Morpho sees record Bitcoin-backed borrowing on Base markets

Bitcoin holders on Base are now borrowing about $1.6 billion in USDC against their coins through Morpho. That sum marks a record for the decentralized lending protocol on Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2 network. The twist is who’s doing the borrowing. Much of the activity comes from Coinbase customers who may not realize they’re using DeFi at all. The numbers behind the borrowing boom As of mid-October 2026, outstanding USDC loans backed by cbBTC on Morpho’s primary market reached approximately $1.6 billion. cbBTC is a wrapped version of Bitcoin, a token that represents the underlying coin so it can work inside onchain apps. Bitcoin-backed borrowing on Morpho’s Base markets is up 55% year-to-date. The flagship cbBTC/USDC market on Base is the biggest single slice of the pie. As of October 19, 2026, it held $3.26 billion in posted collateral against $1.59 billion borrowed. Utilization in that market sat at 90.2% on the same date. Meanwhile, borrowing has gotten cheaper. Rates fell from about 7.5% last year to near 5%, even as loan volumes climbed. How Coinbase turned DeFi into a back-end service The engine behind this growth is Coinbase. The exchange launched variable-rate USDC loans po...