Summary
Aave V4 went live on Ethereum mainnet this week, capping what has been one of the more consequential weeks for onchain lending infrastructure in recent memory. The architectural overhaul introduces a Hub and Spoke model that centralizes liquidity while enabling specialized lending markets to operate with their own risk parameters. Circle crossed the billion-transaction mark for USDC in a single month. Sky announced exchanges will begin auto-upgrading DAI to USDS on April 9th. Maple crossed $4B in assets under management. Lido's EarnETH MetaVault hit $200M.
The theme this week: the lending stack is maturing. Protocols are shipping infrastructure designed for scale, not just for the current cycle. Yield.xyz tracks 2,900+ yield opportunities across 80+ networks so allocators can find the right entry point regardless of where the market is building.
Stablecoin Developments
Circle (USDC): USDC processed over one billion unique transactions in March, the first time any stablecoin has crossed that threshold in a single month. Circle also announced cirBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin product backed 1:1 by BTC and verifiable onchain, designed to integrate with Circle infrastructure and the broader DeFi ecosystem.
Tether (USDT): USDT holds the number one position of any stablecoin by market cap at $184B. Current yield options include Aave at approximately 2%, Spark at 3%, the Sky Morpho USDT Vault at 4% APY, and Gauntlet Frontier Vaults on Morpho at 3.6% APY.
Sky Ecosystem (USDS): Sky announced that Binance, Bitget, Gate, and other exchanges will automatically upgrade DAI to USDS on April 9th. sUSDS remains the largest yield-generating stablecoin by supply at over $6.9B, currently offering 3.75% APY through the Sky Savings Rate.
Ethena (USDe): Following the Aave V4 launch, Ethena announced a dedicated ecosystem environment within V4 featuring two Spokes, the most of any individual ecosystem at launch. sUSDe, USDe, PT-sUSDe, and PT-USDe are all supported as collateral. sUSDe currently yields 3.5% APY with over $3.5B in TVL.
Maple Finance (syrupUSDC / syrupUSDT): Maple crossed $4B in assets under management this week. Both syrupUSDC and syrupUSDT now hold over $1B in TVL, with syrupUSDT offering 4% APY and syrupUSDC at 4.4% APY.
Protocol Developments
Aave: Aave V4 launched on Ethereum mainnet with a Hub and Spoke architecture. A liquidity hub holds assets centrally, and Spokes connect to it with their own collateral types, risk parameters, and liquidation rules. Three Hubs are live at launch: Core, Prime, and Plus. When a user provides liquidity through a Spoke, their capital flows into the Hub and becomes available to all connected Spokes. For builders, this means launching a specialized lending market with access to Aave's existing liquidity from day one.
Morpho: OpenCover launched Covered Vaults this week, bringing insurance to depositors on select Morpho Vaults. Separately, Sentora added new risk indicators for Morpho Vaults covering net loan and liquidity flows, borrow rates, supply rates, available liquidity, liquidation history, whale supply concentration, and reallocation flows.
Lido: 100,000 ETH worth over $200M is now earning through Lido's EarnETH MetaVault. Rather than a single strategy, the MetaVault aggregates multiple DeFi strategies, each managed by a specialist allocator.
Fluid: Fluid is currently the second largest DEX on Ethereum by volume and a top three lending protocol. The Fluid Lite Vault offers over 4% APY on ETH, while Fluid Lending offers a variable 4% APY on USDC deposits.
Euler: Concrete and Euler announced a partnership to build institutional-grade lending markets, with Concrete serving as a curator within Euler's vault framework and bringing institutional risk standards to isolated lending markets on modular infrastructure.
Upshift: upUSDC and coreUSDC deposits and redemptions have been unpaused. A dynamic withdrawal fee of 6% applies to upUSDC and 2% to coreUSDC, reflecting the maximum possible loss from prior exposure. Depositors can withdraw now and absorb the loss, or remain in the vaults through August when a compensation plan is set to be implemented.
Build With Yield.xyz
The infrastructure shipping this week reflects a market moving toward composability and capital efficiency. Aave V4's Hub and Spoke model, Lido's aggregated MetaVault, Euler's curator framework: the pattern is the same. Specialized markets are consolidating around shared liquidity rather than competing for isolated deposits.
For allocators, that means more surface area to navigate. Yield.xyz aggregates 2,900+ opportunities across 80+ networks so you can track where capital is moving, compare live rates across lending markets, and act on the best opportunities without the manual research overhead. Whether you're allocating into Aave, syrup vaults, Morpho, or other strategies, Yield.xyz has you covered.