TLDR;

The safest yields in the world like U.S. Treasury bonds, money market funds and private credit have been locked away behind million-dollar minimums, KYC walls, and jurisdiction restrictions. We think that’s wrong. Tokenization cracked the door open. R2 blows it wide open: ETF-style DeFi vaults backed by Treasuries, MMFs, and private credit, delivering 4%–12% real yield with no KYC, $100 minimums, instant liquidity, and a DeFi-native experience. It’s RWA backed yield, finally available to anyone, anywhere.

For the past hundred years, one kind of investment has quietly beaten inflation, sailed through every crisis, and delivered steady returns without fail. You’d think everyone would have access to it, but they don’t.

At the heart of this elite circle are U.S. Treasury bills, investment-grade corporate bonds, and institutional money market funds, assets so dependable they form the backbone of the global financial system. Buying U.S. Treasuries is essentially lending to the U.S. government in exchange for interest, a loan backed by what is widely seen as one of the safest credits in the world. And in a geopolitical moment where some countries are reducing their U.S. debt exposure amid tariff disputes and shifting alliances. Washington is looking for new buyers.

In February 2025, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yielded 4.2%, while short-duration institutional money market funds like Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX offered a 4.1% 7-day yield, not speculative spikes, but the kind of steady income sophisticated investors have trusted for generations.

For decades, this market has been the domain of pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and Wall Street giants, players with capital, credentials, and connections to lock in the safest returns in finance. Assets like U.S. Treasuries and top-rated bonds have been their foundation, holding value and making payments through wars, recessions, and market shocks.

For everyday investors, the story is very different. Access exists, but often through indirect channels like mutual funds, ETFs, or savings products that hold Treasuries or investment-grade bonds. These options come with management fees, diluted yields, and far less flexibility than the direct access institutions enjoy. Many of the most attractive opportunities, such as private bond placements or high-yield institutional money market funds, aren’t even marketed to the public due to regulatory restrictions like accredited investor rules and jurisdiction limits. And even when retail investors can buy directly, for example through the U.S. Treasuries on Treasury Direct usually lack the scale to negotiate better rates or participate in exclusive offerings. The result is that the safest income in finance has remained an insiders-only game until now.

The result? The safest income in finance has remained an insiders-only game.

The problem isn’t awareness - it’s structure. Institutions don’t just have more capital; they operate under an entirely different rulebook.

👉 Take a simple example: In Japan, a bank saver earns just 0.5% on deposits that’s only $50 a year on $10,000. Meanwhile, a U.S. fund deploying $100 million into Treasuries earns 4.1%, pocketing over $4.1 million a year.

That gap from $50 to $410 on the same $10k isn’t about risk, it’s about access. The underlying assets are the same, but institutions capture the upside while individuals are locked out.

1. Jurisdictional Restrictions : Over 60% of offshore U.S. dollar MMF assets are domiciled in Luxembourg, Ireland, and the Cayman Islands (IMF, Global Financial Stability Report 2023), where funds are restricted to institutional or professional investors only. In many countries, including China and India, retail investors are legally barred from buying foreign government debt directly. Even when regulations allow, offshore fund providers often won’t open accounts for non-institutional clients.

2. KYC, AML, and Asset Verification : Under U.S. SEC Rule 2a-7, certain MMF share classes are sold only to “qualified institutional buyers” requiring at least $100M in securities and discretion over investment decisions. Primary dealers in the U.S. treasury market completes KYC/AML once for a large institution and grants direct primary auction access.

A retail investor must go through a broker or platform, submit the same KYC/AML every time, and still won’t qualify for restricted share classes or direct primary auction participation.

3. High Minimum Investment Requirements : BlackRock’s Institutional U.S. Treasury MMF (Institutional Shares) has a $1,000,000 minimum initial investment (Jan 2024). Primary dealers like Citi and BofA require $5–10M lot sizes for direct T-Bill purchases.

Even brokerages that allow small-lot Treasury purchases often reserve their best yields for clients with six- or seven-figure deposits, meaning smaller investors pay more in relative costs and get lower rates.

4. Slow Settlement and Liquidity Constraints : Institutional MMFs typically offer same-day liquidity for orders placed before midday cutoffs, enabling rapid reinvestment and cash management.

Treasury Direct purchases settle on T+1, and retail brokerage T-Bill trades can take T+2. Exiting early often requires selling in the secondary market at a discount, locking up capital in ways institutions can avoid.

5. Yield Dilution Through Retail Channels : Institutional share classes carry minimal expense ratios — often under 0.15% annually for MMFs — preserving most of the yield. Pew Research (2022) shows bond funds cost 0.86% for retail vs. 0.55% for institutions. Retail MMFs average 0.25–0.35% fees, cutting yields by 10–20 bps. ETFs and mutual funds holding Treasuries often blend in lower-yield assets, further diluting returns.

6. Lack of Negotiation Power : Large institutions can negotiate repo haircuts, maturities, and fee waivers, earning 2–5 basis points more than standard rates. Small investors must take whatever is on the public rate sheet, with no ability to tailor terms or structure bespoke maturities.

7. Products Not Marketed to the Public : The Investment Company Institute’s Money Market Fund Trends Report (2024) shows over 70% of prime institutional MMF assets are in share classes that aren’t marketed to retail. Even when similar products exist, the “retail” versions often have lower yields, higher fees, and stricter liquidity rules, meaning the safest income streams in finance remain an insiders-only game. The system isn’t just tilted , it’s designed that way.

Tokenization turns traditional yield assets like U.S. Treasuries, investment-grade bonds, and institutional MMFs into digital tokens on a blockchain, removing many of the barriers that keep retail investors out. That’s what makes tokenization so powerful. By representing traditional yield assets on-chain, the old walls start to fall.

What once required million-dollar checks and weeks of paperwork can now be broken into $1 tokens, settled in seconds, and held in any wallet worldwide.

The tokenization concept emerged in the mid-2010s with Ethereum smart contracts and gained traction when regulated issuers like Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree, and BlackRock began offering tokenized Treasuries and MMFs in the early 2020s. Franklin Templeton’s OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund became the first U.S.-registered fund to operate entirely on a blockchain in 2023.

1. No Jurisdictional Barriers : Tokenization allows high-quality yield products to be issued and held globally on blockchain networks. A tokenized Treasury or money market fund can be stored in a compliant wallet anywhere in the world without the need for a brokerage account in a specific country. Franklin Templeton’s OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund is already accessible in multiple jurisdictions and transferable on-chain without relying on domestic custodians.

2. No Initial KYC for Certain Tokenized Assets : Depending on jurisdiction, regulatory structure, and issuance framework, some tokenized Treasury and MMF products can be bought and traded without any upfront identity verification. For instance, certain ERC-20 tokenized U.S. Treasuries issued under offshore exemptions (e.g., Reg S) allow permissionless secondary-market transfers between non-KYC’d wallets, a level of open access not possible in the traditional bond or fund markets.

3. No Repetitive KYC : Even when KYC is required, it’s performed once at the wallet level. Once approved, an investor can buy, sell, or redeem without resubmitting documents for each trade. This shrinks onboarding from days to minutes as seen in WisdomTree’s Prime and Hamilton Lane’s tokenized fund models.

4. Built-In Compliance : KYC/AML logic can be embedded directly into token transfer rules, automatically blocking ineligible wallets while allowing instant transfers between approved ones. This keeps markets open 24/7 while maintaining regulatory safeguards without manual intervention.

5. Fractional Ownership : Institutional minimums in the millions can be broken into $10 or even $1 slices without losing exposure or yield. Ondo Finance’s tokenized Treasuries offer entry points under $100, a 99%+ reduction from traditional access thresholds.

6. Instant Settlement : Settlement moves from T+1/T+2 cycles to seconds, freeing up capital for immediate reinvestment. JPMorgan’s Onyx processed tokenized asset transfers in under 10 seconds in 2024, versus multi-day legacy timelines.

7. Lower Costs and Higher Yields : Tokenized platforms bypass transfer agents, clearing systems, and extra custodians, compressing expense ratios. Franklin Templeton’s BENJI tokenized MMF charges just 0.06% vs ~0.25% for equivalent retail share classes, directly boosting net yields.

But tokenization alone isn’t enough. What’s missing is a form factor people already understand something as simple as holding USDC or DAI, except it actually earns.

The opportunity for tokenized yield products isn’t just theoretical, macroeconomic and market forces are aligning in a way we haven’t seen in decades. Four major trends are converging to make this moment uniquely favorable:

1. High Interest Rates Create Unprecedented On-Chain Yield Potential : U.S. short-term rates have been at their highest levels since 2007, with the Federal Reserve holding the Fed Funds Rate in the 5.25–5.50% range through early 2025. This means Treasury bills and institutional MMFs are yielding 4–5% risk-free levels that make them competitive with far riskier assets. In previous cycles, yields this high were inaccessible to most on-chain capital; now, tokenization bridges that gap.

2. The Stablecoin Market Is a $270B Sleeping Giant : Stablecoins like USDT, USDC, and DAI collectively hold over $160 billion in market cap (DefiLlama, Feb 2025), yet the vast majority of these assets earn 0% yield for their holders. Instead, issuers or custodians collect interest from parked reserves, often in T-Bills and MMFs. Tokenized yield products directly redirect this income to end-users, turning idle liquidity into an income-generating engine.

3. Tokenized Treasuries Are in Hypergrowth : The tokenized U.S. Treasury market hit $1.5B AUM in Jan 2025 (rwa.xyz), up nearly 600% year-over-year. Projects like Franklin Templeton’s BENJI, Ondo Finance’s OUSG, and Matrixdock’s STBT have proven that regulated, on-chain fixed income can scale and demand is still outpacing supply.

4. Dollar Demand Is Shifting : Foreign central banks have been trimming U.S. Treasury holdings since 2022, driven by diversification efforts, geopolitical tensions, and currency hedging strategies. As official demand softens, the U.S. increasingly relies on private and alternative channels including crypto capital pools to absorb issuance. Stablecoin and RWA protocols offer an always-on, globally accessible market for new Treasury buyers, reinforcing the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency while creating yield opportunities for participants.

The takeaway: This isn’t just another crypto narrative, it’s a structural shift in global capital flows. We have high yields, massive idle liquidity on-chain, proven tokenization models, and a macro environment pushing the U.S. to welcome new types of Treasury buyers. The timing for tokenized yield adoption has never been better.

Tokenization has proven it can break down barriers to safe yield. What was missing was a way to put that yield directly in people’s hands where no fund desks, no whitelists, no million-dollar minimums.

That’s where R2 comes in, making institutional-grade yield accessible to everyone, with zero barriers to entry. By minting R2USD (stablecoin), users can get direct exposure to ETF vaults backed by tokenized U.S. Treasuries, money market funds, and private credit to earn sustainable, real-world yield in a trustless manner.

With R2:

a. 4%–12% Real Yield, Beyond Base Rates : Most on-chain Treasuries pass through unoptimized 4–5% APY. R2 starts with the same ultra-safe base layer of tokenized U.S. Treasuries and institutional MMFs, then add regulated private credit to lift returns into the 6–12% range.

b. No KYC, Low Minimums, No Borders : Traditional and even many tokenized products demand million-dollar tickets, repeated KYC/AML, and jurisdiction-based whitelists. R2 removes those hurdles: mint $100 or $1M directly from your wallet, no upfront KYC, no regional lockouts. Fully composable in DeFi, trade, lend, or LP instantly while your capital keeps earning yield.

c. Yield + Liquidity in a Single Token : In TradFi, you either lock into yield and wait days to settle, or stay liquid and earn nothing. Even many tokenized Treasuries require redemption delays. R2’s ETF-style vaults let you switch between R2USD and other stablecoins instantly with T+0 redemptions, avoiding settlement drags while keeping your funds productive until the moment you move them.

d. Institutional Portfolio, Retail Simplicity : Managing Treasuries, bonds, or MMFs means auctions, maturities, and reinvestment risk. On-chain versions often have fragmented liquidity or clunky UX. R2 packages a diversified, professionally managed RWA portfolio curated with Particula’s risk discipline into a single token you can mint and use like any stablecoin.

R2 acts as the front desk between retail capital and institutional yield.

1. On one side, we’ve onboarded directly with leading tokenized asset issuers (already onboarded with 8 funds and another 5 are in pipeline) , the Franklin Templetons, Ondos, and Superstates of the world. We meet their requirements, clear their compliance checks, and operate as an institution, which gives us the ability to purchase, mint, and redeem tokenized Treasuries, money market funds, and private credit products that are usually gated behind million-dollar minimums.

2. On the other hand, we aggregate deposits from users and channel them into curated RWA baskets designed by experts. Instead of each individual investor struggling with access hurdles, documentation, or subpar retail versions of these products, we pool liquidity, optimize allocations, and unlock the institutional yield curve for everyone.

The experience for the user is intentionally simple: Users can deposit USDC directly into curated vaults (sR2USD or sR2USD+) and instantly mint yield-bearing token (sR2USD or sR2USD+). All the complexity of managing maturities, liquidity, and asset mix stays under the hood, users just see seamless yield.

1. Deposit : Head over to R2.Money and deposit USDC/USDT to mint R2USD.

2. Choose Your Vault : Pick from two curated vaults to deposit your minted R2USD to start earning yield:

• sR2USD (Savings): 4–5% APY, backed by tokenized U.S. Treasuries

• sR2USD+ (Prime): 10–12% APY, backed by curated private credit

3. Mint & Earn : Deposit your R2USD, instantly mint your vault token (sR2USD or sR2USD+), and start earning yield right away.

4. Rewards Program : Participate in our 60-day Season Campaigns. Hold your position for the entire season to earn daily points. If you redeem your position before the season ends, all accumulated points for that season are forfeited.

5. Claiming : At the end of each season, claim R2 Tokens based on the total points you’ve earned.

6. Liquidity & Exit : Swap your R2 Tokens for USDC or USDT via the primary market (Bonding Contract) or on secondary markets such as Uniswap.

R2 makes institutional-grade yield accessible to everyone, with zero barriers to entry. One stablecoin (R2USD), two vaults, unlimited access.

Vision: R2 is building the default consumer layer for real-world passive income on Web3, enabling simple, trustless access to institutional-grade yields through one stablecoin.

By aggregating the best tokenized Treasuries, MMFs, and private credit products into curated vaults, R2 is effectively creating the first on-chain Fund of Funds (FOF), giving users diversified, actively managed exposure to the safest and most consistent yields, all through a single token.

Ready to start? Put your stablecoin to work by minting your first R2USD in minutes at R2.Money and begin earning institutional-grade yield today.