new allocation, weighted average maturity and current yield.
What changed in USYC’s portfolio?
USYC represents shares in the Hashnote International Short Duration Fund Ltd., a mutual fund registered in the Cayman Islands. Circle acquired Hashnote in January 2025. The fund began operations in January 2023.
Before the change, the fund relied mainly on overnight reverse repurchase agreements, or reverse repos. In a reverse repo, the fund lends cash and receives securities as collateral. The counterparty agrees to buy those securities back later.
Circle says the revised structure invests in U.S. Treasury bills with maturities of up to six months. Its disclosure does not say whether reverse repos have been removed entirely or remain in the portfolio. Nor does it specify how much of the fund has moved into bills.
The change affects the fund’s investments, not the stated mechanics of the USYC token. Circle says subscriptions and redemptions will continue to use USDC, with no announced changes to the issuer, token or operational arrangements.
What longer maturities can mean
Treasury bills are short-term U.S. government debt. Investors generally earn a return from the difference between the bill’s purchase price and the amount paid at maturity. That does not mean a fund locks in a fixed return. Results also depend on the securities it holds, how it reinvests proceeds and whether it sells holdings before they mature.
A bill’s market price can change as interest rates move. Longer maturities generally mean greater exposure to those changes, but maturity and duration are different measures. Duration estimates how sensitive a security or portfolio’s price is to interest-rate changes. Without the fund’s actual holdings and maturity profile, it is impossible to determine the scale of that sensitivity.
Circle has not provided the portfolio’s updated weighted average maturity, current yield or Treasury-bill allocation. Investors therefore cannot quantify how much the fund’s income profile or interest-rate exposure has changed. The shift may affect both, but the available information is not enough to say by how much or whether the fund’s overall risk has increased.
USYC as an institutional product
USYC is a yield-bearing investment product. Its stated returns appear as changes in the token’s price rather than as separate interest payments. Circle says access is restricted to eligible non-U.S. persons and sets a minimum investment of $100, 000.
Circle lists Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, NEAR, Canton and Arc as supported networks. Its product information also says token balances, prices and yield data are available through an onchain oracle feed, making that information accessible to blockchain applications.
Circle says redemptions within available instant-redemption capacity can settle onchain within one block. Larger requests generally settle on the same or next business day, and separate liquidity arrangements are available. The capacity limit matters. One-block settlement is not a promise that every redemption, whatever its size, will settle that quickly.
Circle lists standard subscription and redemption fees of 0.04% and 0.03%, respectively. It says those fees are waived on the first $1 million in qualifying combined daily volume. The product information also lists a performance fee equal to 10% of yield. The disclosures do not explain exactly how the $1 million waiver applies across qualifying transactions. Product terms can change, so investors should check Circle’s current materials and fund documents before relying on these figures.
Collateral use remains a key open question
In July 2025, crypto.news reported that eligible institutional Binance customers could use USYC as off-exchange collateral for derivatives trading. In this arrangement, collateral is held outside the exchange’s direct custody, using custody and triparty infrastructure.
The report confirms a collateral integration at the time, but not whether it remains available or under the same terms after Circle’s portfolio revision. Circle has not said whether the shift affects collateral valuations, margin requirements, redemption arrangements at participating venues or notifications to exchanges. These details matter to institutions using USYC as collateral. A change to the underlying portfolio does not automatically change venue terms, but institutions should not assume those terms will stay the same.
Dates and figures need context
Circle announced the portfolio change on November 9, but the year is not specified in the available information. Circle’s published figures put USYC assets under management at approximately $313 million as of October 27, 2026. Without a confirmed year for the announcement and a publication date to establish the chronology, that AUM figure cannot be treated as a measure of the fund’s assets when the change was announced.
Key questions about Circle’s USYC change
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Did Treasury bills replace all reverse repos?
That is unclear. Circle says the fund previously relied mainly on overnight reverse repos and that the revised structure invests in bills with maturities of up to six months. It has not disclosed whether reverse repos remain in the portfolio.
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Did Circle change USYC subscriptions or redemptions?
Circle says the stated process is unchanged. Investors continue to use USDC to subscribe and redeem. Redemptions within available instant capacity can settle within one block. Larger requests generally take the same or next business day.
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What is USYC’s current yield and interest-rate exposure?
Circle has not disclosed an updated yield, weighted average maturity or Treasury-bill allocation. Without those figures, investors cannot quantify the change in income or price sensitivity.
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Can institutions still use USYC as derivatives collateral?
Crypto.news reported a Binance integration for eligible institutional customers in July 2025. Circle has not confirmed whether the integration remains available on the same terms after the portfolio change.
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Who can invest in USYC?
Circle lists access for eligible non-U.S. persons and a minimum investment of $100, 000.
The central unanswered question is how much of the portfolio has changed, what its resulting maturity and risk profile looks like, and whether institutions accepting USYC as collateral have adjusted their terms. The difference in yield between Treasury bills and overnight repos is only part of the picture. Circle’s broader stablecoin activity, including a record USDC transfer to Coinbase, is separate from the portfolio details still missing here.
