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 dividend 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.
Simply put, a box is a unified investment tool where users deposit crypto and the platform automatically puts these funds to work across various strategies designed to generate returns.
The new EarnUSD box marks Lido’s first product built specifically for dollar-pegged tokens. It accepts stablecoins USDC and USDT and automatically allocates deposits across a variety of decentralized finance (DeFi) options on Ethereum, such as lending markets and other return-generating strategies. Users receive a token representing their share of the box, with returns accumulating over time.
The EarnETH box works in the same way, 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 moving funds towards strategies that perform better.
The stablecoin vault comes as dollar-pegged tokens have become an important part of activity in Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem. About half of the 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 have not served these 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
