For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt. This page is also available as Markdown.

What Makes Sierra Unique?

1. Sierra is the industry-leading permissionless yield platform

Most onchain yield lives in single-strategy, single-chain vaults. This architecture imposes constraints on the eligible yield sources that the vault can access and the flexibility of the end-user experience.

In contrast, Sierra operates the issuance and settlement layer beneath other permissionless vaults. Sierra's Issuing Partners deploy a permissionless vault and configure its reserves management strategy. They have the additional optionality to incorporate their own branding and upgrade the vault token into a fully composable LVT.

Through OpenTrade's institutional-grade yield platform, Sierra and its Issuing Partners have unparalleled access to any yield source:

2. A full institutional-grade stack

By issuing permissionless Vaults and LVTs through Sierra, Issuing Partners inherit one auditable Stack that is composed of leading institutional providers:

  • Asset Origination that includes ourcing any public or private fixed income asset, instrument, or fund

  • Asset management of reserves by OpenTrade through a bankruptcy-remote SPC, including weekly reserve attestations from an FCA-regulated asset manager in addition to daily NAV calculation and reporting

  • Custody of RWA reserves at tier-1 GSIBs and use of Fireblocks for reserves deployed in DeFi

  • Curation and Allocation of reserves management strategy by Sierra's Advisory Council

  • Deployment and Issuance by Sierra Reserve Ltd (BVI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Sierra Foundation in the Cayman Islands

  • Supplemental Infrastructure including Redstone for onchain oracle and LayerZero's OFT (Omnichain Fungible Token) standard for cross-chain distribution, plus continuous compliance screening with Chainalysis and 24/7 threat monitoring via Hypernative

3. Optimized for the best user experience

LVTs issued by Sierra, including the flagship SIERRA token, have been designed to provide the best user experience for holders through a single-token model. Yield continously accrues to holders of LVTs through an appreciating minting and redeeming exchange rate. No staking, claiming, lock-ups or other mechanisms are required.

Most yield-bearing tokens force a tradeoff that SIERRA all other LVTs issued by Sierra avoid:

Model
How yield reaches you
Drawback

Rebasing (i.e. stETH)

Your wallet balance grows

Balances change without user action, requiring bespoke integration and creating an adverse tax treatment in many jurisdictions

Dual-token (i.e. sUSDe, sUSDS)

Stake a base token to receive a yield-bearing version

Extra steps, redemption locks, and dilution of holders of base token

Permissioned RWAs (i.e. JAAA)

Users must first KYB with the issuer to access the product

Tokens are typically not transferrable or composable in DeFi

SIERRA and all other LVTs have the best user experience through:

  • Single token model with no requirement to stake, claim rewards or other mechanisms

  • Permissionless access through secondary markets, supporting composability and interoperability across CeFi and DeFi

  • Unique reserve management strategy for each LVT, which can evolve over time through new yield sources added based on the goals of issuing partners

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