Coinbase has added fixed-rate USDC loans backed by cbBTC, provided through the Morpho Midnight protocol on Base, allowing customers to borrow USDC against bitcoin without selling exposure. Coinbase converts pledged bitcoin into cbBTC and transfers it to a Morpho smart contract; Coinbase manages the customer interface, Morpho supplies the lending protocol, and Base processes onchain transactions. Fixed-rate loans lock the interest rate and repayment date when a borrower accepts an onchain offer. Coinbase currently offers maturities at the end of the current month or the following month, defining “End of Month” as the last Friday of the selected month.
Midnight uses an intent-based, offer-driven peer-to-peer system: lenders submit offers through an onchain order book and borrowers select terms based on available rates and maturities. Borrowers must repay USDC before the agreed date or lenders can claim the cbBTC posted as collateral. Fixed borrowing costs prevent accepted loans’ rates from changing before maturity, in contrast to Coinbase’s variable-rate product, which adjusts as supply and demand shift.
The fixed-rate launch expands Coinbase’s existing Morpho integration alongside Morpho Blue. Coinbase’s variable-rate service has more than $1.4 billion in outstanding loans secured by roughly $3 billion in collateral. Across Morpho, Blue holds about $5.2 billion in outstanding loans and $16 billion in deposits, while Midnight held roughly $30 million in deposits during its initial rollout. Morpho has said Midnight’s architecture could later support structured credit and lending against tokenized real-world assets, contingent on additional integrations. Coinbase presented the move as giving customers more choice for accessing liquidity without selling crypto holdings.
This summary is composed by the cFlash AI editor from multiple public sources, under human supervision. The content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, financial, legal, or tax advice.