YieldFi

YieldFi describes itself as an issuance, distribution and intelligence layer for tokenized yield vaults, positioning itself as a capital markets platform for the internet economy. Users deposit into vaults through yield.fi and receive ERC-20 vault tokens representing their position; these tokens can be held, redeemed or, where supported, used in DeFi as collateral. Legally, YieldFi-issued tokens are structured as debt instruments representing a contractual, contractually subordinated claim against the issuer under a qualified subordination agreement, rather than legal or beneficial ownership of the underlying assets; in insolvency, tokenholder claims rank below non-subordinated creditors but above shareholders.

Vaults span a risk ladder that includes treasury/T-bill products, blue-chip DeFi lending, fixed-income style bands, market-neutral strategies and directional/higher-risk trading strategies. Yield sources vary by vault and can include cash-equivalent rates, DeFi lending borrow demand, and market-neutral strategies such as funding, basis and arbitrage, plus private deals and private credit. Displayed APY reflects realized, mark-to-market yield and excludes points, airdrops and emissions. NAV is calculated as (assets minus liabilities) divided by token supply and is updated on a vault-specific schedule, commonly daily; NAV increases are vested over an epoch period to limit front-running while NAV declines are applied immediately. Redemption terms are vault-specific, with most vaults targeting same-day to roughly two-day settlement and queue behavior disclosed per product.

Most vaults are permissionless, but some require KYC/KYB compliance checks through a third-party provider such as Sumsub, typically approved in one to two days. Capital is deployed through YieldFi-owned segregated MPC custody wallets and/or segregated exchange sub-accounts; enhanced due diligence is applied when funds are off-ramped to a manager's fund structure. YieldFi states it is non-custodial by default unless otherwise specified in vault terms.

Business model

YieldFi issues tokenized vault products and provides the surrounding infrastructure — vault issuance and token mechanics, custody rails, monitoring, reporting and standardized disclosures — while strategy execution is performed by external curators, asset managers and strategy operators. Vaults charge vault-specific fees that may include management and/or performance fees and deposit or withdrawal fees, all disclosed on each vault fact sheet; displayed APY is stated to be net of fees. The documentation also references a revenue share model and an integration SDK for distribution partners.

Revenue is generated from vault-specific fees (management, performance, deposit and/or withdrawal fees) disclosed per vault, with a documented revenue share model under which curators earn for their services.