Coinbase DeFi Earn Product Surpasses $300M with Ethena Partnership

A high-yield vault on Coinbase's DeFi earn product has reached a milestone of $300 million in deposits, just two months after its launch. The Steakhouse High Yield USDC Vault crossed this threshold on August 11, 2026.

The vault allows users to deposit USDC and earns interest through a high-yield lending structure backed by Ethena's synthetic dollar asset, USDe, and its staked variant, sUSDe. This combination generates higher returns than conventional stablecoin lending.

Coinbase handles custody, wallet infrastructure, and the user-facing interface, making it accessible to retail users without requiring them to manage gas fees or interact with a DeFi protocol directly.

The partnership between Coinbase and Ethena was announced in early June 2026, timed closely to the vault's launch. Coinbase functions as Ethena's primary custodian and wallet provider, taking operational responsibility for key infrastructure underpinning Ethena's assets.