How Stablecoins with Built-In Yield Could Revolutionize Everyday Spending

Mar 18, 2026

Anna Yuan, founder of Perena and ex-head of stablecoins at Solana Foundation, builds stablecoin-based fintech like USD*, a liquid yield token. She explains how spendable assets can earn continuous yield. Conversation covers trust and regulation in crypto, convergence of CeFi and DeFi, cross-border payments and remittances, and how AI agents might interact with yield-bearing stablecoins.

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INSIGHT

Stablecoins Unlock New Liquid Yield Products

Stablecoins enable new on-chain structured products that traditional rails cannot support.
Perenna's USD* is a liquid yield token that mints on deposit and increases in price as diversified on-chain strategies earn yield.

ADVICE

Design Yield As A Single Spendable Token

Simplify yield products by removing dual-token complexity and mint a single yielding token on deposit.
Perenna converts USDC into USD* that allocates across lending, RWA, and delta-neutral strategies to generate diversified yield.

INSIGHT

Money That Earns While You Spend

On-chain tokens let users earn while still spending, unlike traditional checking vs savings constraints.
USD* can be used at point-of-sale while remaining productive in a wallet, with liquidity converting into whatever the card accepts.

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Anna Yuan, founder of Perena and former head of stablecoins at the Solana Foundation, discusses how Perena is designing new on-chain financial products, including USD*, a liquid yield token that earns continuously while remaining spendable. We also explore why trust remains one of crypto's biggest challenges, how decentralized and traditional finance are converging, and what role AI agents may play in the future of payments and financial automation.

Key Takeaways:

How Perena's USD* token allows users to earn continuous yield while still being able to spend their assets
Why stablecoins could become a foundational layer for global financial coordination and programmable money
Why people still don't trust blockchain, and what Web3 companies should do about it
Why many financial services beyond payments remain largely untapped opportunities in crypto
How agents and stablecoins will interact over time

Guest Bio: Anna Yuan is the founder of Perena, a stablecoin fintech and asset manager. Perena's team embraces AI natively in their workflow, with all staff learning to code and design with AI tools. Anna built yield.bingo as a tutorial for new stablecoin users to earn yield. Previously she was the head of stablecoins at Solana Foundation.

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