Starting today, Morpho users can borrow against cbBTC as collateral. Day one support for cbBTC (Coinbase Wrapped BTC) is possible because of Morpho’s permissionless architecture that allows anyone to safely deploy isolated markets for new assets.

cbBTC is an ERC20 token that is backed 1:1 by Bitcoin (BTC) held by Coinbase. At launch, cbBTC will be supported on Base and Ethereum, with plans to support more chains. With cbBTC, Coinbase intends to increase economic freedom by giving users more ways to use their Bitcoin.

With the integration of cbBTC into Morpho, users can now borrow against their cbBTC, unlocking additional utility across the DeFi ecosystem.

Permissionless Market Creation

Day one support for cbBTC is possible because Morpho’s permissionless nature allows anyone to create markets with any asset, without a cumbersome, centralized listing process. This enables risk experts like Steakhouse Financial, Block Analitica, and Gauntlet to quickly deploy markets for new assets like cbBTC. For asset issuers, such as Coinbase in the case of cbBTC, this means that newly-launched assets can quickly be accepted as collateral, unlocking additional utility from day one.

How Isolated Markets Reduce Risk

Another key feature of Morpho is its isolated lending markets. These markets serve as simple yet flexible building blocks that enable the lending or borrowing of one asset against one collateral asset—such as lending or borrowing USDC against cbBTC. Isolated markets reduce risk by confining potential losses to a single market, ensuring that users of other markets remain unaffected. If losses occur, they are immediately shared among all suppliers within that specific market and continue operating as normal. This design allows the safe creation of lending markets for any asset, without requiring any risk to be shared amongst all users automatically.

Benefits of Using cbBTC on Morpho

• Higher Collateralization: Morpho’s isolated markets mean liquidation parameters can be set higher, maximizing the borrowing power of cbBTC collateral.

• Per-Market Rates: Morpho’s market-specific rates ensure optimal terms for users borrowing against cbBTC.

• Low Costs: Morpho’s higher utilization and lack of protocol fees translates to more cost-efficient borrowing.

Looking Ahead

Morpho’s ability to support cbBTC at launch illustrates the advantages of its design. Unlike lending platforms with restricted asset listings, Morpho can accommodate new assets and use cases as they arise. This flexible, open architecture makes it well-suited to serve as the foundation for DeFi and continues to build upon Morpho’s mission of making financial infrastructure a public good.