Anyone using Coinbase’s new High Yield USDC vault? Thoughts on the actual risk?

[Adriatic]

I’ve been testing this with a very small amount before committing anything meaningful. Coinbase recently added a High Yield USDC option that’s currently paying me around 5.45% APY (Coinbase One + boost).
After digging into it, it looks like this isn’t simply earning interest on USDC sitting at Coinbase. It’s a Steakhouse Financial curated vault built on Morpho, and the current allocation is almost entirely backed by USDe collateral, not just plain USDC. High Yield vaults intentionally take on more collateral and liquidity risk than the Prime version in exchange for higher returns.
A few things caught my eye:

• Most of the current allocation is to USDe.
• Coinbase itself says the collateral ratings don’t guarantee the safety of your funds.
• There is smart contract, collateral, and liquidity risk.
• On the other hand, Steakhouse seems to have a solid reputation in the DeFi space, and Coinbase chose them as the curator. The vault has attracted significant deposits, and Steakhouse states that none of its Morpho vaults have experienced bad debt to date.

I’m interested in hearing from people who actually understand DeFi or are using this product.
Specifically:

• Are you using the Prime vault or the High Yield vault?
• How do you evaluate the risk of the heavy USDe exposure?
• Would you treat this as an alternative to a money market fund, or more like a higher-risk yield strategy?
• If you had $100k+ in cash, what percentage (if any) would you feel comfortable putting into this?

For context, I’m currently only testing it with a few hundred dollars. My larger concern is whether this is something worth allocating a meaningful amount to, or whether it’s better viewed as an interesting DeFi experiment rather than a place to park serious capital.
I’d love to hear from anyone who’s done a real risk analysis or has experience with Morpho, Steakhouse, or USDe.

 

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