Yield-Splitting Protocol STBL Bets on Stablecoin 2.0 as US Regulation Advances

In an interview with Sandmark at Consensus Miami, Joe Vollono, chief commercial officer of STBL, outlined how the decentralized, noncustodial protocol allows anyone to mint the dollar-denominated stablecoin USST, backed by tokenized collateral, including US Treasuries and money market funds. 

Users also receive a separate yield NFT (YLD) representing their claim on the underlying yield, in a structure that STBL terms Stablecoin 2.0, which isolates the securities component so the stablecoin itself does not bear yield.

Vollono said: "We isolate the securities component of the asset, so it's not a yield-bearing stablecoin. Users get the benefit of a stablecoin that they can use for payments or any use case that they want. And they also get to keep the yield."

RWA platforms drive institutional interest

The protocol debuted in September 2025 and has drawn interest from real-world asset (RWA) platforms and asset managers seeking utility for tokenized assets.

"Everybody recognizes that it's easy to tokenize anything, and then what do you do with that asset once it’s tokenized?" Vollono said. "The answer is, how do you give it utility? You give it utility with a stablecoin because that provides liquidity. We are essentially doing distribution for these funds."

He cited collaborations with Securitize, Ondo, Superstate and Centrifuge. STBL is exploring future support for institutional-grade collateral, potentially including products from BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, and remains in final stages of due diligence with those firms.

Publicly announced partnerships include OKX, Securitize and Hamilton Lane - an alternative investment manager - to roll out an RWA-backed stablecoin product on OKX's X Layer, with mainnet deployment targeted for early June.

On the demand side, payments companies, remittance firms, merchants and sovereign entities have expressed interest in retaining yield and accessing onchain transaction data. Vollono noted demand for approximately $50mn in minting over the next quarter, targeted primarily at DeFi lending applications.

CLARITY Act seen as key regulatory catalyst

Vollono, who previously held roles at Ripple and Morgan Stanley, identified US regulatory developments as the biggest near-term driver. He voiced confidence that the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act would advance after a recent agreement on yield language between Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks.

"I fully expect it to pass," Vollono said. "There was an agreement in principle this week... I'm very bullish on where they landed."

He explained that Section 404 restricts passive yield on stablecoins for covered parties but permits yield tied to qualifying activities such as minting, staking, payments and loyalty programmes. This shift, he argued, moves the market "from buy to hold to buy to use" and could spur a "yield as a service" segment.

The GENIUS Act, signed into law in 2025, provides the foundational federal framework for payment stablecoins, including licensing, reserve requirements, AML obligations and consumer protections. It establishes Permitted Payment Stablecoin Issuers and prioritizes holder claims in insolvency.

Corporate treasuries target risk-free yield

Vollono identified strong potential for onchain corporate treasuries and institutional balance sheets.

"If you are sitting on a treasury in the traditional banking infrastructures, the opportunity to move that into a tokenized asset and use stablecoins, so you have the benefits of cash while collecting yield, is the main value proposition," he said.

For sovereigns, particularly in the Global South, ecosystem-specific stablecoins backed by domestic treasuries offer a tool to counter digital dollarization risks highlighted by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and IMF.

The overall stablecoin market has reached roughly $320bn, according to Coingecko. Vollono believes regulatory clarity will unlock significant sidelined capital and reinforce dollar dominance through digital eurodollars.

On potential future political shifts, he siad: "The toothpaste is out of the tube... I don't think we're going to go back to where we were."

STBL continues onboarding selective partners while scaling toward broader adoption.