Users of Crypto.com will soon have the opportunity to lend wrapped cryptocurrency assets and earn yields on stablecoins through a partnership with Morpho, a prominent decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol. This development was announced in a statement released on Thursday, indicating that Morpho will establish stablecoin lending markets on the Cronos blockchain,with initial vaults anticipated to launch later this year.
The integration enables users to deposit wrapped Ether (ETH) or Bitcoin (BTC) into Morpho vaults, allowing them to borrow stablecoins against these assets while earning yield. Wrapped assets are tokens designed to represent another cryptocurrency on a different blockchain, enabling seamless value transfer across networks. On the Cronos blockchain, tokens like CDCETH and CDCBTC closely mimic the characteristics of ETH and BTC, allowing users to access DeFi lending markets without exiting the ecosystem.
Merlin Egalite, co-founder of Morpho, explained that the aim is to provide “a trusted user experience in the front, with DeFi infrastructure in the back.” By embedding the Morpho protocol directly into the Crypto.com platform, its lending functionalities will be readily accessible to the platform’s users.
According to data from DeFiLlama, Morpho has rapidly ascended to become the second-largest DeFi lending protocol, boasting a total value locked of approximately $7.7 billion. Egalite also confirmed that Morpho’s offerings will be available to users in the United States. Despite restrictions under the Genius Act that prohibit stablecoin issuers from paying reserve yields directly to holders, he noted that “lending a stablecoin and earning yield is a separate activity, independent of the issuer, so the restriction does not apply.”
This new integration with Crypto.com follows a recent collaboration between Morpho and the US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. On September 18, Coinbase announced that it would incorporate the Morpho lending protocol into its platform, allowing users to engage in lending activities with USDC (USD Coin) seamlessly. This integration is managed by the DeFi advisory firm Steakhouse Financial. Just like with Crypto.com, users on Coinbase can access on-chain lending markets and may see yields as high as 10.8%, a significant increase compared to the 4.5% annual percentage yield (APY) currently offered for holding USDC on the platform.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has expressed ambitions for the platform to evolve into a comprehensive crypto “super app,” ultimately aiming to reduce consumers’ reliance on traditional banking services. However, institutions such as the Bank Policy Institute (BPI) have voiced concerns over the potential implications of stablecoin operations, urging US Congress to address perceived loopholes that allow stablecoin issuers to compete with banks without equivalent regulatory oversight. They warn that, without intervention, the stability of the US banking system could be jeopardized, risking the loss of up to $6.6 trillion in deposits.
In response, Coinbase has dismissed these concerns as unfounded, asserting that there is no substantiated evidence linking stablecoin growth to deposit outflows at banks. They highlighted that institutions now alerting of “systemic risk” are the same that have profited significantly from credit card processing fees, which stablecoins could potentially circumvent.
The Genius Act, which received presidential approval in July 2025, aims to regulate interest-bearing stablecoins but does not explicitly prevent crypto exchanges from offering yield options through their platforms. As this landscape evolves, the ramification of these integrations on both the DeFi market and traditional financial institutions appears set to be a significant area of focus moving forward.
