Lido Launches Its First Stablecoin Vault

Lido, DeFi’s largest liquid staking protocol by total value locked, has launched EarnUSD, its first stablecoin vault, according to a press release shared with The Defiant.

The new product lets users deposit and earn yield on USDC and USDT. The vault allocates capital automatically across Ethereum-based USD-denominated strategies, including on-chain lending markets, real-world asset (RWA) integrations, and structured positions, per the release.

The move marks a broader focus for the protocol, which is known for being the largest $ETH staking provider, with over 8.7 million $ETH currently staked.

The launch restructures Lido Earn — which the firm says has attracted almost $250 million in deposits since launching in September 2025 — into two vaults: EarnETH and EarnUSD.

EarnETH, meanwhile, accepts $ETH, WETH, and stETH, and distributes deposits across major DeFi protocols including Aave, Uniswap, and Morpho.

The launch of Lido’s stablecoin vault comes as stablecoin supply on Ethereum holds out over $160 billion, per data from DefiLlama. This represents over half over total USD stablecoin supply across all networks, currently at $314.9 billion.

Regulatory momentum — namely the GENIUS Act in the U.S.— has helped drive growth in the sector over the past year.

“Stablecoins are a fundamental part of DeFi, and until now we weren’t serving those users,” said Marin Tvrdić, Earn Partnerships at the Lido Ecosystem Foundation. “That changes today with EarnUSD.”

As part of the launch, the Lido DAO has voted to allocate $5 million from its treasury into the vaults alongside users, on the same terms. If a vault suffers losses, the DAO’s position absorbs them first, according to the release.

The move follows a DAO proposal from December that outlined a $60 million budget to expand Lido’s product offering beyond liquid staking, as reported by The Defiant.

Lido currently holds around $19 billion in TVL, according to DefiLlama, making it the largest liquid staking protocol in DeFi. The vast majority of its TVL is on Ethereum.

Lido’s TVL is down over 50% from its all-time high of over $42 billion reached last August amid $ETH’s rally to a new all-time high, and increased regulatory clarity.