Tokenized Treasury Funds Compared: BUIDL vs BENJI vs USYC vs OUSG

Four names dominate the tokenized Treasury conversation: BUIDL, BENJI, USYC, and OUSG. They all hold short-dated US Treasury securities. They all issue onchain tokens against those holdings. They are not the same product, and the differences matter enormously depending on who you are, what you want to do with the token, and which blockchain you operate on.

This comparison uses publicly available data from rwa.xyz, platform disclosures, and regulatory filings. All AUM figures are approximate and change over time — verify against live trackers before acting on them.

The Four Funds at a Glance

BUIDL — BlackRock's Infrastructure Play

BUIDL (BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund) launched in March 2024 on Ethereum and has expanded to six chains. BNY Mellon custodies the underlying Treasuries. It requires a $5 million minimum and qualified purchaser status, placing it firmly in the institutional tier. Most retail investors cannot access it directly.

BUIDL functions as infrastructure as much as a product. Ondo Finance uses BUIDL as the primary underlying asset in OUSG. Ethena, Sky, and Frax all hold BUIDL as reserve collateral. DeFi protocols accept BUIDL as collateral because of its institutional credibility and same-day USDC redemption facility. It is the T-bill fund that other T-bill products and stablecoin protocols are built on top of.

The $5 million minimum and qualified purchaser requirement are not incidental — they reflect BUIDL's regulatory positioning as an exempt private fund. It is not registered under the Investment Company Act. It is not available through a brokerage app.

BENJI — The Only Retail-Accessible US Tokenized Money Market Fund

BENJI is the tokenized share class of the Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX) — a 1940 Act registered mutual fund. That registration is the most important structural difference between BENJI and every other fund in this comparison. FOBXX is a real mutual fund with SEC registration, ongoing regulatory compliance, and retail accessibility.

US investors can access BENJI through the Benji Investments app with approximately $20 minimum — the same threshold as a traditional mutual fund share. This is genuinely unusual: there is no other US-registered tokenized money market fund accessible to retail investors at a comparable minimum. BENJI launched on Stellar in 2021, making Franklin Templeton the first asset manager to use a public blockchain as a fund's system of record.

BENJI has grown from roughly $600 million in January 2026 to approximately $2.5 billion by mid-2026 — over 100% year-to-date growth. It now operates across eight chains: Stellar, Polygon, Arbitrum, Aptos, Avalanche, Base, Solana, and Ethereum. Institutional investors can access it through custody platforms and broker-dealer relationships, and as of September 28, 2026, eligible institutional clients can use BENJI tokens as trading collateral on Bybit — pledging fund shares for stablecoin credit lines while keeping assets in off-exchange custody and continuing to earn yield.

USYC — The Largest by AUM

USYC, issued by Hashnote and now part of Circle's product stack following Circle's acquisition of Hashnote in early 2025, has grown to approximately $3 billion in AUM — making it the largest single tokenized Treasury product by AUM as of mid-2026 per rwa.xyz. Circle's strategic logic: it already runs USDC, and USYC gives it a yield-bearing reserve asset that integrates with USDC's ecosystem.

USYC requires a $100,000 minimum and accredited or qualified purchaser status. It operates on Ethereum and two other chains. Like BUIDL, it is accepted as collateral in DeFi protocols and by institutional counterparties. Same-day USDC redemption is available. USYC's rapid rise to the top of the AUM table reflects Circle's distribution advantage — USDC is already integrated into thousands of platforms, and USYC can ride that distribution network.

OUSG — The DeFi-Native Option

OUSG (Ondo Finance) is the most DeFi-native of the four. Its underlying asset is primarily BUIDL, plus USYC and Superstate USTB for instant liquidity. This means OUSG is effectively a wrapper on top of BUIDL — investors who cannot meet BUIDL's $5 million minimum can access similar exposure through OUSG at a $100,000 qualified purchaser minimum.

OUSG offers same-day settlement during US banking hours through its BUIDL integration and instant redemption to USDC outside banking hours through its stablecoin liquidity facility. Total fees are approximately 35 basis points (15 bps Ondo, 20 bps BUIDL). OUSG is most commonly used as collateral within DeFi lending protocols — it appears in lending markets, structured yield products, and as backing for other tokenized instruments.

How to Choose

The right product depends on what you are trying to do. Retail US investors who want onchain Treasury yield: BENJI is the only option. Institutional investors building DeFi infrastructure or collateral programs: BUIDL and USYC are the primary choices, with OUSG as a lower-minimum alternative to BUIDL. Institutions wanting yield-bearing collateral for crypto trading: BENJI is now available on Bybit; BUIDL is accepted on Crypto.com, Deribit, and via Binance off-exchange programs.

All four are permissioned tokens — transfer is restricted to wallets that have passed KYC/AML checks. None can be freely traded on a DEX. The secondary market for all four is thin, which is why the Pantera finding that 81% of tokenized Treasury value sits idle rather than trading is consistent with all four products' operational reality: they are primarily hold-to-yield instruments, not actively traded securities.

→ 81% of tokenized Treasury value just sits idle — the Pantera finding explained
→ What happens to your tokens if the issuer goes bankrupt
→ DYOR Part 2: Reading the data — how to verify Treasury fund claims yourself