Ethena’s USDe Joins Robinhood Earn As DeFi Lending Moves Into The Main App

Ethena’s USDe has entered the collateral stack behind Robinhood Earn, giving the synthetic dollar issuer another major fintech distribution channel as DeFi lending moves directly into the Robinhood app.

The launch connects four parts of the new product. Robinhood supplies the user-facing Earn experience. Users lend dollar-backed USDG through a self-custody wallet at an estimated 7% APY. Morpho provides the lending infrastructure. Steakhouse Financial curates the vault and selected collateral markets, including Ethena’s USDe.

Ethena said it was selected by Steakhouse as the primary collateral asset issuer for Robinhood’s first crypto Earn product. The announcement expands USDe’s role from crypto-native collateral into a mainstream app used by retail investors who may never interact directly with Morpho vaults, DeFi dashboards or collateral-market settings.

Robinhood had already moved deeper into onchain finance through its latest Wallet, Chain and EU perpetual futures push, which linked Robinhood Wallet, Robinhood Chain, stock tokens, onchain funding and derivatives access into the same product direction.

USDG Lending Runs Through Morpho And Steakhouse

Robinhood Earn is denominated in USDG, not USDe. Eligible users lend USDG through the Robinhood app, while the backend routes that capital into Morpho-based lending markets curated by Steakhouse.

The vault launches with exposure to three collateral markets: spUSDG from Spark, USDe from Ethena and SyrupUSDG from Maple. Borrowers can use those collateral markets to access USDG liquidity, while lenders earn yield from borrower interest rather than a fixed bank-style savings rate.

That structure keeps the user experience simple while the lending mechanics remain onchain. Users see a Robinhood Earn product inside the app, while the risk engine sits across Morpho’s lending markets and Steakhouse’s curation policy. Steakhouse sets the vault framework, monitors collateral exposure and defines market parameters, while Morpho handles the non-custodial lending layer.

Robinhood says the product is rolling out to eligible U.S. users and includes insurance arranged through Lloyd’s of London and RELM for covered losses tied to cyber or smart contract exploits. The estimated APY is variable, and the product is not a bank account or guaranteed deposit.

USDe Gains Another Fintech Distribution Surface

The Robinhood integration gives Ethena another high-profile route into app-based DeFi lending. Coinbase’s Ethena-powered vault recently topped $100 million in deposits, showing that major consumer platforms are willing to place Morpho, Steakhouse and Ethena infrastructure behind simplified yield products.

That pattern is becoming one of the most important changes in DeFi lending. Protocols are no longer relying only on users who visit DeFi front ends, choose markets manually and manage wallet transactions themselves. Fintech apps and wallets are wrapping the same infrastructure into familiar account flows, while curators handle risk selection in the background.

The model also creates a clearer test for USDe. If large apps can use Ethena-linked collateral markets without forcing users into a complex DeFi experience, USDe can become a backend collateral asset for lending products rather than only a token held by traders and DeFi-native users.

Robinhood Earn is now rolling out to eligible U.S. users with USDG as the lending asset, Morpho as the credit network, Steakhouse as vault curator and Ethena’s USDe included in the collateral stack.

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