Comparison, figures as of July 15, 2026
skUSD, sUSDe, and sNUSD, side by side.
Three staked synthetic dollars that a yield reader often lines up against each other. They share the ERC-4626 wrapper and the delta-neutral idea, and they split on where the backing sits, how you verify it, and how the yield is earned. Kerne's skUSD is the smallest of the three and the least audited. That is stated in the table, not around it.
The short version.
sUSDe is the staked form of Ethena's USDe, the largest synthetic dollar in the market. It is audited and proven, and its backing is held by centralized custodians whose reporting you rely on.
sNUSD is the staked form of Neutrl's NUSD on Ethereum. Neutrl labels the basis on every yield figure it publishes, and its realized number on chain lands close to what it advertises.
skUSD is the staked form of Kerne's kUSD on Base, minted one to one from USDC through an on-chain module, with backing you can recompute from the chain. It is the smallest of the three, it has the shortest audit history by a wide margin, and it has not yet paid meaningful realized yield: 0.00% realized over the last 30 days. Its differentiator is verifiability, not scale, track record, or rate. Where its published rate sits against the other two moves with the market and is rendered live further down this page rather than asserted here.
What each one is.
Ethena sUSDe
The yield-bearing form of USDe. USDe is backed by a delta-neutral basis position, staked ETH and liquid-staked assets paired with an equal short in ETH perpetuals, with the backing held through institutional off-exchange custodians and hedges run on centralized venues. Ethena's own API published a sUSDe 30 day average sUSDe yield of 4.22% when we captured it on 2026-08-31, and Kerne's own on-chain read of the vault puts its realized rate at 4.29% over 30 days. It is the category incumbent, audited, and by far the largest of the three. For current figures, ethena.fi is canonical.
Neutrl sNUSD
The yield-bearing form of NUSD, a synthetic dollar on Ethereum. Neutrl attributes NUSD's yield to a delta-neutral strategy and labels the basis on every APY it publishes, which is better discipline than most of the sector manages. Its published 30 day average APY was 2.20% when we captured it on 2026-08-31, against 2.05% realized on chain over 30 days. For its exact strategy and reserve composition, neutrl.finance is canonical.
Kerne skUSD
The yield-bearing form of kUSD on Base. A holder mints kUSD one to one from USDC through an on-chain Peg Stability Module, then stakes it into skUSD, an ERC-4626 wrapper designed to earn liquid-staked ETH yield plus Hyperliquid perpetual funding, designed for net-zero directional exposure at scale. The USDC reserve, the vault collateral, and the hedge are readable on Base, with an hourly signed Proof of Reserves. skUSD advertises a modeled APY of 6.12% at /api/apy, computed on the book Kerne actually runs. That is a forward model, and its realized figure is far lower, at 0.00% over 30 days: it has not yet distributed sustained strategy yield. Kerne is Genesis-stage with a single completed external audit.
The spec table.
Structural rows reviewed July 15, 2026. Every yield figure below is read live when this page rebuilds, from /api/apy and the signed Honesty Index, and none is stored. Yield figures are variable and move with funding; verify current values at each protocol's canonical site, and compare advertised against realized on Kerne's Honesty Index.
| Attribute | Kerne skUSD (this site) | Ethena sUSDe | Neutrl sNUSD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Underlying dollar | kUSD | USDe | NUSD |
| Home chain | Base (native) | Ethereum, multi-chain | Ethereum |
| Where the backing lives | On-chain: USDC 1:1 in the PSM, vault collateral, Hyperliquid hedge | CeFi custody: off-exchange settlement plus CEX venues | Per Neutrl's disclosures; see neutrl.finance |
| How you verify backing | Recompute from the chain; hourly signed PoR | Custodian attestations and Ethena reporting | Protocol disclosures and attestations |
| Yield source | lstETH yield plus Hyperliquid funding, hedged | Staked ETH yield plus perpetual funding | Delta-neutral strategy, per Neutrl |
| Advertised yield | 6.12% modeled on the deployed book, live at /api/apy (variable) | 4.22% 30 day average sUSDe yield, per Ethena's API | 2.20% 30 day average APY, per Neutrl |
| Realized yield (30d, on chain) | 0.00% (single test distribution) | 4.29% | 2.05% |
| Scale | Genesis stage, intentionally small | Largest synthetic dollar in the market | Mid-size, tens of millions |
| Audit status | Hexens final report published July 31, 2026 (ten findings, none critical, eight fixed, two acknowledged); deployed vault runs earlier bytecode than the audited commit | Audited | See Neutrl's disclosures |
| Staked token contract | 0x96F5102C15b839757f811A98CEc3725Ac21DfA14 (Base) | 0x9D39A5DE30e57443BfF2A8307A4256c8797A3497 (Ethereum) | 0x08EFCC2F3e61185D0EA7F8830B3FEc9Bfa2EE313 (Ethereum) |
Where Kerne is the weakest of the three.
This page is on Kerne's own site, so the honest thing is to be specific about where skUSD loses this comparison.
- Realized yield. sUSDe and sNUSD have paid close to what they advertised. skUSD has not paid meaningful yield yet, so its modeled number and its record are still far apart: 0.00% realized against 4.29% for sUSDe over the same window. Kerne's modeled figure sometimes prints above theirs; that is a forward model set against two records, and it is not the same claim as paying more.
- Scale. skUSD is orders of magnitude smaller than sUSDe and smaller than sNUSD. A small book is easier to keep solvent, and it is also unproven at size.
- Audit. sUSDe has been audited repeatedly, by several firms, over years. skUSD has one completed external audit: Hexens published its final report on July 31, 2026, ten findings, none critical, eight fixed and two acknowledged, and Kerne published it in full. One audit is not a track record, and the deployed Kerne vault runs earlier bytecode than the commit that was reviewed.
- The hedge leg. For all three, the perpetual hedge is not something a holder can independently verify. Kerne publishes a signed attestation of its hedge, which is better than silence and is not proof.
What skUSD offers in return is the one thing the other two do not: a backing you recompute yourself on Base rather than a custodian's report you read. That is a trade a specific kind of holder wants, and not everyone.
Sources and related.
Ethena figures are from ethena.fi and its public API; Neutrl figures are from neutrl.finance. Kerne claims resolve to live endpoints: /api/apy, /api/por/signed, and the machine-readable /facts.json. The live advertised-versus-realized board is the Honesty Index.
Related: advertised vs realized APY, explained, kUSD vs USDe, the delta-neutral risk checklist, and the reserve transparency scorecard.
Snapshot fields (yield, scale, audit status) age; the structural contrast is evergreen. Kerne is not affiliated with Ethena Labs or Neutrl. Nothing here is financial advice.