Coinbase has announced the launch of its second Stablecoin Bootstrap Fund, an initiative to inject capital into decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to boost USDC liquidity. The fund will support projects across various blockchains, with initial recipients including major platforms like Aave, Morpho, Kamino, and Jupiter. Other projects will also have the opportunity to apply for funding.
This new fund builds on the success of Coinbase’s original 2019 Bootstrap Fund, which helped establish USDC markets on now-prominent DeFi platforms like Uniswap. Since then, USDC has become a key player in the crypto economy, processing trillions of dollars in annual transactions.
Coinbase says the timing is perfect to expand on-chain financial services, citing a record $40.7 billion in active decentralized loans as evidence of strong demand. By increasing the supply of USDC in lending protocols, the company aims to lower borrowing costs, which in turn could make the stablecoin more attractive for leveraged trading and on-chain strategies. The ultimate goal is to deepen stablecoin accessibility and encourage more capital to flow into the DeFi ecosystem.
The fund is designed to be scalable and will not be limited to the initial group of projects, with Coinbase planning to support more protocols and potentially other stablecoins as the market matures.
August 2025, Cryptoniteuae