Compound Foundation has opened a USDC lending market that takes ETH, wstETH, WBTC and cbBTC at loan-to-value ratios of up to 87%, three weeks after relaunching the protocol around institutional credit.
The Institutional Market is the first product out of the $52 million program COMP holders approved in May, and it went live under multisig control that Compound governance cannot revoke. A delegate has asked COMP holders to change that. The Compound Governance Working Group says the arrangement sits within the program the DAO already approved and that moving control to governance is the intended outcome once the market's research phase ends.
The market lends USDC against ETH, wstETH, WBTC and cbBTC, and runs on Compound v3. Compound holds $1.53 billion in total value locked with $638 million borrowed against it, sixth among lending protocols on DefiLlama and up 23% over 30 days. Ethereum carries $1.42 billion of that, or 93%. COMP trades at $20.88, up 9% over seven days, for a market cap of $212 million.
"With today's Institutional Market launch, we are taking the first step toward building infrastructure to meet institutional client demands, including better capital efficiency, clearly defined risk, and a much higher standard of service," said Aaron Schnarch, executive director of Compound Foundation. "We are encouraged by the market demand, and look forward to launching additional capabilities over the coming months."
