What is a NAV token?
A NAV (net asset value) token starts at $1 and its price rises over time as underlying yield — usually T-bill income — accrues into the token itself, rather than being distributed as separate interest payments. A NAV token trading at $1.04 is not off-peg; it has simply accrued four cents of yield. The number to track is the yield rate, not deviation from $1.00.
Rebasing vs accruing: two ways to pay yield on-chain
Rebasing tokens keep the price at $1.00 and increase the number of tokens you hold. NAV-accruing tokens keep your token balance fixed and increase the price per token. Both deliver the same economic yield; they just report it differently, and NAV tokens are more common where issuers want clean, uneventful price charts for accounting purposes.
This site tags NAV-accruing assets separately so a rising price is not flagged as a peg deviation — asset pages for this class show 'price above $1 by design' rather than a deviation percentage.
What to actually check on a NAV token
The share price is a mechanical output of the fund's accounting, not a market signal — so it tells you almost nothing about credit risk. What matters is the same as any tokenized Treasury fund: who the custodian is, what backs it, redemption terms, and whether the accrual rate is tracking the T-bill curve it claims to track.
- A NAV token flat or falling in price is the real warning sign, not one that is rising
- Compare the annualised accrual rate against the current T-bill yield for sanity
- Check redemption cadence — many NAV funds settle T+0/T+1, not instantly
Frequently asked
- Is a NAV token a stablecoin?
- Functionally it is a tokenized money-market or Treasury fund share. It is a dollar-denominated instrument, but it is not designed to sit exactly at $1.00 the way a payment stablecoin is.
- Can a NAV token's price fall?
- Yes, in principle, if the underlying fund takes a loss or a redemption run forces a sale below par. A falling NAV price is the actual stress signal to watch for.