January 2026: USDf Ranks Top 10, BTC Yield Vault Launch, $50M Ecosystem Fund

Falcon Finance kicked off 2026 with a flurry of product enhancements, governance milestones, and ecosystem expansions, solidifying its position as a leader in synthetic dollars and universal collateralization. Key highlights included the launch of a BTC yield vault, and a landmark $50M Ecosystem Fund to fuel RWA and yield infrastructure.

Amid surging tokenized asset markets, USDf maintained robust protocol health, while the team amplified its voice through major media coverage and speaking engagements.

USDf & Product Updates

Falcon Finance's USDf demonstrated resilience and growth throughout January.

USDf is now the #8 largest stablecoin and synthetic dollars on DeFiLlama by circulating supply, quietly climbing the global rankings.

sUSDf, the yield-accruing version of USDf, has continued to outperform most major yield-bearing stablecoins and synthetic dollars, which have more than $100M in staking TVL.

30D APY as of Jan 30, 2026: → sUSDf: 7.11%

Source: StableWatch

Here’s a snapshot of USDf and sUSDf as of Feb 2, 2026, covering supply, yield, and overall protocol growth.

• USDf supply has reached $2.04B, stabilizing above $2B.
• Total backing stands at $2.24B, with an overcollateralization ratio of 108.88%.
• sUSDf is delivering 7.07**% APY**, with its price rising to $1.098, reflecting steady yield accrual and compounding returns.

Key Announcements

Governance Milestones: Prime FF Staking and Claims Update

Falcon Finance’s community approved FIP-1, introducing Prime FF Staking with a 180-day lock-up, 5.22% native FF yield, and 10x Snapshot voting weight for long-term aligned holders.

Flexible FF Staking remains available with no lock-up and 0.1% native FF yield for users prioritizing liquidity.

This dual-pool structure ties governance influence and yield incentives to long-term commitment while preserving flexibility for participants.

BTC Vault Launch Unlocks Yield on Bitcoin Holdings

Falcon launched a BTC Vault targeting 3-5% APR paid in USDf, enabling holders to earn predictable dollar-denominated income without selling, wrapping, or altering exposure. With BTC comprising over 80% of reserves, the vault leverages protocol strategies for delta-neutral returns, appealing to long-term allocators. Deposits are live via app.falcon.finance.

USDf Fiat Off-Ramps via Altery Integration

Falcon integrated USDf with Altery through Synterra Connect, enabling users to convert USDf into GBP, EUR, or USD and access regulated payment rails including SEPA, SWIFT, local transfers, and card products.

Users can maintain yield-generating positions in Falcon’s sUSDf vault while accessing fiat liquidity for operational needs such as payroll and supplier payments.

As Falcon’s Chief RWA Officer Artem Tolkachev noted, this enables trading desks and crypto treasuries to earn yield on-chain while meeting real-world obligations.

Additional card-linked and payment-oriented features remain under evaluation for select jurisdictions.

$50M Ecosystem Fund Targets RWA and Yield Builders

Falcon announced a $50M ecosystem fund, structured as 50% capital and 50% vested FF tokens, to back teams building yield infrastructure, RWA integrations, and structured products using USDf as a base layer on Falcon’s Universal Collateral Layer.

The fund prioritizes teams with a working product (MVP or later) and a clear path to adoption, offering funding alongside strategic advisory, product guidance, and ecosystem partnerships.

With over $2.5B in TVL and $2.1B in USDf supply, the program aims to accelerate infrastructure that makes tokenized collateral more usable across products and venues.

Ecosystem Growth & Partnerships

New Pendle Pools Live for USDf and sUSDf

Two new Pendle pools for USDf and sUSDf are live with maturity on Jun 18, 2026.

PT sUSDf offers 7.86% LP APY and PT USDf offers 2.22% LP APY.

Old pools have expired, new opportunities unlocked. Position early, lock fixed rates.

Falcon Miles rewards are incoming and will be retrospectively dropped.

Media Engagement and AMAs

Fortune Magazine: Yield on Tokenized Gold

Fortune featured Falcon in "When gold isn’t good enough: 3 crypto companies say they’ve figured out how to generate yield on the $4.6 billion ‘tokenized gold’ market" (Jan 27, by Jim Edwards), highlighting the XAUt Vault's 3-5% delta-neutral APR. The article positions Falcon alongside Theo and Libeara as innovators solving idle gold's yield gap amid tokenized gold's surge to $4.3B.

CCN Interview: Artem Tolkachev on Tokenized Gold and DeFi Risk

Artem Tolkachev discussed tokenized gold, yield generation, and risk management in a CCN interview with Dr. Lorena Nessi (Jan 19). The session explored USDf collateral mechanics and RWA liquidity, available as a YouTube short. Source

LlamaRisk: Asset Risk Assessment for USDf

LlamaRisk published a deep-dive assessment (Jan 13) on Falcon's protocol design, collateral frameworks, liquidity, volatility, smart contract security, and compliance. The report praised on-chain management and performance details. Source

Speaking Engagements

Artem Tolkachev is speaking at Digital Assets Forum London (Feb 5-6) on institutional RWA deployments, emphasizing yield-bearing collateral.

VP of Ecosystems Alessia Baumgar shared Falcon’s growth story as DWF Labs welcomed 50+ C-level executives from the Hong Kong University Business School Executive Education Web3 Global Elite Programme to its Dubai office.

Andrei Grachev and Artem Tolkachev joined an RWA trends panel hosted by Diksha, VP of Marketing at DWF Labs, alongside Graham, DeFi Product Lead at Centrifuge, and Val, General Manager at xStocksFi.

Watch the livestream here.

Event Presence: DWF Labs Haus Series

Falcon teamed up with DWF Labs to host Haus during Consensus Hong Kong in February and at Founders Day in Dubai, bringing builders together for conversations around RWAs and stablecoins.

What's Next?

January 2026 was a strong start for Falcon Finance, with solid protocol progress, new launches, and growing ecosystem momentum as tokenized RWAs reached $22.5B.

With the $50M fund now live, events like Consensus HK ahead, and more integrations rolling out, Falcon is well positioned to capture a bigger share of the yield-bearing stablecoin and universal collateral opportunity.

More vaults, partnerships, and transparency updates are on the way as the protocol continues to scale.