YUSD is a stablecoin issued by Aegis and backed by BTC held in Copper ClearLoop qualified custody. Aegis holds a short BTC perpetual position sized 1 to 1 against the BTC collateral. The position is delta-neutral, so the dollar value of the backing does not depend on the BTC price. The funding rate carry on the short position is the yield source for sYUSD, the staked instrument a holder receives by staking YUSD.
In June 2026 Aegis published the YUSD Reserve Strategy Mandate. The mandate sets how YUSD reserves allocate between the BTC funding strategy and tokenized treasury bills. The allocation follows one number, the Funding Rate Premium. This article defines the Funding Rate Premium, presents the funding rate record that motivates the rule and walks through how the mandate applies it.
Funding Rate Premium (FRP) = 30-day BTC funding APR − 4-week treasury bill yield.
The funding APR is the weighted average of OKX and Bybit COIN-M funding rates over the trailing 30 days. The treasury bill yield is the 1-month APY on Centrifuge JSTRY.
FRP is the excess yield the BTC funding strategy earns above treasury bills. A positive FRP means the funding strategy pays more than treasury bills. A negative FRP means treasury bills pay more. FRP is calculated weekly and the series is published with the mandate.
A perpetual future has no expiry date. Exchanges keep the perpetual price near the spot price through funding payments that pass between longs and shorts at fixed intervals. When the perpetual trades above the spot index, the funding rate is positive and longs pay shorts. When the perpetual trades below the spot index, the funding rate is negative and shorts pay longs.
Aegis holds the short side. The short BTC perpetual position hedges the BTC collateral, and on positive funding days the position collects the funding payment. That payment is the funding rate carry, and it accrues to sYUSD holders as a rising sYUSD to YUSD exchange rate. On negative funding days the position pays funding, the Aegis insurance fund covers the outflow and sYUSD holds at 0% for that day.
The funding rate is variable. Aegis published the BTC perpetual funding rate distribution recorded from January 1, 2024 through May 17, 2026, 868 daily observations of the realized BTC perpetual funding rate averaged across the Binance, Bybit and OKX feeds.
Quarterly mean annualized funding rate across the dataset:
• Q1 2024: 23.70%
• Q2 2024: 7.78%
• Q3 2024: 3.63%
• Q4 2024: 13.70%
• Q1 2025: 4.53%
• Q2 2025: 3.13%
• Q3 2025: 6.80%
• Q4 2025: 2.92%
• Q1 2026: 1.29%
• Q2 2026 through May 17: -0.85%
The mean across all 868 observations is 7.05% APY and the median is 4.89% APY. Q1 2024 holds the highest quarterly mean. Q2 2026 holds the only negative quarterly mean in the dataset.
The dataset contains 33 negative funding regimes. 12 regimes lasted 1 day and 18 regimes lasted 2 to 5 days. The longest regime ran 15 days, from April 11 to April 25, 2026. April 2026 recorded 20 negative funding days, the highest monthly count in the dataset.
A reserve strategy that earns only the funding carry earns close to 0% in a quarter like Q2 2026. The 4-week treasury bill paid 3.5% over the same period. The mandate exists for this case. When funding pays well above treasury bills, reserves run the funding strategy and sYUSD holders earn the carry. When funding pays below treasury bills for a sustained period, reserves move to treasury bills and sYUSD yield holds near the treasury bill yield net of management fees.
The BTC funding strategy carries exchange and operational risk. Treasury bills carry duration risk capped at 180 days. FRP measures whether the funding strategy is paying enough to take its risk.
FRP above 250bps: 100% funding strategy, 0% treasury bills. The mandate labels this band Funding Dominant.
FRP below -250bps: 0% funding strategy, 100% treasury bills. The mandate labels this band Treasuries Dominant.
FRP is calculated weekly. The 250bps threshold requires the funding strategy to pay at least 2.5% APY above treasury bills before reserves take its exchange and operational risk. The full mandate sets the allocation at each band and publishes the back-tested FRP series.
A band change is acted on only after FRP holds the new band for 14 consecutive days. This prevents a reallocation on a transient funding spike, and it prevents one on a transient funding drop.
The dataset supports the threshold. 30 of the 33 negative funding regimes on record lasted 5 days or fewer. A 14-day hold keeps reserves in place through the regimes that revert within days and acts on the regimes that persist.
A reallocation moves positions in tranches. Spot long and perpetual short positions close as paired legs in the same tranche, so no naked exposure exists between tranches.
The slippage and cost budget is 20bps per tranche. Execution pauses if a tranche breaches the budget by 1.5x and the Risk Committee reviews before resuming.
Adding or removing a treasury instrument issuer requires Board approval, a diligence pack and 7-day notice. Any Risk Committee member can halt a rebalance immediately, with 24 hours to ratify the halt or resume.
The FRP series tells a our holders where reserves sit and where the yield comes from in the current band. In the Funding Dominant band the yield is the BTC funding rate carry. In the Treasuries Dominant band the yield is the treasury bill yield net of management fees. In both bands the yield accrues as a rising sYUSD to YUSD exchange rate and direct native claim for YUSD holders.
Current sYUSD 7d APY: 3.7%.
Current FRP: 0.15%
Access YUSD: https://app.aegis.im
Stake YUSD to receive sYUSD: https://app.aegis.im/stake
Check the current collateral allocation: https://app.aegis.im/transparency
Proof of reserves: https://aegis.accountable.capital/