🧮Exchange Rates

Learn more about the exchange rate between vault tokens and liquidity assets (eg. stablecoins)

Vault Token Exchange Rate

Vault Tokens and the Liquidity Asset (e.g. USDC, EURC) are exchanged during deposits and withdrawals at a defined exchange rate. This exchange rate translates interest accrued at the current interest rate.

Exchange Rate Methods

Vaults have multiple different exchange rate calculation methods which correspond to the type of yield product the vault is supporting.

Compounding

A variable annualised interest rate is converted into a daily exchange rate and compounded each day. This mirrors the exchange rate mechanism for the Flexible Term USDC (and EURC) Vaults.

It is designed to support flexible term loan products pegged to a variable benchmark rate or index rate such as SOFR.

It is calculated by taking the Loan Fee Rate for that day, calculating the Daily Interest Rate by taking 1 day of interest (compounded daily), and adding it to the prior days exchange rate.

Simple Example: On Day 1, a Lender would receive 1 Vault Token for every 1 USDC lent. If the Loan Fee Rate was 4.50% APR for that day, they could exchange 1 Vault Token for 1.000122 USDC the following day, which reflects a daily compounded interest rate of 0.01223%.

Dynamic

The exchange rate rises and falls according to the price of the underlying collateral or benchmark.

This method is used in the High Yield Corporate Bond Vault, where the exchange rate will track the daily gains and losses of the underlying Blackrock SHYG ETF share collateral.

The calculation for a dynamic exchange rate is as follows:

Exchange Rate = [ (Total Number of Collateral Shares / Units ) x ( Collateral Share / Unit Price) ] + (Cash) ]-(Daily Fees) / Total Tokens Outstanding

See here for an example of how a dynamic exchange rate is used in an active vault.

Linear

A variable annualised interest rate that is not compounded. The annualised interest rate is converted into a rate which increases linearly each day.

It is designed to support products that maintain a fixed interest rate where principal and interest does not compound daily.

Term

A fixed annualised interest rate for fixed term loan products. The fixed annualised interest rate is converted into a rate which increases linearly each day until the maturity date.

It is designed to support products that maintain a fixed interest rate where principal and interest does not compound daily and there is specific maturity date where principal and interest are due to be repaid. This mirrors the exchange rate method currently used in our V4 Fixed Term Vaults

For Fixed Term Vaults, the exchange rate is calculated as:

Value of Principal and Interest at Maturity / Outstanding Vault Tokens

The exchange rate is updated at the beginning of each loan cycle based on the Loan Principal Amount and the Confirmed Loan Fee Rate.

Simple Example: For a 360 day fixed term loan at 5.00% APR, on Day 1 the lender would receive 1 Vault Token for every 1 USDC in loan principal. On Day 360, the exchange rate will be 1.05 and the Lender can redeem 1 Vault Token for 1.05 USDC.