Research date: September 5, 2026. Status: researched product recommendations and illustrative financial model; no provider contract, investment route, reward campaign, or customer rate is activated by this document.
Decision
Forage can turn everyday merchant rewards into optional savings and tokenized-equity ownership. The sustainable economic foundation is collected merchant commissions, prefunded sponsor campaigns, and useful paid software. Income earned by a customer's selected cash or investment product belongs to that customer. It does not finance another customer's rewards or Forage's operating budget.
Use the product promise “Find useful offers. Keep more. Build what you own.” Daily income is a separately identified feature of an eligible savings product. It is neither a daily guaranteed prize nor protection against equity losses. A customer can use rewards without buying investments, and can use the investment product without playing the game.
Findings that change the plan
| Issue | Evaluation | Recommended correction |
|---|---|---|
| “Backed by daily yield” merges unlike sources | Accruing income, collected commission, discount value, and share-price gains have different owners and cash timing | Display savings income, available rewards, merchant discounts, and investment performance separately |
| Merchant confirmation treated as cash | Approval creates a receivable; collection can still be delayed | Availability requires collected funds or a fully funded sponsor/Forage guarantee |
| Low commissions assumed to cover a generous reward and viral bonus | The base example below leaves only $1.25 per active merchant customer per month before fixed costs | Price each offer; cap referral campaigns using funded budgets; reject negative-contribution campaigns unless an explicit sponsor covers the gap |
| A discount becomes an investment automatically | A price reduction creates no transferable cash | A $5 coupon may invite an optional $5 customer contribution, but that contribution is new customer money, not a reward transfer |
| Small daily earnings imply daily onchain movement | Execution and payout costs can consume micro-rewards | Accrue using provider facts; batch transfers and optional investment purchases within customer-approved cost limits |
| Any tokenized Treasury product assumed available to U.S. retail | Several prominent products exclude U.S. people or require qualified-purchaser status | Use the provider eligibility evidence below; deployment on a supported chain is insufficient |
| Game rewards and user portfolio share one treasury | This creates cross-subsidy and ownership ambiguity | Separate customer assets, reward obligations, merchant receivables, campaign funds, and company operating capital |
The existing publisher runbook's confirmation/reversal-window rule should be extended to include collection or prefunding. See publisher onboarding.
Provider evidence and integration fit
These are candidate routes, not confirmed Forage partnerships. Commercial access, embedded distribution rights, approved account ownership, and supported user jurisdictions require provider answers.
| Candidate | Verified evidence | Daily accrual versus available funds | Forage decision and unknowns |
|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin FOBXX / Benji | The August 1, 2026 prospectus permits individual investors, generally U.S. residents. Minimums include $20 on Stellar and $100 on Base. Shares use permissioned wallets controlled by the transfer agent. Purchases/redemptions process in business hours | Income is declared daily and reinvested on the payable date. The fund can lose value; income is not guaranteed | Strong tokenized cash-product diligence candidate. Embedded access, smart-account acceptance, specific distribution schedule, state coverage, and funding/redemption integration remain unconfirmed. FOBXX prospectus |
| Benji platform capabilities | Franklin announced proportional intraday income accounting and calendar-day payout capabilities, plus white-label technology | Platform capability does not establish every fund's or partner's live payout terms | Request product-specific evidence before promising daily spendable income. Franklin platform announcement |
| WisdomTree WTGXX | Official 2026 distribution schedule lists daily ex/record dates and monthly payment dates | Daily entitlement can coexist with monthly distribution | Tokenized cash-product diligence candidate; confirm Forage distribution access, individual eligibility, state coverage, custody, and external-account support. 2026 distribution schedule |
| WisdomTree Connect execution | WisdomTree announced 24/7 trading and instant settlement for WTGXX through Connect | This does not establish 24/7 bank withdrawals or Forage retail access | Do not transfer an institutional/platform capability into consumer promises. WisdomTree announcement |
| Alpaca High-Yield Cash, Broker API | Enrolled eligible customer accounts accrue cash interest; published integration describes credit on the last business day each month, agreement requirements, and partner/customer rate fields | Daily accrual is distinct from monthly posted interest. Rates and partner terms are contract dependent | Conventional cash fallback or benchmark, not tokenized equity or automatic AGW support. Request embedded-program fit, geography, pricing, bank allocation, account terms, and withdrawal timing. Broker API guide |
| Plain USDC | Circle's terms say holding USDC provides no entitlement to reserve income | No native holder yield | Use only as an approved payment/settlement asset. Any third-party reward is a separate arrangement with separate terms. USDC terms |
| Circle USYC | The product page restricts its audience to non-U.S. people and entities | Product-specific income and redemption terms need separate review | Exclude from the U.S. retail launch shortlist. Reconsider only for independently eligible markets. USYC |
| Ondo USDY | Documentation prohibits U.S. people and U.S.-located subscriptions/acquisitions/redemptions | A yield-bearing token is not a general-access U.S. cash account | Exclude from U.S. retail launch. USDY eligibility |
| Ondo OUSG | Ondo describes a private-fund structure available to qualified purchasers | Eligibility attaches to the investor and product, not simply the wallet | Not a mass-market U.S. retail savings route. Ondo structure and eligibility |
| DeFi supply markets, such as Aave | Aave documents rates driven by utilization and protocol parameters | Variable lending income is exposed to protocol and liquidity conditions | Exclude from the default savings route. Any later option needs a distinct risk mandate and must not fund fixed reward liabilities. Aave rate model |
Evidence priority: current offering/account terms outrank marketing pages. Unknown Forage integration access remains unknown even when the underlying product is live. A provider-hosted customer account can be a valid fallback; do not move assets to an unsupported AGW subaccount to preserve visual consistency.
Who owns each dollar
| Source | Owner and use | May fund Forage rewards? |
|---|---|---|
| Customer deposit/principal | Customer asset in the approved account | No |
| Customer cash-product income | Customer income, subject to product terms and disclosed fees | No; the customer may independently move their own available income |
| Equity dividends or realized gains | Customer investment proceeds | No |
| Collected publisher commission | Allocate contractual customer entitlement, costs, and residual company revenue | Only the funded amount allocated to rewards |
| Sponsor campaign prefunding | Restricted to contracted campaign commitments until earned/released | Yes, within those commitments and liquid funding |
| Direct checkout discount | Lower merchant purchase price, not a Forage cash asset | No, unless a separate sponsor supplies cash |
| Company subscription/service revenue | Company revenue net of delivery costs and obligations | Yes, through an explicit budget |
| Return on unencumbered company treasury | Company income after costs, losses, and taxes | Only realized, available surplus allocated to a campaign; never assumed fixed |
| Forage/BURR emissions, token price, customer inflows | No recurring operating cash flow demonstrated | No launch dependency |
A separately disclosed provider fee or revenue-share contract could create company revenue. The base plan assumes none. Never recognize the same dollar as both customer income and company margin, or describe a retained spread as a free customer benefit.
Canonical monthly model
All figures below are proposed scenario assumptions, not provider quotes, market averages, live APYs, or forecasts. Annual yield examples use simple nominal annual rates, a 365-day denominator, unchanged balances, no compounding, and amounts before customer taxes.
Let S be attributable eligible merchant spend; c the contracted publisher commission rate after network fees; r the expected pre-collection reversal/ineligibility fraction; u the customer share of collected commission; v attributable variable operating costs; p fulfillment cost; and f a reserve for residual post-approval fraud/loss. If a quoted commission is before network fees, subtract those separately before using this model.
Tracked commission = S × c
Expected collected commission = S × c × (1 − r)
Customer reward = collected commission × u
Contribution = collected commission × (1 − u) − v − p − f
Operating result = active merchant customers × contribution − fixed operating costs
Expected collection supports planning only. Customer availability uses actual collections or a funded guarantee. Actual expenses and forfeitures must be reconciled; a planning reserve is not automatically an accounting expense. Fixed grants or contractual customer dollar rewards require their own liability calculation and cannot be reduced retroactively by this formula.
| Monthly measure per active merchant customer | Base | Thin-commission stress |
|---|---|---|
| Eligible attributable spend | $200.00 | $200.00 |
| Publisher commission rate | 5% | 2% |
| Tracked commission | $10.00 | $4.00 |
| Reversal/ineligibility assumption | 10% | 20% |
| Expected collected commission | $9.00 | $3.20 |
| Customer share | 70% | 70% |
| Customer rewards | $6.30 | $2.24 |
| Retained commission before costs | $2.70 | $0.96 |
| Variable operating costs | $1.00 | $1.00 |
| Fulfillment | $0.20 | $0.20 |
| Residual fraud/loss reserve | $0.25 | $0.25 |
| Contribution before fixed costs and referral awards | $1.25 | −$0.49 |
| Separately funded sponsor boost | $0.00 | $0.00 |
At 10,000 active merchant customers and $30,000 fixed monthly operating costs, base contribution is $12,500 and operating result is −$17,500/month. Base break-even is 24,000 active merchant customers, assuming unchanged economics, no additional fixed costs, and no referral awards. At thin commissions, 10,000 customers produce −$4,900 contribution and −$34,900/month operating result. Scaling that mix increases losses.
The $1 operating-cost estimate must ultimately include usage-sensitive support, attribution, fraud tooling, infrastructure, and applicable account-service costs. Market data, provider minimums, compliance staff, audits, insurance, acquisition, and founder/team costs must appear in either the variable or fixed budget. The illustrative $30,000 is not a claim that these costs are sufficient for a live securities platform.
At the base costs, break-even publisher commission before fixed overhead is about 2.6852%: $1.45 / ($200 × 90% × 30%). A campaign can meet this threshold and still be insufficient to run the company. Offer ranking should consider customer value and supported terms, not silently prefer securities or merchants that pay Forage more.
What daily income actually contributes
An illustrative $1,000 customer balance at 4% nominal annual income produces $1,000 × 4% / 365 = $0.109589 daily and about $3.29 over 30 days. Together with the base $6.30 merchant reward, the customer has roughly $9.59 of potential income/reward value before taxes and any extra costs, with different payout clocks. It is not a 9.59% return, daily cash availability, or Forage revenue. The $200 purchase spend is a cost for goods/services; cashback does not make unnecessary spending profitable.
A $500 equity holding falling 20% loses $100, over ten times that 30-day income/reward amount. Merchant rewards and cash income do not insure tokenized equities. Dividends are variable and should not be smoothed into a guaranteed daily promise.
At 4%, $100,000 of unencumbered company-owned treasury produces about $10.96/day before costs/taxes. Across 10,000 customers that is about $0.001096 each per day. Company treasury income is a modest supplement, not a viable universal daily prize engine. Campaign liabilities and customer balances are excluded from this treasury assumption.
Referral budget and viral economics
Assume a fixed $4 total referral-pair reward, from a funded acquisition campaign, and a policy allocating at most 25% of positive base contribution toward replenishing that campaign. Base replenishment is $1.25 × 25% = $0.3125 per customer-month. Replenishing $4 takes 12.8 customer-months. Conventional acquisition payback using the entire $1.25 contribution is 3.2 months; those are different measures.
An internal designation of $0.3125 is not itself a paid reward expense. Once awarded/incurred, referral costs reduce contribution available for overhead. If awards consume that amount steadily, net contribution available is $0.9375 and illustrative break-even becomes 32,000 customers before other growth costs. Do not count the same referral expense twice.
If each existing active customer invites three people, 25% sign up, and 50% become retained eligible users, the illustrative viral factor is 0.375. It is not self-sustaining exponential growth. Validate invitation, activation, retention, duplicate-account, and referred-customer margin rates from a pilot. Never promise a referral award contingent on future uncollected commission without already reserving its maximum liability.
Recommended referrals use fixed, clearly stated rewards for a permitted verified non-investment milestone, with no deposit-size or securities-trading condition. Social sharing and team participation remain voluntary. Novelty should come from cooperative discovery, not increased financial risk.
Direct merchants, discounts, and sponsorship
An illustrative direct merchant prepays $1,000: $600 funds 200 fixed $3 verified rewards, $250 is a campaign/service fee, and $150 is refundable unspent contingency. At full campaign delivery and $100 attributable service costs, company contribution is $150, before fixed overhead and any incremental taxes/payment costs. The contingency is not earned revenue. The merchant's all-in delivered campaign cost is $850, or $4.25 per qualifying redemption; assess merchant gross margin and incremental visits against that cost.
Cap the campaign at 200 simultaneous fulfilled/reserved entitlements, atomically against liquid funding. Concurrent claims cannot all rely on the same $600. If a merchant offers a $3 discount instead, Forage may provide discovery and charge a contracted service fee, but has no $3 customer cash reward to invest.
Prioritize planned purchases and repeat useful merchant relationships. A merchant should pay for credible incremental customer value, not raw app opens. Evaluate repeat visits and merchant contribution after discounts; inflated “redemption volume” alone cannot support campaign renewal.
Settlement, prefunding, and reward liability
impact.com documents that advertiser funding failures can delay payout. Tremendous's default API funding model uses a prefunded balance. Therefore a commission report and a fulfillment API are not financing. impact payout delays, Tremendous funding.
Use distinct internal states: TRACKED, APPROVED_RECEIVABLE, FUNDED_AVAILABLE, RESERVED, PAYOUT_PENDING, PAID, REVERSED, and EXCEPTION. Normalize these for customers as Pending, Available, Sending, Sent, or Needs review. Record a reason and next expected update; do not describe provider-estimated dates as guarantees.
At base scale, customer reward accrual is $63,000/month. Paying immediately while collecting 60 days later needs about $126,000 of external working capital, before payout costs, disputes, liquidity buffers, and growth. A move to 90 days requires about $189,000. This is not the expected ultimate reward expense changing; it is the cash gap growing. MVP should use actual collection or merchant prefunding. Any accelerated availability must explicitly commit company capital and price its cost.
Minimum controls proposed:
- Liquid designated reward funds cover obligations still awaiting cash submission: available unpaid rewards, payout reservations, and irrevocable advertised campaign commitments. These buckets are disjoint; a reserved reward is not also available.
- Reconcile provider-debited payouts as restricted payout-in-transit assets against their matching pending delivery obligations. They are neither free cash nor a second spendable reward. Keep the obligation until delivery is reconciled; unproven transit status is an exception, not permission to release or duplicate payment.
- An invoice, pending ACH, uncollected commission, provider-estimated interest, volatile token, or customer principal contributes zero to immediately spendable reward funding.
- Match reward cash to the payout currency. Do not call a stablecoin-funded USD obligation fully covered without an approved conversion/liquidity haircut and loss reserve.
- Preserve each reward's original customer entitlement, campaign version, source transaction, sponsor allocation, cash receipt, reversal, and payout reference.
- A late chargeback after payout is borne by the funded reserve/company under the published terms; never claw it back by secretly selling customer securities.
- Count a payout once even if both provider webhook and polling confirm it. A failed payout releases only a verified unused reservation.
- Securities routing begins only from verified available value through the customer's eligible account and separate confirmed instruction or approved mandate. Reward events cannot sign orders or widen permissions.
Additional stress tests and operating decisions
| Stress | Illustrative result or concern | Response |
|---|---|---|
| Cash income falls from 4% to 1% | $1,000 earns about $0.82 over 30 days; customer income falls, merchant contribution does not automatically change | Update the displayed rate; do not top up to an old rate from deposits |
| Customer reward share rises from 70% to 90% at base inputs | $9 × 10% − $1.45 = −$0.55 contribution | Require sponsor funding or higher positive-margin economics before promising the offer |
| Fulfillment rises from $0.20 to $1.00 | Base contribution falls from $1.25 to $0.45 | Batch supported payouts, negotiate pricing, and expose any customer fee before commitment |
| $0.50 cost to invest a $6.30 reward | About 7.94% is lost to transaction cost before market movement | Offer a customer-controlled accumulation threshold; a $50 batch makes the same fee 1%. Preserve a usable non-investment redemption choice |
| Attribution lost or coupons disallowed | Purchases can generate no commission despite customer spending | Show offer conditions and supported tracking; use a funded support policy rather than inventing receivables |
| Payout provider or bank delayed | Accounting coverage may exist while cash is unavailable | Maintain liquidity buffers outside the delayed provider, pause new unfunded promises, and show accurate timing |
| Sponsor stops renewal | A recurring campaign is not perpetual funding | Fulfill already funded awards; retire future campaigns without affecting owned assets or earned rewards |
| Subscription proposed solely to improve income | $9.99/month costs $119.88/year versus $40 illustrative annual income on $1,000 | Charge for separately useful software value; never present the subscription as automatically profitable savings |
Practical next decisions
- Launch the money model with merchant commissions and prefunded direct campaigns. Keep customer rewards redeemable without purchasing equities.
- Run parallel provider diligence for one U.S.-eligible tokenized money-market route and one conventional cash fallback. Ask for written Forage distribution access, account rights, customer eligibility, pricing, accrual events, payout timing, and wallet support.
- Use one customer experience with separately labeled Rewards, Savings income, and Investments; retain separate ledgers and providers underneath it.
- Start cash rewards as fixed, campaign-specific entitlements with explicit budgets. Avoid a universal daily monetary grant or a permanent cashback percentage across unknown merchants.
- Make the game useful every day through optional discoveries and cooperative non-financial milestones. Money can arrive on merchant/provider schedules without manufacturing financial activity each day.
- Measure collected commission, reward liability coverage, payout time, merchant repeat value, retained user contribution, acquisition payback, and savings behavior that does not rely on additional spending. Scale only a positive-contribution cohort with adequate funded operating runway.
- Re-run the model with signed provider quotes before setting public economics. No provider price, rate, merchant approval, or integration permission is inferred from this analysis.