Marinade Finance Launches $USDC Lending Vault in Collaboration with RockawayX, Kamino

For years, Marinade Finance has been one of Solana’s most reliable staking operators, enabling $SOL holders to earn optimized yield on their stake.

Today, Marinade Finance expands its offering to include $USDC rewards. Joining forces with RockawayX and Kamino, Marinade is launching its proprietary stablecoin savings product, enabling users to earn up to 6% APY on $USDC deposits.

The launch echoes a wider trend playing out across the DeFi economy, wherein crypto natives are storing their wealth onchain regardless of market dynamics. 

Marinade’s $USDC Vault to Target 4-6% APY

The Marinade USDC Vault is a stablecoin savings product that lets users earn yield on $USDC without leaving the Marinade ecosystem. The vault targets a variable 4-6% APY on deposited $USDC, with yield subject to prevailing market conditions.

Moving out of staked $SOL into cash can be a cumbersome affair. Offramping to fiat costs the average user around 2% in compounded fees, and can sometimes take several days. 

Seeing that around 75% of its unstakers are seeking to exit to USD, Marinade Finance has designed a stablecoin vault that seeks to capture this value flow. In one click, users can shift capital directly from staked $SOL into a yield-bearing $USDC vault, with fiat off-ramping expected in future updates.

Upon deposit to the Marinade vault, users receive an SPL share token representing their position, which remains transferable and redeemable at any time.

"Instead of losing users through a painful off-ramp process, we're giving them a reason to stay. With Kamino powering the infrastructure and RockawayX managing the strategy, users get solid yield with the simplicity Marinade is known for." - Michael Repetny, Marinade Finance CEO

In times of market uncertainty, Marinade’s stablecoin vault becomes a powerful tool for DeFi users who want to limit their exposure to volatile assets, while continuing to earn yield onchain.

RockawayX to Manage Vault Strategy

Marinade’s $USDC vault is built on a three-layer stack, collaborating with some of the names in Solana DeFi. 

RockawayX, an investment firm with deep ties to the Solana ecosystem, will manage the vault’s yield strategy. Overseeing the vault’s day-to-day operation, RockawayX will allocate and actively rebalance capital to ensure consistent yield. 

At press time, RockawayX has communicated its intention to run a conservative mixed-market strategy, allocating funds across Kamino’s lending markets, Maple’s institutional credit markets, and various similar RWA products.

While RockawayX handles strategy, Marinade owns and controls the vault outright, with its Council multisig (3 of 5) holding ultimate authority. Marinade can add or remove modules, replace the vault manager, adjust configuration, or initiate a wind-down at any time, and RockawayX is unable to withdraw funds to external wallets.

“Our job is to underwrite every allocation properly and rebalance when conditions move. We've run market-neutral strategies through every major stress event since 2022 with zero defaults. That's the standard we're applying here.” - Nassim Alexandre, RockawayX Head of Onchain Asset Management and Curation

Kamino Finance provides the underlying infrastructure through the Kamino Buildkit, and is built upon Kamino’s Lend product, including smart contracts, lending markets, NAV accounting, and the share token mechanics. Solana’s biggest DeFi lender, Kamino has successfully completed 18 independent audits and suffered zero bad debt since the platform launched in 2022.

Solana Stablecoin Supply At All-Time Highs

The launch of Marinade Finance’s stablecoin vault coincides with the emergence of a new trend in onchain markets. Previously, the end of a crypto bull cycle would typically result in an exodus of capital, with market participants moving their funds offchain to store their wealth in fiat.

That appears to be changing in 2026. While asset prices continue to slide amidst languishing market conditions, traders and investors are choosing to keep their funds onchain, taking advantage of a wealth of yield bearing opportunities in the stablecoin economy.

In the collapse of the 2021 bull market, Solana’s stablecoin supply remained largely unchanged as $SOL plummeted from $250 to around $30, before capitulating entirely towards the end of the year. This time around, Solana’s stablecoin supply has expanded in the face of declining asset value, suggesting market participants prefer to store their wealth across Solana DeFi.

Marinade’s $USDC vault seeks to capture this value flow, enabling its users to continue to earn reliable yield on their assets, without needing to leave the Marinade ecosystem.