MARKET INFRASTRUCTURE

Yield

The return generated from deploying digital assets—through on-chain lending, staking, liquidity provision, or holding yield-bearing tokenized instruments such as tokenized money market funds.

EXAMPLE

Superstate's tokenized Treasury fund delivers T-bill yield directly on-chain, allowing protocols to hold yield-bearing collateral rather than idle stablecoins.

Relevant Roles and Functions

On-chain Role
Head of On-Chain Liquidity and Treasury
On-Chain Liquidity Strategist
Function
Blockchain-based Treasury Management
Digital Collateral
Settlement Funding across Networks
Stablecoin Liquidity
TradFi Equivalent
Central Banks
Clearinghouses
Payment Systems

Related Terms

Real-World Asset

A traditional financial or physical asset—such as a government bond, real estate, private credit facility, or trade receivable—that has been tokenized and represented on a blockchain for on-chain trading, settlement, or collateral use.

Example

BlackRock's BUIDL fund tokenizes U.S. Treasury exposure, allowing institutions to use the token as real-time on-chain collateral instead of wiring cash.

Staking

The act of locking cryptocurrency or digital assets in a blockchain protocol to support network security, validate transactions, or provide liquidity, in exchange for periodic rewards. Institutional staking products allow clients to earn on-chain yield.

Example

Fidelity Digital Assets offers institutional clients access to Ethereum staking yield without requiring them to manage validator node infrastructure directly.

Liquidity Pool

A smart contract that holds reserves of two or more assets, enabling decentralized trading, lending, or borrowing. Participants who deposit assets earn a share of fees proportional to their contribution.

Example

An institutional liquidity pool for tokenized government bonds enables real-time repo without requiring a central dealer to intermediate each trade.

Tokenized Security

A traditional financial instrument—equity, bond, or fund unit—represented as a digital token on a blockchain, with ownership rights, transfer restrictions, and corporate actions managed by smart contract logic.

Example

Franklin Templeton's FOBXX tokenized money market fund distributes dividends automatically via smart contract, eliminating the fund administrator's manual allocation process.