# What is a NAV-priced vault token? Source: https://o2ocapital.com/learn/nav-priced-vault-tokens Published: 2026-10-15 Updated: 2026-10-23 Data as of: 2026-10-15 Last reviewed: 2026-10-23 For information only: nothing on this site is an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security. Open to eligible non-U.S. institutional investors only. As of 15 October 2026, O2O Capital Partners is pre-launch: no vault or vault token is live. [Niche private credit onchain](https://o2ocapital.com/learn/niche-private-credit-onchain) A NAV-priced vault token is a vault share priced at the net asset value per share that a fund's independent administrator calculates from the fund's assets and liabilities. Holders subscribe and redeem at that NAV, an oracle posts it onchain, and the token's price changes when the administrator strikes a new NAV on a set schedule. Its price follows the value of the assets the fund holds. By [Stephen McConville](https://o2ocapital.com/team/stephen-mcconville), Co-Founder, O2O Capital Partners; former Head of Product Structuring, Hedgehog Invest O2O Research is general market commentary for information only. It is not investment advice, a recommendation or an offer of any security, including interests in any O2O vault. O2O may seek business relationships with protocols, curators or issuers it writes about. ## Key facts Each figure shows its source and the date it describes. - **Tokenized US Treasuries**: $14.9B distributed value. As of October 15, 2026. Source: [RWA.xyz Treasuries](https://app.rwa.xyz/treasuries) ([latest figure and source](https://o2ocapital.com/research/data/onchain-vault-market#tokenized-treasuries)) - **Tokenized private credit**: $8.2B distributed value. As of October 15, 2026. Source: [RWA.xyz private credit](https://app.rwa.xyz/credit) ([latest figure and source](https://o2ocapital.com/research/data/onchain-vault-market#tokenized-private-credit)) - **ERC-7540 status on eips.ethereum.org**: Final. As of October 15, 2026. Source: [eips.ethereum.org](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-7540) The status shown on the standard's own page, the standard for vaults whose deposits and redemptions settle by request. ## Who calculates NAV, and how? A NAV-priced vault token takes its price from the fund behind it. The fund's net asset value is its assets minus its liabilities. Divided by the number of shares in issue, it gives the NAV per share, the price at which investors join and leave the fund. The calculation belongs to an independent fund administrator, a third party that keeps the fund's books separately from the manager who chooses the investments. The manager supplies information about the positions. The administrator checks it against bank, custody and loan servicing records, applies the fund's valuation policy and signs off the result. Each calculation, often called a NAV strike, follows the same steps: **Figure: Who calculates NAV.** The inputs, the independent fund administrator, the sign-off and the schedule, drawn as the page describes them. Alt text: The independent fund administrator checks the manager's information against records, values each asset under the fund's policy, subtracts liabilities, divides by shares in issue and signs off the NAV per share. 1. List every asset the fund holds: loans, fund units, cash and interest that has been earned but not yet paid. 2. Value each asset under the valuation policy in the fund's documents. Traded assets take a market price. Private loans, which have no market price, are usually carried at the amount owed less any expected loss, or at a value from a stated model. 3. Subtract the liabilities: management and administration fees that have built up, other expenses, redemptions owed to investors who have already asked to leave, and any borrowing. 4. Divide by the number of shares in issue. The fund's documents set how often this happens: daily, weekly or monthly, depending on how easily the assets can be valued. An auditor reviews the fund's books and valuations each year. Funds that hold tokenized Treasuries and those that hold tokenized private credit both use this method, and the Key facts box shows how much of each RWA.xyz tracks, with dates. The difference lies in the inputs: a Treasury bill has a market price every day, while a private loan's value rests on the administrator's method and the originator's reports. ## How does NAV reach the chain? A smart contract cannot read the administrator's report. Something has to write the NAV onto the blockchain, and that is the job of an oracle, a service that posts outside data where contracts can use it. Designs vary, but each answers the same questions: **Figure: How NAV reaches the chain.** The NAV is struck offchain and posted onchain by an approved signer. A holder reads the feed's rules alongside the fund's documents. Alt text: An administrator-struck NAV is posted by an approved signer through an oracle, accepted by a price feed contract that checks size and staleness, and read by the vault for its share price. A trust boundary separates the offchain fund from the onchain contracts. - Who may post. The administrator may sign the NAV itself, the fund may run an updater, or a third-party oracle network may publish it. The contract accepts updates only from approved signers. - What is posted. Usually the NAV per share and the time of the strike, so contracts can tell how old the price is. - What checks run. Many feeds reject an update that moves the price more than a set amount, or flag a price that has not been refreshed within the expected window. - What happens between strikes. Some vaults hold the price flat until the next strike. Others add the expected interest day by day and let the next strike correct the estimate. A holder reads the price feed's rules alongside the fund's documents. The feed shows when the last NAV arrived, who signed it and how far the onchain price can drift before someone notices. ## How does a vault token map to a fund share? Most terms in a fund have a direct counterpart in a vault. The table pairs them. **Figure: Fund terms and vault equivalents.** The token is the fund share in a form smart contracts can hold. The fund's documents still decide what a share is worth and who may own one. Alt text: Six fund terms paired with vault equivalents: share and vault token, subscription and deposit, redemption and redeem request, NAV strike and price update, administrator and oracle feed, register and allowlist. | Fund term | Vault equivalent | Who does it | | - | - | - | | Share | Vault token | The fund issues it; the token contract records who holds it | | Subscription | Deposit | The investor sends stablecoins; the fund issues shares at the next NAV | | Redemption | Redeem request | The holder asks to leave; the fund pays out at a later NAV | | NAV strike | Price update | The administrator calculates the NAV; the oracle posts it | | Administrator | Oracle feed | The administrator values the fund; the feed carries the result onchain | | Register | Allowlist | The fund keeps its register of investors; the token contract checks a list of identity-verified wallets | The token is the fund share in a form that smart contracts can hold, count and move. The fund's documents still decide what a share is worth and who may own one. A transfer to a wallet outside the allowlist fails, which keeps the onchain record in line with the fund's register of approved investors. ## How do NAV pricing and market pricing differ for collateral? A NAV-priced vault token can also serve as collateral: a holder posts it in a lending market and borrows stablecoins against it. The lending market then needs a price for the token, and there are two ways to set one. **Figure: NAV pricing and market pricing for collateral.** NAV pricing steps up on strike dates; market pricing moves with every trade. Illustrative shapes with no real prices. Alt text: Two stylized price paths: NAV moves in steps on strike dates, market price moves with every trade and can sit below NAV, each with a haircut band below it. ### NAV pricing The lending market reads the fund's NAV per share from the oracle feed. The price moves on strike dates, reflects the administrator's valuation of the fund's assets, and is hard to push around by trading. Its weakness is speed: a loss in the fund appears only when the next strike records it, and the fund may take weeks to pay out a redemption, so a lender that seizes the collateral may wait to turn it into cash. ### Market pricing The lending market reads the price at which the token trades on exchanges or in liquidity pools. The price moves with every trade and shows what a buyer would pay today. When holders want to leave faster than the fund redeems, the market price can fall below NAV. When trading is thin, a small trade can move it far, which creates room for manipulation. A lending market that accepts the token chooses one method, or combines them, and sets how much can be borrowed against it with the method's weaknesses in mind. [How to evaluate a yield vault](https://o2ocapital.com/learn/how-to-evaluate-a-yield-vault) covers the questions to ask about any vault's price feed. ## How do deposits and redemptions settle at NAV? A fund that strikes its NAV on a schedule cannot price a deposit until the next strike, and it may not have cash on hand to pay a redemption at once. So deposits and redemptions in a NAV-priced vault are usually requests that settle later. The usual cycle for a deposit: **Figure: Request to settlement at the next NAV.** Deposits and redemptions are requests that settle at the next strike. Many funds add a notice period or a gate. Alt text: Two four-step timelines, deposit and redemption: request, wait, next strike fixes the amount, claim. 1. The investor sends stablecoins to the vault with a deposit request, before the fund's cut-off time. 2. The request waits while the fund converts the stablecoins and invests them. 3. At the next strike, the administrator sets the NAV and the vault fixes how many tokens the deposit buys. 4. The investor claims the tokens. A redemption runs the same way in reverse. The holder hands over tokens with a redemption request, the fund raises cash from repayments or cash it holds, the next strike fixes the amount, and the holder claims the stablecoins. Many funds add a notice period, or a gate that limits how much can leave in one period, so that redemptions do not force the sale of loans. ERC-7540 is the Ethereum standard for this request-then-claim pattern. It extends the ERC-4626 vault standard so a request can wait as pending, become claimable once the vault settles it, and then be claimed. The [ERC-7540 page on eips.ethereum.org](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-7540), retrieved 15 October 2026, notes that the price can change between a request and its claim, which is why the number of tokens or stablecoins is fixed only at settlement. [ERC-7540 explained](https://o2ocapital.com/learn/erc-7540-explained) walks through the lifecycle and compares the standard with ERC-4626 and ERC-7575. ## What are the risks? NAV pricing gives a vault token a clear valuation method. The risks of the assets behind it remain, and the method adds some of its own: - Valuation risk: private loans have no market price, so the NAV rests on the administrator's method and on information from the originator, and it can be slow to record a loss. - Timing risk: when a loss is known but not yet in the NAV, holders who redeem first leave at the higher price and those who stay bear the loss. - Oracle risk: the onchain price is only as current and as accurate as the feed, and a wrong or late update reaches every contract that reads it. - Liquidity risk: redemptions wait for the next strike and for cash, and a gate can stretch the wait when many holders ask at once. - Pricing gap: where the token also trades, its market price can sit below NAV for long periods, which matters to anyone who must sell before the fund pays out. - Request risk: the ERC-7540 text, retrieved from [eips.ethereum.org](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-7540) on 15 October 2026, warns that assets or shares locked in a request can be stuck in the pending state, and that the final exchange rate depends on the vault's own implementation. - Smart contract and administrator risk: the vault's code and the administrator's processes both have to work as documented. [What is tokenized private credit?](https://o2ocapital.com/learn/what-is-tokenized-private-credit) covers the credit risks in the loans that most NAV-priced vault tokens hold. ## Sources 1. RWA.xyz, [Tokenized U.S. Treasury Funds](https://app.rwa.xyz/treasuries). Retrieved October 15, 2026. 2. RWA.xyz, [Tokenized Credit](https://app.rwa.xyz/credit). Retrieved October 15, 2026. 3. Ethereum Improvement Proposals, [ERC-7540: Asynchronous ERC-4626 Tokenized Vaults](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-7540). Retrieved October 15, 2026. ## Related - [Niche private credit onchain](https://o2ocapital.com/learn/niche-private-credit-onchain) - [What is ERC-7540?](https://o2ocapital.com/learn/erc-7540-explained) - [What is tokenized private credit?](https://o2ocapital.com/learn/what-is-tokenized-private-credit) - [How to evaluate a yield vault](https://o2ocapital.com/learn/how-to-evaluate-a-yield-vault) - [Real-World Asset Vaults Begin their Institutional Track Record](https://o2ocapital.com/research/rwa-vaults-institutional-track-record) To report an error or ask about a source, use the [contact form](https://o2ocapital.com/?audience=other#contact).