YLDS

Figure Certificate Company was formed in Delaware in April 2023 and began its certificate business on February 18, 2025, when its registration statement became effective. Figure announced YLDS two days later as a yield-bearing transferable security on Provenance. The short ticker obscures the legal unit: every YLDS is a Figure Transferable Certificate issued at a $0.01 face amount, and every unit matures 20 years from its own issue date.

The certificate is debt owed by FCC. It is unsecured, backed solely by FCC's assets, gives no voting or dividend rights and is neither legal tender nor a money-market-fund share. Figure Technologies owns FCC's voting stock; YLDS holders stand ahead of equity in the statutory structure, but they do not become shareholders or secured owners of the portfolio.

At launch the spread was SOFR minus 50 basis points. FCC changed it to SOFR minus 35 basis points on October 1, 2025, and the April 2026 prospectus retains that formula with a 0% floor. Simple interest begins no later than two business days after purchase and follows the holder of record at each day's record time. It is paid monthly in dollars and automatically reinvested into certificates unless the holder opts out; payments are rounded down to the nearest cent.

Surrender is available at any time for $0.01 per certificate plus accrued interest, less applicable expenses or fees, and carries no surrender charge. That right is not the same as instant cash. The August 2026 supplement provides for processing within 24 hours, with longer processing allowed for blockchain congestion or other technological reasons. It separately allows as much as five days for ACH or wire and ten days when Figure Payments converts dollars into an accepted stablecoin. Payment also remains an FCC credit obligation.

The Investment Company Act requires FCC to calculate daily reserves and deposit qualified assets with custodians. Figure Investment Advisors chooses investments under the direction of FCC's board; UMB Bank and Flagstar Bank hold FCC assets. The rules protect the liability side of the balance sheet, yet the certificates remain unsecured. A holder has no lien on an identified bill and no fund share whose NAV conveys portfolio ownership.

FCC narrowed its intended reserve mix in October 2025 to short-term Treasury securities and Treasury repos. Its audited December 31, 2025 filing showed $327.588 million of Treasury bills and Treasury-collateralized repo and $1.938 million cash as qualified assets on deposit. Those numbers prove a dated portfolio, not today's backing. Losses, custody failure or an FCC shortfall can still impair principal or interest.

Figure Equity Solutions maintains the official certificate-owner record by joining public wallet data to names and addresses stored off-chain. Every recipient must open an FCC account, pass Figure Payments' AML/KYC checks and bind an approved wallet. A token moved to an unapproved wallet does not give that address a legal claim; the transfer agent may reverse it and restore the last approved registered owner.

The same authority can help after theft or key loss. FCC and the transfer agent may block wallets, issue replacement certificates and write corrective transactions while the original blockchain history remains visible. They may also suspend repurchase proceeds or interest and compel a repurchase when AML, OFAC or jurisdictional rules require it. Self-custody protects a key, but it does not turn YLDS into bearer property.

Provenance remains the primary chain. A June 2026 supplement added Solana, Stellar, Avalanche, Sui and Tempo to the named alternatives, subject to availability and the sole approval of FCC and its transfer agent. An authorized migration burns or vaults certificates on one chain and mints the representation on another; the official register treats that as movement of the same certificates, not new issuance.

Administration differs by network. The prospectus lists a Provenance approved list and custom-module controls, Solana access controls and permanent-delegate authority, Stellar trustlines and clawback, and smart-contract or capability-based controls elsewhere. These powers are features of compliance and recovery, but also mean the holder cannot infer final legal ownership from a block explorer alone. The reviewed official material does not publish one stable, cross-chain list of all current contract addresses and human signers.

Figure Securities—not FCC or Figure Payments—operates Figure ATS as an SEC-registered broker-dealer and FINRA member. FINRA lists Figure ATS under MPID FIGS, and BrokerCheck identifies Figure Securities as CRD 307093. The prospectus still warns that YLDS is not listed on a national securities exchange and that peer-to-peer or ATS counterparties may be limited.

The institutional names can sound like a stack of guarantees. They are a stack of roles instead: FCC owes the debt, custodians hold FCC assets, an adviser invests, a transfer agent decides record ownership, a payments company verifies identity and converts funds, and a broker-dealer can run secondary trading. SEC registration never meant the Commission approved YLDS, and neither bank-custodian FDIC status nor broker SIPC membership insures FCC's certificate promise.