Ethena just landed on the biggest stage in US retail crypto. The protocol’s USDe synthetic dollar is now accessible through a new High Yield Vault on Coinbase, marking the first time Ethena’s yield products have been integrated directly into a major centralized exchange’s savings infrastructure.
The product, called the SteakhouseFi High Yield Vault, is built on Morpho-based lending vaults and runs on Base, Coinbase’s layer-2 network.
How the vault works
Steakhouse Financial, the risk management firm founded in 2020, is serving as the exclusive vault partner for Coinbase’s DeFi Lend integration. The vaults are curated to optimize returns through a diversified collateral strategy. That collateral mix includes yield-bearing stablecoins and real-world assets, or RWAs.
Users interact with the vault through Coinbase’s Smart Wallet on Base. The lifetime average APY on sUSDe, Ethena’s staked version of USDe, sits at 11.2%. For context, the best high-yield savings accounts at traditional banks currently offer somewhere around 4-5%.
The strategic calculus
The partnership was announced on June 2-3, with the vault going live roughly a week later. Coinbase Ventures purchased ENA tokens on the open market as a show of support for the collaboration.
At the time of the announcement, USDe supply was estimated between $5B and $6B. Ethena Labs launched USDe in February 2024 and has accumulated billions in total value locked while maintaining competitive yields. Steakhouse Financial has prior working relationships with both Coinbase and Ethena, and its specialization in risk-curated on-chain lending vaults made it a natural fit for bridging the two ecosystems.
What this means for investors
The risk side deserves attention. USDe is a synthetic dollar, not a fiat-backed stablecoin. Its yield comes from basis trades and staking strategies, which means the 11.2% lifetime average APY reflects market conditions that may not persist. Periods of negative funding rates or market dislocations can compress or even eliminate that yield.