Glossary
Definitions for the terms used in Noon's documentation. You can rely on this page for definitions everywhere else on the website.
Some definitions reference values (seasoning periods, percentages) that are documented in full on their respective sections.
Where a number matters, this glossary links to the page that owns it, so there's a single source of truth.
Tokens
$USN
Noon's dollar-pegged stablecoin, designed to hold a value of one US dollar for each unit of $USN. Held on its own, $USN does not earn yield but it does earn the maximum amount of Noon points. See USN and sUSN.
$sUSN
Staked $USN, Noon's yield bearing stablecoin. Protocol yields result in daily price appreciation of $sUSN. See USN and sUSN.
$NOON
Noon's governance token. Can be earned (via Noon points) or bought (on public markets). Can be staked for governance rights and rewards. See $NOON.
$sNOON
Staked $NOON. Confers voting power and other governance rights. Earns rewards via Active Stake, Open Stake, and the buyback and distribution mechanism. See $NOON.
Mechanics
Mint
Create new $USN directly with the protocol by depositing eligible collateral. Only available for institutional partners. Permissioned; requires KYB. See Mint and Redeem.
Redeem
Return $USN to the protocol for its underlying value. Permissioned, with limits and a settlement timeline. See Mint and Redeem.
Stake
Deposit $USN into the stake vault to receive $sUSN (or $NOON to receive $sNOON) and earn yield, governance rights, or stake rewards.
Buying
Using user's tokens ($USDC, $USDT, etc) to purchase $USN, $sUSN or $NOON. Can be done via Noon's App, or directly on DEXes and CEXes where $USN, $sUSN or $NOON are listed.
Selling
Using user's $USN, $sUSN or $NOON to swap for tokens ($USDC, $USDT, etc). Can be done via Noon's App, or directly on DEXes and CEXes where $USN, $sUSN or $NOON are listed.
Permissionless
Open to anyone with a wallet, without application or approval. For example, buying $USN or $sUSN on a DEX is permissionless.
Permissioned
Restricted to onboarded parties, typically after successful KYC or KYB. Mint and redeem are permissioned.
Cooldown
A waiting period that applies when unstaking a staked token (either $sUSN or $sNOON) before the underlying token ($USN or $NOON) is able to be claimed by the user. See Fees.
Vesting
The schedule over which $NOON tokens become fully claimable. For example, Noon uses a vesting curve for $NOON rewards (Active Stake and Open Stake). See Vesting.
Seasoning
The period the Insurance Fund holds contributions before they become available to be used to buy-back $NOON. See Insurance for the canonical period and mechanism.
Yield and strategy terms
Real yield
Return generated from actual economic activity (e.g., deployments in TradFi like U.S. Treasury Bills, or DeFi, like DeFi lending) rather than from token emissions.
Delta-neutral
A strategy structured so its value is insulated from the price fluctuation of underlying assets, by offsetting long and short exposure. Note that delta-neutral removes directional price risk, not all risk. See Risk management.
CLO (Collateralized Loan Obligation)
A security backed by a pool of corporate loans. See CLOs.
BDC (Business Development Company)
A company that finances small and mid-sized businesses, often publicly traded. See BDCs.
Private credit
Lending by non-bank institutions directly to borrowers, outside public debt markets. See Private credit.
PT (Principal Token)
In yield-trading protocols like Pendle, a PT is the component of a yield-bearing asset that pays out its face value at maturity. See Principal tokens.
Looping
A leveraged strategy that repeatedly supplies and borrows to amplify exposure. Carries liquidation risk. See Looping.
T-Bills
Treasury Bills are short-term, low-risk debt securities issued by the U.S. government, used as a benchmark for low-risk returns in the financial world.
APY
Annual Percentage Yield. Represents the real rate of return earned on an investment over one year, taking into account the effect of compounding interest. Note that APY figures are indicative and subject to market conditions, and not guarantees.
Insurance Fund
A reserve that backstops the Noon protocol against short term volatility, and limited losses. The Noon Insurance Fund has a specific seasoning period, after which funds exit the Insurance Fund and are used to buy-back $NOON. For the seasoning period and how the Noon Insurance Fund is used, see Insurance, which is the canonical source.
Operations Fund
The fund used to cover the protocol's operating costs. See Return distribution.
TGE (Token Generation Event)
The point at which a token is created and becomes claimable or transferable. For the $NOON token, this took place in mid-2025.
Infrastructure terms
OFT (Omnichain Fungible Token)
A LayerZero token standard that lets a token move natively across chains. Relevant to how $USN exists on some (not all) chains. See Interoperability.
Bridging
Moving a token from one chain to another. Noon uses LayerZero and Hyperlane. See Bridging.
Oracle
A service that brings off-chain price data on-chain. Noon uses feeds from providers including Stork, Pragma, and Chainlink. See Oracles.
MPC (Multi-Party Computation)
A cryptographic method of securing assets so no single party holds a complete key. Used in Noon's custody stack. See Custody.
Proof of Solvency
A real-time, independent verification confirming that the protocol holds sufficient assets to cover liabilities. See Transparency.
MultiSig
A multi-sig (short for multi-signature) is a security scheme that requires more than one private key to authorize a digital transaction. Instead of relying on a single key, it distributes control among multiple parties or devices, eliminating the "single point of failure" where a lost or stolen key may result in the total loss of assets.
A term missing? Suggest it in our Discord community — we update this glossary regularly.
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