MakerDAO community votes to approve custody of $1.6B USDC with Coinbase

Institutional prime broker platform for crypto assets Coinbase Prime announced on Oct 24th that it had entered into a partnership with MakerDAO — the largest single holder of USDC — to become a custodian of $1.6 billion worth of the stablecoin.

The MakerDAO community voted to approve this custodianship which will allow its community to earn a 1.5% reward on its USDC while holding funds with a leading institutional custodian.

The program described the following yield schedule for the USDC onboarded by @MakerDAO:• 1% APY on the first 100 million USDC.• 0.1% more APY on each 100 million USDC thereafter.• Rewards are not to exceed 1.5% APY.3/

— Maker (@MakerDAO) October 24, 2022

According to Coinbase Prime, this move will not only accrue tangible benefits to the MakerDAO community but also exemplifies the platform’s efforts to grow the stablecoin ecosystem. Coinbase expressed certainty that stablecoins will play a key role in creating an open, more efficient, and more equitable financial system that bridges the gap between the crypto and fiat world.

Jennifer Senhaji, in charge of Growth & Business Development at MakerDAO, said:

“The additional monthly revenue generated through this deal enables Maker to further advance its overarching mission to create a global, trustless financial future built on decentralized rails.”

Related: USDC adoption is lagging outside of the United States: Coinbase

Coinbase has a long history of supporting MakerDAO, as it provided liquidity to the protocol and helped it with its initial listing of DAI.

On Oct 14, Cointelegraph reported that MakerDAO’s revenue had plummeted in the third quarter of 2022, which was caused by a fall in loan demand and few liquidations, while expenses remained high. Twitter account holder Johnny_TVL, a Messari analyst and co-author of “The State of Maker Q3 2022,” shared in a series of tweets that MakerDAO saw its revenue plunge to just over $4 million in Q3, down 86% from the previous quarter.

@MakerDAO third quarter was a painful one for the decentralized lender. Notables: - revs fell 86%, collateral ratio down to 1.1- G-UNI dominating, is this increasing liquidity and on-chain volumes for DAI? - wBTC reliance on whales/institutions- RWAs - Endgame1/n pic.twitter.com/OrJ7JvFSM3

— Johnny_TVL (@john_tv_locke) October 13, 2022