Coinbase adds fixed-rate bitcoin-backed loans through Morpho Midnight

Coinbase has added fixed-rate bitcoin-backed loans through Morpho Midnight, allowing users to borrow USDC with the interest rate and repayment date set when they take out the loan. The product complements Coinbase's variable-rate loans, which use Morpho Blue. Coinbase said those loans have more than $1.4 billion outstanding and are backed by roughly $3 billion in collateral. Coinbase users can now choose between fixed-rate and variable-rate onchain loans. Morpho launched Midnight on Base in July to provide fixed rates and defined loan terms for onchain lending, where borrowing rates have generally been variable. A Morpho spokesperson said Coinbase is the first major consumer platform to offer Midnight loans at scale. The spokesperson said market makers also use the protocol and that Tenor Labs launched a lending platform using Midnight in July. Midnight had around $30 million in deposits as it rolled out, according to the spokesperson. The spokesperson said Morpho Blue had $5.2 billion in outstanding loans and $16 billion in deposits across all integrations. Those figures cover the wider Morpho network, not only Coinbase. A Coinbase spokesperson declined to disclose the interest rates offered through Midnight. The spokesperson said rates are set by supply and demand as lenders and borrowers place offers on an onchain order book. Coinbase currently offers loans due at the end of the current month or the end of the following month. The spokesperson said "End of Month" means the last Friday of the month. Borrowers must repay before the maturity date. If a loan goes unpaid, the lender has a claim on the borrower's posted collateral, the spokesperson added. Jacob Frantz, Coinbase's yield and investments product lead, said in a statement that Coinbase Borrow gives customers access to liquidity without selling their assets and that fixed-rate borrowing gives them more choice in managing that credit. Coinbase manages the app experience, Morpho provides the lending protocol and transactions settle on Base. The Morpho spokesperson said Midnight could also be used for structured credit products and loans backed by tokenized real-world assets. The spokesperson said more integrations are expected but declined to name the firms or provide a timeline.