Soon, Crypto.com users will be able to earn on stablecoins through Morpho — a decentralized lending protocol. According to the company, Morpho will launch stablecoin markets on the Cronos blockchain, with the first pools opening this year.
The idea is simple: users will be able to deposit wrapped assets like ETH or BTC into Morpho, borrow stablecoins against them — and earn yield.
Wrapped assets are tokens that represent a cryptocurrency on another network. For example, in the Cronos ecosystem, CDCETH and CDCBTC are used — they reflect the price of real ETH and BTC, but operate within Cronos. This allows users to stay on the network and still participate in DeFi lending.
“We want to give users a reliable and intuitive interface, and hide all the decentralized stuff inside,” explained Morpho co-founder Merlin Egalite.
The protocol will be integrated directly into Crypto.com platforms, making lending accessible without extra steps or third-party interfaces.
Total value locked in DeFi lending. Source: DeFiLlama
Morpho is a protocol that connects lenders and borrowers based on platforms like Aave and Compound. It currently ranks second among all DeFi lending protocols. According to DeFiLlama, about $7.7 billion is locked in the system.
Egalite also confirmed that Morpho will be available to users in the US. Although the Genius Act prohibits stablecoin issuers from directly paying yield from reserves, this restriction does not apply to lending.
“When you lend out a stablecoin and earn yield — that’s a different story, and it’s not connected to the issuer itself,” he explained.
The Genius Act does not give a direct answer on stablecoin yield
The integration of Morpho with Crypto.com happened just a couple of weeks after a similar move by Coinbase.
On September 18, Coinbase announced that it had integrated Morpho directly into its app. Pool management was taken over by the DeFi team at Steakhouse Financial. As with Crypto.com, users can lend USDC without leaving the platform or switching to third-party wallets or DeFi services.
According to Coinbase, yields can reach up to 10.8% per year — which is twice the standard 4.5% APY paid for simply holding USDC in the app.
A few days later, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated that the goal of Coinbase is to create a universal crypto app that meets all user needs.
See also: Mantle introduced a tokenization service and added the USD1 stablecoin to its ecosystem
As expected, traditional banks have begun to push back. In August, the Bank Policy Institute (BPI) and several major US financial organizations sent a letter to Congress demanding to close “loopholes” that allegedly allow stablecoin issuers to compete with banks without proper oversight. The letter claims that if nothing changes, up to $6.6 trillion in deposits could leave the US banking system.
Coinbase responded harshly. In a September 16 blog post, the company called the banks’ accusations unfounded and emphasized that there is no data showing that the growth of stablecoins leads to an outflow of deposits from local banks.
“Those who are shouting about systemic risks today are making tens of billions from card fees. And stablecoins could bypass this market altogether,” the Coinbase team noted.
Although the Genius Act signed in July 2025 banned interest-bearing stablecoins, it does not prevent crypto exchanges or related platforms from offering yield through lending.
