Coinbase and Squads Push for More USDC Use on Solana
Coinbase is working with Squads, a DeFi layer built on Solana, to get more people and projects using USDC—the dollar-pegged stablecoin—on the blockchain. The partnership, announced August 13, comes as both companies try to make stablecoins a bigger part of decentralized finance.
Squads has already locked up over $1 million in USDC across its products, and Coinbase recently brought back its Stablecoin Bootstrap Fund, which is meant to pump liquidity into DeFi. The fund focuses on protocols like Aave, Jupiter, and Kamino, but this new deal with Squads could push things further.
Why This Matters for Solana
Right now, about 15% of all USDC on Solana—roughly $1 billion—is tied up in Squads’ ecosystem. That’s not nothing. The plan is to weave USDC deeper into Squads’ infrastructure, APIs, and apps, making it easier for developers and users to rely on the stablecoin.
Shan Aggarwal, Coinbase’s chief business officer, called USDC the “leading stablecoin in DeFi” and said the partnership would help show its “utility in the broader onchain economy.” Whether that’s just corporate speak or a real shift remains to be seen, but Squads has been growing fast.
Squads’ Stablecoin Momentum
Since launching its self-custody tools in 2021, Squads has handled over $10 billion in assets and moved $5 billion in stablecoins. A big chunk of that growth came from USDC, especially in the past year and a half. Some of it’s probably due to institutions eyeing stablecoins more closely as regulations tighten.
Their current USDC-powered products include Altitude (a savings-like business account), Fuse (a personal finance app), and Grid (an API for stablecoin transactions). If Coinbase’s involvement brings more attention—or more money—into these tools, it could give Solana’s DeFi scene a noticeable boost.
But Solana isn’t the only chain where USDC is gaining ground. Competitors like Ethereum and Arbitrum are still ahead in total stablecoin activity. Still, partnerships like this one might help close the gap. Or at least that’s the hope.
