Lido, DeFi’s largest liquid staking protocol by total value locked, has launched EarnUSD, the first stablecoin vault, according to a press release shared with The Defiant.
The new product allows users to deposit money and earn returns on USDC and USDT. The vault automatically allocates capital to Ethereum-based, USD-denominated strategies, including on-chain credit markets, real-world asset (RWA) integrations and structured positions, according to the release.
The move marks a broader focus for the protocol, which is known as the largest $ETH staking provider, with more than 8.7 million $ETH currently deployed.
The launch restructures Lido Earn – which the company says has attracted nearly $250 million in deposits since its launch in September 2025 – into two vaults: EarnETH and EarnUSD.
EarnETH, meanwhile, accepts it $ETHWETH and sETH, and distributes deposits across major DeFi protocols including Aave, Uniswap and Morpho.
The launch of Lido’s stablecoin vault comes as the supply of stablecoins on Ethereum exceeds $160 billion, according to data from DefiLlama. This represents over half of the total USD stablecoin supply across all networks, currently at $314.9 billion.
Regulatory momentum – namely the GENIUS Act in the US – has helped drive growth in the sector over the past year.
“Stablecoins are a fundamental part of DeFi, and until now we were not serving these users,” said Marin Tvrdić, Earn Partnerships at the Lido Ecosystem Foundation. “That changes today with EarnUSD.”
As part of the launch, the Lido DAO voted to commit $5 million from the treasury to the vaults together with users, under the same conditions. If a vault suffers losses, the DAO position absorbs them first, according to the release.
The move follows a December DAO proposal that outlined a $60 million budget to expand Lido’s product offering beyond liquid staking, as reported by The Defiant.
According to DefiLlama, Lido currently holds approximately $19 billion in TVL, making it the largest liquid staking protocol in DeFi. The vast majority of TVL is on Ethereum.
Lido’s TVL is down more than 50% from an all-time high of over $42 billion reached last August. $ETH‘s rally to a new all-time high, and greater regulatory clarity.