Lido, the largest liquid staking protocol on Ethereum, is expanding beyond ether (ETH) with the launch of a new product designed for stablecoin holders.
The project on Thursday introduced a revamped version of its yield product, Lido Earn, which now revolves around two vaults: EarnETH for ether-based assets and EarnUSD for stablecoins. The goal is to make it easier for users to earn returns on crypto without having to choose or manage strategies themselves.
In simple terms, a vault is a pooled investment tool where users deposit crypto and the platform automatically puts those funds to work across different strategies designed to generate yield.
The new EarnUSD vault marks Lido’s first product built specifically for dollar-pegged tokens. It accepts stablecoins USDC and USDT and automatically allocates deposits across a range of decentralized finance (DeFi) opportunities on Ethereum, such as lending markets and other yield-generating strategies. Users receive a token representing their share of the vault, with returns accumulating over time.
The EarnETH vault works similarly but for ether-related assets, including ETH, WETH and Lido’s stETH. Deposits are spread across several DeFi protocols, including Aave, Uniswap and Morpho, with the system shifting funds toward strategies that are performing better.
The stablecoin vault comes as dollar-pegged tokens have become a major part of activity in Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem. Roughly half of DeFi activity on the network now involves stablecoins, according to a press release shared with CoinDesk.
“Stablecoins are a fundamental part of DeFi, and until now we weren’t serving those users,” said Marin Tvrdić of the Lido Ecosystem Foundation, in the press release.
Read more: Lido Launches GG Vault for One-Click Access to DeFi Yields