Coinbase launched two onchain this afternoon $USDC credit vaults built on Morpho and curated by Steakhouse Financial, giving users their first choice of risk profile when borrowing through the exchange: a conservative Prime level backed by premium crypto collateral, and a Higher Yield level using Ethena-issued assets.
The launch was announced this afternoon on Coinbase’s official X account, with a blog post providing product details. The vaults run Morpho, the permissionless lending protocol that raised $175 million in June at a reported valuation of $2 billion and now holds a total valuation of about $6.5 billion, according to DefiLlama.
The two levels
The Prime safe borrows $USDC against blue chip collateral, mainly BTC and ETH. Existing Steakhouse-curated $USDC Vaults on Morpho yield yields of 3.5 to 4%, according to DefiLlama pool data.
The High Yield vault accepts collateral from a broader pool, including assets issued by Ethena. The Steakhouse-curated vault using USDtb, Ethena’s T-bill-backed stablecoin, returns approximately 8.79% annually on Morpho, per DefiLlama. USDtb is one of two stablecoins issued by Ethena; the other, USDe, has $4.48 billion in circulation across 28 chains. The Coinbase blog describes the High Yield level as backed by “a broader mix of assets, including assets powered by @ethena,” without naming the specific instruments.
Three rolls, one stack
Morpho provides the non-custodial credit infrastructure. Steakhouse Financial, a DeFi risk curator that manages $2.03 billion of Morpho Vault TVL, selects the collateral markets and sets the risk parameters for each vault. Ethena supplies the return-bearing assets in the High Yield layer.
Steakhouse built a roughly $1 billion lead over the nearest Morpho vault competitor as of May, according to previous Defiant reporting. The curator’s work is one layer below what users see on Coinbase: it determines loan-to-value ratios and collateral suitability for the underlying Morpho markets, but the Coinbase interface abstracts those parameters.
The relationship between Coinbase and Ethena predates the launch of the vault: Coinbase Ventures took an ENA stake on the open market in June as part of a broader distribution deal.