ONyc: Earn Higher Yield by Sharing an Insurer's Risk
ONyc was paying 11.62% APY at the point of writing. That is much higher than normal stablecoin yield, but there is a reason: you are being paid to take part in an insurer’s risk.
You can buy ONyc with USDC on Solana and hold it for the base yield. But before buying, you need to understand what your money is backing and why the return is so high.
You are backing insurance claims
Insurance companies collect premiums from customers, but they don’t always want to carry the full cost of a hurricane, earthquake or other large event. They pay a reinsurer such as OnRe to take part of that risk.
ONyc holders provide the capital behind those reinsurance contracts. In return, the pool earns insurance premiums.
If there is no covered claim, OnRe keeps the premium and the reserved capital is released when the contract ends. If there is a valid claim, OnRe pays the insurer from that capital.
That claim is not a temporary loan. The insurer normally does not pay it back. Future premiums may rebuild the pool, but the claim itself is a permanent cost that can reduce ONyc’s value.
OnRe’s claims process confirms that validated claims are paid to the insurer. Only surplus capital left after the insurance liabilities end is returned to capital providers.
Where the yield comes from
ONyc’s return comes from 2 main sources:
- Reinsurance premiums paid by insurance companies.
- Yield earned on the collateral while it is waiting to support contracts or claims.
OnRe holds assets including short-term US Treasury bills, USDC, USDG, sUSDS, syrupUSDC, sUSDe, USCC, USYC and bank cash. These assets help keep the pool liquid while earning additional returns.
But most of the 11.62% wasn’t Treasury yield. OnRe’s transparency dashboard attributed 9.56 percentage points to reinsurance when I checked it.
At that point, OnRe reported $248.32 million in assets. Its underwriting data showed $142.02 million supporting 29 contracts, about 57.2% of the pool.
ONyc is therefore not a stablecoin or savings account. It is a tokenised share of a reinsurance portfolio whose net asset value, or NAV, can rise from income and fall from claims.
Buying ONyc with USDC
Eligible non-US users in permitted jurisdictions can use the OnRe Open Access app on Solana:
- Keep a little SOL for transaction fees.
- Connect your Solana wallet.
- Select USDC and enter the amount.
- Review the ONyc amount at the current NAV.
- Confirm the transaction.
The official ONyc mint is:
5Y8NV33Vv7WbnLfq3zBcKSdYPrk7g2KoiQoe7M2tcxp5
Verify it against OnRe’s token reference and start with a small amount.
For buying, minting through the OnRe app is better than swapping on Jupiter. You buy at the displayed NAV instead of depending on a liquidity pool’s price and paying possible slippage.
Selling is different. OnRe’s Open Access terms don’t give permissionless retail holders a direct redemption right, so for now I would sell through Jupiter. Check its quoted price and price impact carefully because the amount received can differ from ONyc’s NAV.
Hold it or use Kamino Multiply
Holding ONyc gives you 1x exposure to its yield and losses. There is no borrowing or liquidation risk.
Kamino Multiply uses your ONyc as collateral, borrows stablecoins and buys more ONyc. This increases the yield when ONyc earns more than the stablecoin borrowing cost.
However, there was no available liquidity to open the ONyc Multiply position at the point of writing. The strategy exists, but readers may not be able to use it unless liquidity becomes available.
For example, $1,000 at 2x creates roughly $2,000 of ONyc exposure and $1,000 of debt. If ONyc earns 11.62% and borrowing costs 7%, the estimated return is about $162.40, or 16.24% on your original $1,000 before fees and incentives.
But the losses are also multiplied. A 10% fall in ONyc would reduce $2,000 of collateral by $200, cutting your $1,000 equity by about 20%. A larger fall can trigger liquidation.
And if Kamino’s borrowing rate rises above ONyc’s yield, the loop can lose money even when no insurance claim occurs.
The risks behind the higher rate
The important risks are:
- Insurance claims can permanently reduce the pool.
- ONyc launched in July 2025 and hasn’t yet been tested through a major catastrophe year.
- Its collateral includes stablecoins and yield-bearing assets with their own risks.
- Retail holders may depend on secondary-market liquidity to exit.
- Kamino Multiply adds variable borrowing costs and liquidation risk.
OnRe’s regulated and collateralised structure is better protection than an anonymous DeFi farm. But “fully collateralised” protects the insurer by ensuring money is available for claims. It doesn’t protect ONyc holders from losing that money.
I would start with a small, unleveraged position. If I can’t accept that part of my capital may pay an insurer’s claim and never come back, the higher yield isn’t for me.
