Steady's APY

Steady offers institutional holders exposure to the APY of U.S. Treasury Bills, in the form of a stablecoin. Up to 95% of the yield generated by our underlying T-Bills is shared with holders through the rebase mechanism. The result is that your position grows automatically in your wallet, continuously, block by block, reflecting the performance of the underlying. No yield to claim, no rewards to track, no actions to take.

Where the APY Comes From

When investors acquire Steady, the corresponding USD becomes part of our reserves and is invested primarily in short-term U.S. Treasury Bills. T-Bills are among the most liquid, low-risk instruments in global financial markets, and they generate predictable, reliable yield. Historically, U.S. T-Bills have offered an average APY of 3-5%, though actual yields vary with market conditions and U.S. monetary policy.

That yield is what powers Steady's APY. Of the yield generated by the underlying, as mentioned before, up to 95% is shared with holders through the rebase mechanism, and the other 5% is used to cover our operating costs (compliance, infrastructure, audit, and the day-to-day work of running a regulated stablecoin).

This is the entire model. We don't take hidden cuts, and we don't keep the upside for ourselves. The math is published in plain sight on the Transparency Portal.

How the Rebase Mechanism Works

Steady's APY reaches holders through rebase: an automatic supply adjustment built directly into our smart contract. This adjustment happens to every position, directly on every holder's wallet.

At every block on Ethereum (every 12 seconds) and Arbitrum (essentially every single second), the rebase mechanism increases the total supply of STDY by a small fraction. Every holder's balance increases proportionally: if the supply grows by 0.001%, every holder's balance grows by exactly 0.001%. Relative ownership doesn't change, the number of tokens each holder owns simply increases over time.

This growth is not arbitrary, and it doesn't dilute the value of any single STDY. The rebase is calibrated directly to the performance of our underlying reserves. When our T-Bills generate yield, our reserves grow, and the STDY supply grows proportionally to reflect that growth. Because the supply expands in step with the reserves themselves, each STDY remains fully backed by 1 USD of assets, and the price remains stable. The result for holders is straightforward: more tokens in your wallet, each one still worth the same value, with a growing position that mirrors the growth of the reserves themselves. Every holder benefits, in proportion to their holdings, every single block.

This happens automatically, continuously, and identically for every holder on the network. There is no staking, no claiming, no locking, no separate reward token. Your STDY balance simply grows in your wallet to reflect the performance of the underlying.

Retrospective, Smoothed Distribution

Here's a detail worth understanding: Steady's APY is distributed retrospectively, and smoothed across each period.

At the end of each weekly period, we calculate the actual yield realized by our underlying T-Bills during that period. That realized yield then determines the per-block rebase rate for the following week, which is then distributed evenly across every block of that week.

Why this matters:

• The APY you see is real, not projected. Steady's displayed APY tracks the yield actually realized by the underlying, not an estimate or a marketing number. You can check current APY data on our Transparency Portal.
• Distribution is smooth. Even though T-Bill yields can fluctuate, your wallet sees a steady, continuous growth rate across each weekly period, with no sudden spikes or drops mid-period.
• There's a built-in one-month lag. Changes in T-Bill rates today affect your rebase rate next week, not this one.

This retrospective model is what allows us to share T-Bill performance reliably and transparently. Whatever your wallet shows over a given period is what the underlying actually generated.

A Note on APY Variability

Steady's APY tracks the performance of U.S. Treasury Bills, which means it varies with U.S. monetary policy and short-term interest rate conditions. We do not target a specific APY, and we cannot promise future returns. What is built into the protocol is the mechanism itself: everything the underlying generates (after we cover our costs with around 5% of that total) is shared back with holders through rebase, whether that yield is higher or lower than historical averages.