On May 5, 2026, Figure Technology Solutions (Nasdaq: FIGR) and the Stellar Development Foundation announced that YLDS, the SEC-registered yield-bearing dollar product issued by Figure Certificate Company, is now live on the Stellar network. This is an expansion, not a debut. YLDS originally launched on Provenance Blockchain in February 2025, added Solana in November 2025, and is now landing on Stellar as its third network. Figure's framing in the press release is precise: YLDS is the "first regulated yield-bearing dollar product on Stellar," not the first overall.
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The Stellar deployment matters because Stellar is one of the most concentrated regulated-RWA ecosystems onchain, with tokenized funds from WisdomTree, Franklin Templeton, and Ondo already running there. Public estimates of Stellar's tokenized real-world asset footprint range from roughly $1.2B (Messari, Q1 2026) to $2B-plus (Stellar Development Foundation, May 2026), depending on whether stablecoins and broader RWA categories are included.
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This article explains what YLDS actually is, how its certificate structure differs from a bank deposit or a money-market fund, the disclosed yield mechanics, and how the token compares to other dollar tokens you may already hold.
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YLDS is a tokenized face-amount certificate issued by Figure Certificate Company, an SEC-registered investment company affiliated with Figure Technology Solutions. Each token represents an unsecured debt obligation of the issuer redeemable for one US dollar plus accrued yield. As of May 2026, YLDS is live on Provenance Blockchain, Solana, and Stellar.
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The legal wrapper is the unusual piece. A face-amount certificate is a security defined under Section 28 of the Investment Company Act of 1940. The issuer takes deposits from holders, invests the proceeds, and contractually agrees to repay the face amount on demand or at maturity, plus a stated rate of return. Figure Certificate Company is registered with the SEC under that framework, so YLDS holders are buying a regulated security, not a bank deposit, not a stablecoin redemption claim, and not a money-market fund share.
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That distinction matters. A USDC holder has a redemption claim against Circle. A USDY holder has an interest in a note issued by Ondo USDY LLC, a BVI entity, backed by short-term US Treasuries and bank demand deposits. A YLDS holder is a creditor of Figure Certificate Company, with the protections of SEC disclosure and reporting attached.
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The May 5, 2026 announcement matters because Stellar is the most regulated-RWA-dense network in crypto, and YLDS is the first SEC-registered yield-bearing dollar product to deploy there. Until now, Stellar's RWA stack covered tokenized money-market funds (BENJI, WTGXX) and yield notes (USDY) — not a transferable yield-bearing dollar token under a registered US framework.
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For Stellar-native fintechs, custodians, and wallets, that closes a specific gap. Builders who already integrated for WisdomTree or Franklin can support YLDS with marginal engineering, and they get a yield-bearing balance primitive that behaves like a stablecoin rather than a fund share. Path payments let a wallet swap YLDS to a local-currency stablecoin in one atomic operation, which matters more for remittance and savings flows than raw throughput does.
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For Figure, Stellar is the third deployment in fourteen months. Provenance was the original distribution layer, where YLDS plugged into Figure's existing capital-markets infrastructure. Solana extended reach into DeFi-native venues. Stellar adds the regulated-RWA distribution surface and the LATAM remittance corridor that other Stellar dollar tokens already serve.
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The four tokens share a unit of account (the US dollar) but solve different problems. USDC is plumbing for payments. BENJI and USDY are tokenized investment products. YLDS sits between them — registered as an investment but engineered for stablecoin-style movement.

Reading the table left to right: YLDS is the only product where SEC registration, a disclosed yield rate, and stablecoin-style transferability converge. USDC gives the cleanest payment rails but no yield. USDY offers yield and broad onchain reach but is structured for offshore distribution. BENJI carries the strongest US regulatory wrapper of the three pre-YLDS options, but moving fund shares is a slower, more constrained motion than transferring a stablecoin.
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Figure runs Provenance Blockchain for its private-credit and HELOC origination business, and Solana captured the DeFi-native distribution layer. Stellar is the regulated-RWA chain. The Stellar deployment is a deliberate choice to plug YLDS into an ecosystem of compliance-first dollar products and a remittance corridor where dollar demand is structural.
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Stellar already hosts WisdomTree's WTGXX Treasury Money Market Digital Fund, Franklin Templeton's BENJI, and Ondo's USDY among other RWA products. Combined Stellar RWA TVL ranges between roughly $1.2B per Messari's Q1 2026 state-of-Stellar report and $2B-plus per the Stellar Development Foundation's May 2026 figure, depending on what the count includes. Either way, the integration surface — wallets, custodians, fintechs — is already built.
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Stellar's transaction profile fits the use case. Fees run a fraction of a cent, ledger close happens roughly every five seconds, and the path-payment primitive lets a wallet swap YLDS to a local-currency stablecoin atomically. For a remittance flow ending in a Brazilian real or Argentine peso stablecoin, those mechanics matter more than raw throughput.
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The Stellar press release names three audiences: fintechs, neobanks, and Latin American dollar savers. Each has a different reason to care, and Figure's product design serves all three from the same token.
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For fintechs, YLDS is a treasury and customer-balance primitive. Hold operating cash in YLDS and earn SOFR minus 50 basis points instead of leaving it idle in a non-yielding stablecoin. Pass yield through to end users as a dollar-savings feature without building a money-market fund relationship from scratch. Settle B2B transfers in seconds.
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For neobanks, the appeal is similar but oriented around customer-deposit replacement. A challenger bank operating in a country where local-currency deposits earn nothing in real terms can offer a YLDS-denominated savings product without holding a US bank charter. The neobank earns spread; the user earns dollar yield; the underlying instrument carries SEC oversight.
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For Latin American users directly, YLDS is a more honest dollar than the unregulated yield products that have circulated in the region. Argentina has run with one of the highest stablecoin-adoption rates in the world, driven by chronic peso devaluation, and Brazil's stablecoin volume sits in the same conversation. A regulated, yield-bearing dollar that moves on Stellar's low-fee rails fits an existing usage pattern, with the addition of yield holders previously paid for in spirit but rarely received.
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YLDS pays SOFR minus 0.50%, accrued daily and paid monthly, per Figure Markets' product documentation. With SOFR running near 4.3% in early 2026, that translates to a current rate in the high-3% range, though the absolute number moves with SOFR itself. Distributions are paid in either US dollars or additional YLDS at the holder's option.
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The mechanics are worth understanding. The issuer earns the return on whatever instruments back the certificate (per the Solana-launch press release, Treasuries and Treasury repo) and contractually pays out SOFR-minus-50bps, retaining the spread. That makes YLDS yield more predictable than a money-market fund (which passes through the underlying portfolio yield minus expenses) but introduces issuer-spread risk: if Figure's investment yield falls below SOFR-minus-50bps, the obligation still has to be met from the issuer's balance sheet.
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YLDS is well-structured but not risk-free. A few specific items deserve attention before holders size positions.
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It is a debt instrument, not a deposit. Face-amount certificates are unsecured obligations of the issuer. There is no FDIC coverage, no SIPC coverage on the certificate itself, and your claim is against Figure Certificate Company's balance sheet. SEC registration enforces disclosure and capital rules but does not federally insure principal.
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Custody and operational risk concentrate on Figure. Figure operates issuance, recordkeeping, and (through partners) the redemption rail. A failure at any of those layers affects holders more directly than a stablecoin failure typically would, because there is no separate trust holding assets on your behalf the way a money-market fund structure provides.
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Issuer-spread risk on the yield. The disclosed SOFR-minus-50bps rate is an issuer obligation, not a passthrough of underlying portfolio yield. In a stress scenario where Figure's investment yield compresses, the spread comes out of the issuer's capital cushion.
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Secondary-market depth varies by network. Day-one Stellar liquidity will depend on which exchanges and OTC desks list the Stellar-issued YLDS asset. Stellar's path-payment routing helps, but a tokenized certificate without active market makers can trade at a discount during stress periods.
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Regulatory scope is US-anchored. SEC registration helps in the US. It does not automatically translate into local-securities approval in Argentina, Brazil, or other distribution markets. Local fintechs offering YLDS-denominated products will need their own licensing in each jurisdiction.
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YLDS is not the first regulated dollar product on Stellar; it is the first one structured to behave like a stablecoin. That positioning means it can coexist with WisdomTree, Ondo, and Franklin Templeton instead of competing head-to-head, because each product solves a different stack of needs.
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WisdomTree's WTGXX Treasury Money Market Digital Fund offers tokenized money-market exposure with the cleanest US regulatory standing. Franklin Templeton's BENJI is the same category from a larger asset manager and has been on Stellar since 2021. Ondo's USDY reaches non-US distribution where US-only fund shares cannot. YLDS adds a fourth option: a token you can move and use, not just hold for yield.
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For wallets and fintechs building on Stellar, the right design pattern is product-aware routing. Use YLDS for balances that need to move. Use BENJI or WTGXX for parked treasury that does not. Use USDY for distribution where SEC-registered options cannot reach. Stellar's path-payment primitive can swap between any pair in a single transaction.
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Figure has spent the last decade building one of the more complete onchain capital-markets stacks in the US: Provenance Blockchain at the infrastructure layer, securitized HELOCs and personal loans at the asset layer, and a growing set of tokenized investment vehicles at the product layer. YLDS extends that stack into the dollar-deposit-replacement category, which is the largest pool of consumer financial assets in the world.
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Strategically, YLDS gives Figure a customer-balance product that compounds with the rest of its book. A user holding YLDS is funneling deposits to Figure Certificate Company, which can deploy them into Figure-originated credit assets, creating a closed loop where consumer balances finance consumer credit, all onchain, all under regulated wrappers. The multi-chain rollout (Provenance to Solana to Stellar in fourteen months) is a distribution play on top of that core economics.
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Functionally, yes; legally, no. YLDS targets a one-dollar face value and moves on Stellar with stablecoin-like properties, but the underlying instrument is a face-amount certificate, an SEC-registered security. The distinction matters for accounting and compliance.
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YLDS launched on Provenance Blockchain in February 2025, expanded to Solana in November 2025, and added Stellar on May 5, 2026.
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Yes, subject to Figure's KYC and onboarding. Because YLDS is offered under SEC registration rather than an offshore exemption, eligibility is broader than for a Reg S product like USDY. Specific eligibility rules sit in Figure's offering documents.
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Yield on a face-amount certificate is generally taxed as interest income for US holders. Confirm with a tax advisor; specifics depend on the holder's jurisdiction and the structure of distributions.
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Direct redemption is part of the certificate structure. Redemption windows, fees, and settlement timing are described in Figure's offering materials.
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Holders are unsecured creditors of the issuer. SEC registration enforces capital and disclosure rules but does not insure principal. Recovery in a worst case would depend on Figure Certificate Company's assets and any senior claims.
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A YLDS transfer settles in roughly five seconds at the next ledger close, the same path any Stellar-issued asset uses. Transaction fees are denominated in lumens (XLM) and run a fraction of a cent per operation, regardless of transfer size. Path payments let a sender hold YLDS while a receiver receives a different asset (a local-currency stablecoin, for example) in one atomic transaction.
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Both are SEC-registered investment products under the Investment Company Act of 1940, but the legal mechanics differ. A money-market fund issues shares; the holder owns a pro-rata claim on a pool of segregated assets held by a custodian, and the fund marks NAV daily. A face-amount certificate issues a debt instrument; the holder is a creditor of the issuer, the issuer keeps assets on its own balance sheet, and the contract specifies the face value the issuer will repay. Money-market fund yield equals investment return minus expenses. Face-amount certificate yield is whatever the issuer contractually commits to pay, which can be higher or lower than the underlying asset return depending on how the issuer prices the spread.
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This article draws on Figure Technology Solutions and Stellar Development Foundation primary materials, plus Figure Markets' published YLDS product documentation, the November 2025 Solana-launch press release, and Figure's SEC filings via EDGAR. Stellar RWA TVL is reported as a range between Messari's Q1 2026 figure and the Stellar Development Foundation's May 2026 figure rather than a single point estimate. Where Figure has not disclosed a specific fact, this article says so explicitly rather than inferring.