集中式交易所的稳定币报酬

Stablecoinremunerationon centralisedexchanges Wenqian Huang, Nikola Tarashev and Xinyi Wang BIS Bulletins are written by staff members of the Bank for International Settlements, and from time to timeby other economists, and are published by the Bank. The papers are on subjects of topical interest and aretechnical in character. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do notnecessarily reflect the views of the BIS or its member central banks. The authors are grateful to InakiAldasoro, Jon Frost, Denise Garcia Ocampo, Ulf Lewrick, Patrick McGuire and Phillip Woodridge for This publication is available on the BIS website (www.bis.org). ©Bank for International Settlements 2026. All rights reserved. Brief excerpts may be reproduced ortranslated provided the source is stated. Stablecoin remuneration on centralised exchanges Key takeaways •Centralised exchanges remunerate stablecoin holders, using the return on the issuer’s reserve •Under the reserve-based model, yields track policy rates – akin to yields on cash-managementinstruments – whereas under the activity-based model, yields are much more volatile. •By turning stablecoins into substitutes for bank deposits or money market funds or into fundinginstruments for exchanges’ risky activities, remuneration models may shape the macro- Several features of stablecoins are of natural interest to holders. To be worthy of their name, stablecoinsneed to trade at par, with credible redemption arrangements and backed by liquid and low-risk reserveassets. Once these criteria are met, individuals and companies may consider other aspects. For instance,they may find value in potential payment efficiencies that stablecoins offer. And it may also be important The remuneration of stablecoins shapes their economic functions. A non-remunerated stablecoin mayserve mainly as a payment and settlement instrument or – pegged to an international currency – helpsome users hedge inflation risk (Aldasoro et al (2026)). Remuneration tied to low-risk benchmark yieldswould in turn raise the stablecoin’s appeal as a money-like savings vehicle. By contrast, a stablecoin with At present, direct interest payments by stablecoin issuers are prohibited in most jurisdictions,2souser-facing yields tend to be offered instead by centralised exchanges. Such exchanges serve as gatewaysbetween traditional fiat money and the tokenised financial system. They may simply keep stablecoins incustody, letting the holders decide whether to use their balances for payments, savings, collateral or Leveraging a new data set on stablecoin yields in 2023–25, this Bulletin discusses two prevailingmodels of stablecoin remuneration on centralised exchanges. The two remuneration models give rise to Two models of stablecoin remuneration The two remuneration models differ in the roles that the centralised exchange and the stablecoin issuerplay in generating a yield for stablecoin holders. If the exchange draws on its revenue from stablecoin-related market activities to pay this yield, it implements “activity-based” remuneration. Alternatively, if theexchange simply transmits part of the return on stablecoin reserve assets from issuers to holders, itprovides “reserve-based” remuneration. While many exchanges offer a yield to stablecoin holders,3 Activity-based remuneration model Activity-based remuneration is rooted in (collateralised) lending, trading, market-making and otherintermediation activities of the exchange. To optimise its revenue, the exchange has an incentive to attractstablecoin balances, so that they are available when intermediation opportunities arise. It thus enters animplicit or explicit revenue-sharing arrangement with stablecoin holders, paying them more when fundingin stablecoins is more profitable. For instance, as the US dollar Tether (USDT) borrowing rate rose to 40–50% amid the crypto rallies of the first and fourth quarters of 2024, the USDT holding yield on Binance Reserve-based remuneration model Holders of the US dollar Coin (USDC) earn a much more stable yield on Coinbase than they do on Binance(compare Graph 1.C with Graphs 1.A and 1.B). On Coinbase, the yield closely follows the monetary policyrate, which in turn is a proxy for the return on USDC’s reserve assets (ie Treasury bills, reverse repo Coinbase and Circle (the issuer of USDC) jointly implement reserve-based remuneration of USDCholders. In this way, the exchange and the issuer seek to support the USDC’s broad adoption, which wouldmake it easier to trade with this stablecoin, use it for payments or convert it to dollars. If successful, such Graph 2.A illustrates the arrangement between the exchange and the stablecoin issuer, using datafrom the first half of 2025. The reserves backing USDC create two layers of income for Coinbase. The firstis tied to the revenue generated from the reserves backing only those USDC that are held on Coinbaseitself. Over the period in focus, this income stream