Figure YLDS (Figure Transferable Certificates)

Research, firm shelf, model-client eligibility, and advisor selection are recorded separately. The scheduled date is the outside bound; new evidence can reopen the file sooner.

YLDS is a face-amount certificate. Figure Certificate Company (FCC), a Figure subsidiary registered with the SEC as a face-amount certificate company under the Investment Company Act, issues it under a prospectus dated April 24, 2026 (registration 333-275154). The prospectus calls the certificates ”interest-bearing debt securities” that are ”unsecured and solely backed by the assets of Figure Certificate Company.” A holder is a creditor of FCC. It does not own Treasuries and it is not a fund shareholder. Each certificate has a face amount of one cent, earns SOFR less 35 basis points, accrues daily, pays monthly in new certificates, and may be surrendered at any time for face plus accrued interest. The backing is plain and reported each quarter. At June 30, 2026 FCC held $561.9 million of qualified assets against a $557.5 million certificate reserve: $273 million of Treasury bills maturing by September 24 and $282 million of overnight repo backed by Treasuries, $200 million of it with Hidden Road Partners. The cushion is thin by design; FCC’s own equity was $994 thousand. KPMG audits the annual statements. Who holds it matters as much. Of $556 million of certificates at June 30, Figure’s parent and affiliates held $477.5 million. Holders had lent $347.8 million of certificates into Democratized Prime, Figure’s HELOC lending market. Outside holders owned $78.5 million. The adviser, the administrator, the transfer agent, and the KYC provider are all Figure companies. Anyone who passes Figure’s KYC may hold. There is no accreditation test and no minimum above one certificate, and Figure says holders may be global. Transfers run peer to peer at any hour, but only between wallets FCC has approved, and only at face. The chain is not the record. Figure Equity Solutions, an affiliate and SEC-registered transfer agent, keeps the official list, and FCC and the transfer agent can block wallets, reverse transfers, and cancel and reissue certificates. Two chains are live. On Provenance, where 474 million YLDS sit, the token is a restricted marker: a six-member Figure group account is the admin, and five single keys can mint, burn, and move any holder’s balance. On Stellar, 25 million YLDS sit under one issuer key with authorization required, revocable, and clawback enabled. Favorable with conditions. On legal form this is the cleanest yield-bearing dollar token a US client can hold: registered, open to retail, surrendered at par with processing inside a day, backed by T-bills and Treasury repo. The conditions are about Figure. A client’s claim rests on one thinly capitalized subsidiary, Figure companies run every step and hold most of the supply, and self-custody in an approved wallet raises a custody-rule question an adviser must settle first. Use it as a modest cash sleeve, after testing a surrender end to end.

Research triggers: events that reopen the assessment or shelf decision
• FCC files a new prospectus, a post-effective amendment, or a supplement that changes the rate, the surrender terms, the approved chains, or who may hold
• The FCC 10-Q or 10-K shows qualified assets below the certificate reserve plus $250,000, any asset other than Treasuries, Treasury repo, or money market funds above 10% of the book, or a borrowing
• Figure affiliates’ share of outstanding certificates falls below half or rises above 90% in a quarterly filing
• FCC suspends or delays surrenders beyond the stated 24 hours plus payment time for any class of holder
• Figure Equity Solutions files a TA-W, loses its registration, or FCC names a different transfer agent
• A new chain goes live for YLDS, or ylds.com drops Stellar or Provenance
• The Stellar issuer adds signers, changes thresholds, locks its flags, or claws back a holder’s balance outside a published correction
• The uylds.fcc marker admin, its access grants, or its required attribute change on Provenance
• Figure corrects ylds.com’s statement that one YLDS is one certificate at $0.01, or on-chain supply and the 10-Q reserve stop reconciling at $1 per displayed unit
• YLDS lists for trading on Figure Securities’ ATS or any other registered ATS
• The SEC, a state regulator, or a court says YLDS is a payment stablecoin, or that the GENIUS Act yield ban reaches it
• FCC publishes a US state list or restricts a class of US or non-US holders
• A qualified custodian publishes support for holding YLDS for advisory clients

The research file

What the holder owns

A face-amount certificate is an old instrument, defined in the Investment Company Act of 1940. The issuer promises to pay a fixed face amount plus interest, and the Act makes it hold reserves against that promise. FCC’s prospectus says it is aware of ”only one other face-amount certificate company in existence today.” FCC was formed in Delaware on April 13, 2023 and began issuing on February 18, 2025; the 10-Q dates the launch of the Transferable Certificates, ”called YLDS,” to February 20, 2025.

The claim runs to FCC alone. ”When you buy a Certificate, you are buying an obligation of FCC, which are unsecured and solely backed by its assets, to pay you the amount of your principal investment.” No asset is pledged to holders. The Act instead ranks them ahead of FCC’s owner: ”FCC’s obligations to its Certificate holders (i.e., the debt holders) have priority over FCC’s obligations to its equity holders.” Certificates carry no vote and no share of dividends. They mature twenty years from issue at face plus accrued interest.

The terms are simple. Face is $0.01 per certificate. The rate is overnight SOFR less 35 basis points with a floor of zero, accrued daily to whoever is the holder of record at 6:59 pm Eastern, paid on the first of each month as new certificates unless the holder opts for dollars. Rounding runs down to the penny, so a very small balance can earn nothing. FCC charges no issue or surrender fee; a holder surrendering by ACH pays the ACH cost. The prospectus is blunt that this is not a money market fund: FCC ”does not seek to maintain a stable value of $1.00 per share,” is not bound by Rule 2a-7, and values its reserves at amortized cost.

What backs it, and who holds it

The Act requires FCC to keep qualified assets, investments a District of Columbia life insurer may hold, at least equal to its certificate reserve plus $250,000 of capital. The June 30, 2026 10-Q shows $561.9 million of qualified assets on deposit: $555.7 million in securities at UMB Bank, $0.7 million cash at Flagstar, and $5.5 million at Lead Bank in an account Figure Payments holds. The securities were seven Treasury bills of $25 to $75 million maturing between July 14 and September 24, 2026, and two overnight repurchase agreements backed by Treasuries: $82.4 million with UMB and $200 million with Hidden Road Partners CIV US LLC. The certificate reserve was $557.5 million. Assets exceeded the reserve by about $4.4 million, and stockholder’s equity was $994 thousand. The prospectus lets FCC hold corporate debt, asset-backed securities, and mortgage loans as well; the June book held none.

The holder base is concentrated in Figure. ”As of June 30, 2026 and December 31, 2025, the Parent and affiliate entities held $477.5 million and $252.3 million of Transferable Certificates.” Third parties held $78.5 million. In the first half of 2026 affiliates bought $539.4 million and surrendered $319.8 million. Separately, ”there were $347.8 million” of certificates ”lent by Transferable Certificates holders into the Democratized Prime platform,” a lending facility backed by Figure Lending’s HELOCs. The filing does not say how the two figures overlap. Schedule VI counts 3,450 accounts at June 30, up from 1,768 at year end.

FCC paid its adviser, Figure Investment Advisors, 0.25% of net invested assets until October 2025, 0.15% until April 2026, and 0.10% since. The 35 basis-point spread below SOFR funds that fee and FCC’s costs, including gas on every chain.

Who may hold, and how a holder buys

The prospectus sets no investor test. A buyer opens an account at ylds.com, gives a taxpayer ID, name, birth date, address, and ID, and passes review by Figure Payments Corporation, FCC’s AML and KYC provider, which FCC pays $2.00 per review. ”Each potential investor must pass AML/KYC review by the AML/KYC Service Provider before being approved by FCC to open an FCC account.” The account is a wallet: ”An investor’s FCC account is represented by its wallet.” FCC holds no one’s key; the investor self-custodies or uses a custodian.

”There is no minimum initial purchase amount for the Figure Transferable Certificates, and there is no minimum on the amount a Certificate holder may hold.” ylds.com says the minimum is one certificate and that ”YLDS can be held globally, by eligible retail and institutional customers,” adding that eligibility ”may vary by jurisdiction.” The prospectus covers non-US holders only through tax forms: they file a W-8. No document read lists the US states where the certificates are sold.

Purchase is by wire, ACH, a Figure Payments stored-value account, or, since the August 6, 2026 supplement, by sending an accepted stablecoin to Figure Payments, which converts it to dollars and pays FCC. A Figure Installment Certificate, with a $1,000 minimum, is registered but not yet issued.

Transfer and the official record

FCC calls YLDS a ”digital asset security” because the record is split. On chain: the wallet address, the number of certificates, and each certificate’s issue and cancellation dates. Off chain, in a private database: the holder’s name and address. The transfer agent is Figure Equity Solutions, Inc., an SEC-registered transfer agent (file 084-06830) owned by Figure Technology Solutions. ”The Transfer Agent’s records constitute the official Certificate holder records of FCC and govern the record ownership of Figure Certificates in all circumstances.” A chain balance that disagrees with those records loses.

Transfers are peer to peer, at any hour, and always at face: ”Peer-to-peer and ATS transactions will occur on-chain and will occur at the face amount of a Figure Transferable Certificate ($0.01/Certificate).” Off-chain side deals may price otherwise. Both sides need an approved wallet, and a transfer to anyone else is void: ”if a potential transferee of record ownership is not approved on FCC’s records, the potential transfer of Certificates will be unauthorized and will be reversed by the Transfer Agent.” FCC pays gas. It reconciles on-chain transfers to the off-chain record at least daily.

Moving between chains burns or vaults certificates on one chain and mints them on the other; the official count does not change. The prospectus names Provenance as the primary chain and lets FCC use Solana, Stellar, Avalanche, Sui, and, since the June 30, 2026 supplement, Tempo, ”upon request.” ylds.com lists two live: Provenance for minting, redemption, and transfer, and Stellar for settlement and payments. A registered ATS may trade the certificates; FCC names Figure Securities’ ATS as a settlement venue but no document read shows YLDS listed for trading there.

Who can freeze, move, or burn

FCC can, by design, and the prospectus sells it as a feature: ”Certificates are not in bearer form,” and FCC and the transfer agent keep ”administrative control over the on-chain record regardless of whether transactions involve FCC.” They ”are able to block blockchain wallets if a transaction is made in error or if a private key has been lost or stolen,” can append correcting transactions, and on a lost-key report ”may isolate the particular Certificates in the wallet in question, cancel such Certificates,” and reissue them to a new wallet. Under AML and sanctions law FCC may ”block” an account by refusing purchases or surrenders, suspending proceeds, or segregating assets. The transfer agent’s chain framework makes ”Clawback/ Administrative Balance Control” a requirement for any chain it uses.

On Provenance the token is the marker uylds.fcc, six decimals, account pb1y65reayayr4285ajlsltc8c8csvjcp5jlmys2f. On 2026-09-23 (block 33646811) the chain showed a restricted marker with forced transfer allowed, a required account attribute approved.ylds.pb for any holder, and governance control allowed, so Provenance’s validator governance can also act on it. Full admin rights sit with a group-policy account (group 722): six members of equal weight, a 51% threshold, and a 48-hour voting window. Five other accounts, each a single secp256k1 key, hold mint, burn, withdraw, and forced-transfer rights; one of them can also delete the marker. Four more single keys hold transfer rights only. Supply was 474,277,955.68 YLDS. Ketju’s control reader does not read Provenance markers, so these facts come from the chain’s own REST endpoints and the daily monitor does not yet watch them.

On Stellar the asset is YLDS issued by GAC7MOPTQLQUM3KC24AW4GHS3RLF72LPEZO54AH7EZ6TSMGRB5SOAVH3, the issuer FCC names in the stellar.toml at ylds.com; at least six copycat YLDS assets from other issuers exist. The reader found authorization required, authorization revocable, clawback enabled, and flags not locked, at ledger 64577935. The issuer account has one signer, its own master key, with all thresholds at zero: one key can mint, admit or drop a holder, freeze, and claw back. Supply was 25,173,495.77 YLDS across 9 authorized and 273 unauthorized trustlines.

Surrender and the exit

The exit is a surrender to FCC, not a sale. ”You may request a withdrawal by surrendering your Certificate at any time. Surrenders of Certificates will be processed within 24 hours,” longer if the chain is congested. Cash arrives by wire or ACH, which ”may take up to 5 days,” or as an accepted stablecoin through Figure Payments, which ”may take up to 10 days.” On Stellar the holder sends YLDS to a redemption address unique to its account. There are no surrender charges and no minimum.

At June 30 the book could meet a run: $282 million of repo matured the next day and every bill matured within three months. In the first half of 2026 holders surrendered $762.8 million and FCC paid it. ylds.com advertises ”Credit-line-backed liquidity”; the prospectus says FCC ”does not and does not intend to borrow money,” though it may open a short-term bank line. No line appears in the 10-Q.

The risks sit in FCC, not the chain. A loss on the assets beyond $4.4 million of surplus would leave FCC short, and FCC’s parent has so far paid its costs by capital contribution. Surrender depends on Figure Payments and the Figure portal working. A holder whose wallet loses its approval, or whose account is blocked, cannot surrender until FCC restores it. Peer-to-peer sale is possible only to another approved holder, at face, and FCC says there ”may be relatively few investors” to sell to.

Scope, the unit, and open questions

YLDS belongs in tokenized real-world assets, not in payment stablecoins. It is a registered security whose yield comes from Treasuries and repo held off chain, and FCC itself says the certificates are not a stablecoin, are not money market fund shares, and lack ”the attributes of real currency.” Figure markets it as exempt from the GENIUS Act’s yield ban; that is Figure’s reading, not a ruling. The riadefi stablecoin guide lists YLDS for comparison, and Hastra’s wYLDS on Ethereum and Solana is a separate wrapper with its own memo; neither is FCC’s certificate.

The unit is muddled in Figure’s own copy. ylds.com says ”1 YLDS = 1 Certificate = $0.01 NAV.” The chain says otherwise. Provenance’s denom metadata makes one YLDS equal to one million uylds, DefiLlama and CoinGecko price that unit near $1.00, and 499 million units on two chains in September, against a $557 million reserve in June, make sense only at about $1 a unit. A displayed YLDS is therefore $1, or 100 certificates. An adviser should read positions in dollars, not token counts, until Figure fixes its site.

Open questions: the state list; whether Figure Equity Solutions’ records treat Stellar balances exactly as Provenance balances; how the $477.5 million affiliate holding and the $347.8 million Democratized Prime balance overlap; and whether a registered adviser can treat a client’s approved self-custody wallet, or a hosted wallet, as held by a qualified custodian. ylds.com mentions custodian support and shows Fireblocks as a partner but publishes no custodian list.

Sources

The claims above trace to these. Where a number could not be independently verified, the thesis says so.

• SEC EDGAR: Figure Certificate Company prospectus, Rule 497 (April 24, 2026) · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: face-amount certificate company under the Investment Company Act, unsecured debt of FCC backed only by its assets, SOFR less 35 bp, daily accrual, monthly reinvestment, $0.01 face, no minimum, transfer agent record governs, approved wallets only; unapproved transfers reversed, block wallets, cancel and reissue, surrender within 24 hours, reserves in D.C. life-insurer investments, chain suitability framework requires clawback, service providers are Figure affiliates
• SEC EDGAR: FCC prospectus supplement on approved blockchains (June 30, 2026) · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: Tempo added to usable chains, Provenance primary, burn or vault and mint between chains
• SEC EDGAR: FCC prospectus supplement on purchase and surrender (August 6, 2026) · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: stablecoin purchase through Figure Payments, wire and ACH up to 5 days, stablecoin surrender up to 10 days
• SEC EDGAR: FCC Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: YLDS launched February 20, 2025, $557.5M certificate reserve, $561.9M qualified assets, T-bills and Treasury repo, Hidden Road $200M, affiliates held $477.5M, $347.8M lent into Democratized Prime, 3,450 accounts, adviser fee 0.10%, equity $994 thousand
• SEC EDGAR: Figure Equity Solutions, Inc. Form TA-1/A (September 3, 2025) · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: registered transfer agent, file 084-06830, owned by Figure Technology Solutions
• YLDS (ylds.com): product page and FAQ · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: 1 YLDS = 1 Certificate = $0.01 NAV, minimum is a single certificate, held globally by eligible retail and institutional customers, redeem through figuremarkets.com, credit-line-backed liquidity, Figure Equity Solutions SEC-registered transfer agent
• YLDS (ylds.com): Developers and Ecosystems · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: two chains live: Provenance and Stellar, permissioned form on both
• FCC stellar.toml at ylds.com · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: Stellar issuer GAC7MOPTQLQUM3KC24AW4GHS3RLF72LPEZO54AH7EZ6TSMGRB5SOAVH3, redemption by sending to an account-specific address, ORG_NAME Figure Certificate Company
• Provenance REST: uylds.fcc marker detail · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: restricted marker, forced transfer allowed, governance control allowed, required attribute approved.ylds.pb, access grants: group admin and single-key minters
• Provenance REST: uylds.fcc denom metadata · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: one YLDS equals 1,000,000 uylds
• Provenance REST: uylds.fcc supply · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: 474,277,955.68 YLDS on Provenance
• Provenance REST: group policy for the uylds.fcc marker admin · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: group 722, 51% threshold, 48-hour voting window
• Stellar Horizon: YLDS asset records · primary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: FCC issuer flags, 25,173,495.77 YLDS on Stellar, copycat YLDS issuers
• CoinGecko API: YLDS coin record · secondary · accessed 2026-09-23
  Supports: market cap about $502M, price near $1.00 per displayed unit

Inherited controls

The research above describes the protocol layer. Every position also inherits the asset it holds and the chain it settles on. The most administered layer sets the position’s effective control grade; that is a control description, not a quality or suitability score.