DeFi Markets Update 2026-05-04

May 04, 2026

Welcome to another DeFi Markets Update—your no-nonsense briefing on the cryptobanking plumbing and market pulse.

EURCV, Société Générale’s euro-backed stablecoin, has been consistently earning around 4% APY in the Prime Instant vault, with deposits now above $45m.

Users with BTC collateral can borrow EURCV at around 1.5–1.9% APY, then deposit it into the Prime Instant vault to earn the higher rate. The spread creates a simple carry trade, with the main risk coming from BTC price moves and liquidation risk.

EURCV supply has grown by over €30m since the start of 2026, a roughly 75% increase from its relatively flat ~€40m level throughout 2025.

Transfer counts have also stepped higher since March, signalling rising usage and demand for euro-denominated liquidity and yield opportunities onchain.

Morpho’s Q1 2026 report shows strong year-on-year growth, with TVL reaching $9.63B, up 75% YoY. Active loans reached $3.64B, up 75.99% YoY, while monthly active users grew to 229.4k, up 664.67% YoY. On a quarterly basis, Q1 was softer than Q4 2025, with TVL down by 3.32% QoQ.
Morpho remains primarily a stablecoin lending venue. Stablecoins accounted for over 84% of vault deposits, with USDC making up 64.7% of total vault deposits. Base also continued gaining share, supported by Coinbase lending products.

Steakhouse Prime USDC, is Morpho’s largest vault by deposits, while cbBTC/USDC is Morpho’s largest individual market, where borrowers deposit cbBTC as collateral to borrow USDC. The report uses both as reference points to show Q1 rate compression across Morpho’s largest USDC lending and borrowing venues. For more context on how Morpho architecture works, read our previous Markets Update.

Steakhouse is explicitly named as Morpho’s largest curator, managing $1.67B in vault deposits in Q1. This is up 25% from Q4 and 319% YoY, from $398.71M one year ago. The growth is especially notable as our deposits increased from Q4 to Q1, while Morpho’s total TVL declined by aforementioned -3.32% QoQ.

Kamino’s RWA deposits have crossed well over $1B in April, led by its three largest markets: Prime, OnRe and Maple, which together account for above $850M.

It is also expanding borrow markets for tokenised equities. USDC can now be used as collateral to borrow xStocks, giving depositors a simple way to access onchain stock exposure while keeping stablecoins deployed.

Beyond standard DeFi lending and borrowing, Kamino is expanding into Institutional Yield through stablecoin vaults that deploy capital into regulated, overcollateralised lending operations. These vaults generate yield from institutional borrowers backed by high-quality collateral, bringing real-world lending flows onchain in a structure that DeFi users can access directly
Steakhouse is an active curator on Kamino, managing stablecoin strategies across vaults. Users can deposit into our Prime or High Yield vaults, with Steakhouse USDC consistently being around 4-5% APY.