USDC is a non-yielding payment stablecoin. YLDS is an SEC-registered, yield-bearing certificate that pays SOFR minus 50 basis points to its holders. Both reference one US dollar of value, both move onchain, and both are dollar-pegged. Underneath the peg, they are different products built under different regulatory regimes for different jobs.
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This guide pulls them apart so you can pick the right tool. USDC is the workhorse for payments and treasury operations. YLDS is for held balances where the foregone interest on a non-yielding stablecoin is the cost you actually want to recover.
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USDC is issued by Circle as a fully reserved payment token: redeem one USDC, get one dollar. YLDS is issued by Figure Certificate Company as a face-amount certificate that pays a published rate of SOFR minus 0.50% to the holder. The first is plumbing. The second is closer to a money market product that now lives on Stellar alongside Provenance and Solana.
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The table below summarizes the seven dimensions that matter when choosing between a payment stablecoin and a yield-bearing certificate. Every row reflects the legal and operational reality, not marketing language.

If Circle paid USDC holders a share of reserve interest, the token would almost certainly be classified as a security under US law. Securities require registration, prospectuses, and a different distribution model than a payment instrument. Keeping USDC non-yielding is what lets it function as a payment stablecoin held by exchanges, fintechs, and consumers without each of those parties handling a security.
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The economics still flow somewhere. Circle holds reserves in cash and short-duration US Treasuries and earns the interest. That interest funds Circle's operations and partner programs. Holders get a stable, redeemable token; Circle gets the float. YLDS inverts that arrangement: the holder receives the yield because the product is registered as a security from day one and pays a disclosed rate of SOFR minus 0.50%.
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USDC sits inside the money services business framework. Circle holds money transmitter licenses across US states, follows BSA/AML rules, publishes monthly reserve attestations from a Big Four auditor, and operates under MiCA in the European Union. The product is a payment token; the regulator is concerned with reserves, transmission, and consumer protection.
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YLDS sits inside US securities law. The Figure Certificate Company structure used for YLDS is a face-amount certificate, a type of investment contract that has existed in US law since the Investment Company Act of 1940. The SEC reviews the registration. Holders receive disclosures about the issuer's balance sheet, the assets backing the certificate, and the redemption mechanics. YLDS originally launched on Provenance Blockchain in February 2025, expanded to Solana in November 2025, and Figure expanded YLDS to Stellar on May 5, 2026, positioning it as the first SEC-registered yield-bearing dollar product on the Stellar network.
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Same dollar peg, two different bodies of law. That difference shows up in who can hold the asset, how it can be marketed, and how exchanges and custodians have to treat it.
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USDC is the right choice when the dollar needs to move, not sit. Concrete cases:

The DeFiLlama supply data tells the story. USDC sits at roughly $78.1 billion in circulation across 20+ chains. That liquidity is the network effect you are buying when you pick USDC.
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YLDS is the right choice when dollars are sitting on a balance sheet long enough that the foregone yield becomes a real cost. Concrete cases:

The yield rate is publicly disclosed: SOFR minus 0.50% (50 basis points), accrued daily and paid monthly, payable in USD or in additional YLDS. The economics track short-duration Treasury money market yields, minus the management spread, with the disclosure protections of an SEC-registered security.
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Both products carry peg risk and smart contract risk on whatever chain they live on. YLDS adds two categories USDC holders generally do not face.
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The first is issuer credit risk. A YLDS certificate is an obligation of Figure Certificate Company, backed by US Treasuries and Treasury repo per Figure's published documentation. If the asset pool underperforms or Figure faces balance-sheet stress, the certificate can be impaired in ways a fully reserved cash-equivalent token cannot. USDC's reserves are held in cash and short-duration Treasuries with monthly attestations; the failure mode is narrower.
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The second is liquidity and redemption risk. SEC-registered certificates can have redemption windows, notice periods, or pro rata gates. USDC redeems 1:1 through Circle Mint or via deep secondary markets at any time. YLDS holders should read the certificate terms carefully before treating it as a cash equivalent in a liquidity stress scenario.
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Counterweight: YLDS holders also get securities-law disclosure protections, audited issuer financials, and the supervisory oversight that comes with SEC registration. USDC holders rely on Circle's published reserve attestations, not full disclosures.
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The two products are complements, not substitutes. A typical treasury setup pairs them: USDC for the operating balance that funds payroll, vendor payments, and exchange flows; YLDS for the strategic dollar reserve that would otherwise sit idle in a money market fund. The split mirrors how a traditional treasury runs an operating account at a payments bank and parks excess cash in a money fund.
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Stellar's broader real-world-asset ecosystem reinforces this fit. WisdomTree's Treasury Money Market Digital Fund (WTGXX), Ondo's USDY, and Franklin Templeton's BENJI already issue tokenized money market and Treasury products on Stellar, and Figure's YLDS adds a registered yield-bearing dollar to that stack. A treasurer can hold USDC and YLDS in the same Stellar wallet, sweep between them based on operating needs, and reuse a single integration for both.
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One practical note: secondary market depth and exchange listings for YLDS on Stellar will take time to develop, even though the certificate has been live on Provenance since early 2025 and Solana since late 2025. Expect early Stellar flows to be primary issuance and redemption directly with Figure, with secondary trading building as more venues add securities tooling. USDC, by contrast, is already listed on most centralized exchanges and integrated across major DeFi protocols, so the operational experience will feel different even when both assets sit in the same wallet.
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Stablecoin supply figures come from DeFiLlama's stablecoins API, fetched May 4, 2026. Regulatory framing for USDC reflects Circle's published licensing and MiCA disclosures. YLDS facts (issuer, structure, yield rate, network history) come from Figure Markets' February 2025 launch documentation, the November 2025 Solana expansion press release, and the Stellar Development Foundation press release announcing the Stellar deployment on May 5, 2026. The face-amount certificate framework is defined in Section 28 of the Investment Company Act of 1940.
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