Best Stablecoin Yields on Solana (Oct 2026): Rates & Risks

Stablecoin yield rates on Solana today (10 October 2026)

On 10 October the plain USDC lending pools below paid 2.97-6.91%, curated Kamino vaults up to 8.73%, RWA tokens up to 11.02% and Kamino’s featured loops 15.60-23.61%. RWA (real-world asset) tokens earn from off-chain loans, Treasuries or reinsurance. APY is the yearly return with compounding included. Where part of it is paid in reward tokens, the table says so.

Check the live rate in the app before you deposit, or compare pools yourself on DefiLlama’s Solana stablecoin list.

What changed in 2026 (if you followed this page before)

• Drift, now Velocity DEX, was exploited on 1 April. About $295M was drained after attackers tricked multisig signers into pre-signing transactions and took admin control. It relaunched as a perps-only venue settled in USDT, so the USDC lending this page listed is gone.
• Lost money there? Claim DFX. It’s one DFX per USDT of verified loss, claimable until 1 January 2028 (unclaimed DFX is burned). At launch each DFX redeemed for about 0.0104 USDT, roughly 1%, and redeeming burns it and gives up later payouts. Tether has pledged up to $127.5M towards the relaunch and user recovery, but none of it was in the recovery pool when claims opened. I wouldn’t redeem at 1% while that’s outstanding, though that’s a bet on the money arriving. Use the official DFX claim page and ignore any other “claim” site.
• Carrot announced its shutdown on 30 April. It wasn’t hacked. Its deposits sat in the exploited protocol. Users had until 14 May to close positions, then leftover leverage was cut to 1x. CRT still converts back to USDC, USDT or PYUSD on Carrot’s redeem page (about 57.60 USDC per CRT on 11 October), and redeeming doesn’t touch your share of any recovery, which is set by the 1 April snapshot. Carrot says it will pass on whatever IOU token its claim receives, split by that snapshot. Its claim would come out of DFX, so watch Carrot’s official channels for how holders get paid.
• Hylo sHYUSD became eHYUSD on 13 July. Holders moved over automatically with the same balance. It’s delta-neutral now, hedged so SOL price moves mostly cancel out, and Hylo’s Earn page shows your balance and the live rate. Our Hylo guide explains hyUSD and xSOL, though its yield figures predate eHYUSD.
• Solstice (USX, eUSX) is professional and institutional only, with the UK and US on its restricted list. If you still hold eUSX, sell it on a DEX, which is instant, or unstake to USX (seven days, or pay for Instant Unlock) and sell that. Our Solstice guide covers the restrictions.
• marginfi is now Project 0 (what the switch means).
• Lulo, Perena, Solayer sUSD and Exponent are out of this month’s table. Check their own apps for live rates.

Best USDC yield on Solana: Jupiter Lend or Kamino?

For plain USDC, Jupiter Lend pays more today: 5.12% on a $497M vault (about 0.4 points of it rewards), against 4.28% in Kamino’s Steakhouse USDC vault. Kamino is the bigger lender overall, and it suits you if you want a curator choosing the markets. Our Jupiter Lend vs Kamino comparison, linked in the intro, has the full side-by-side (its rates are from 9 October).

The catch on Jupiter is the dynamic withdrawal limit: only so much can leave the pool at once, and the limit grows over time. It protects everyone against a run, but a very large exit may have to wait. For money I might need back quickly I’d still rather sit in a $497M pool than chase an extra point in a small one. Jupiter Lend isn’t open to US residents (where else Jupiter is restricted).

Loopscale pays 6.91% on $25.6M (Loopscale’s Orca merger and points are the other draw) and Project 0 pays 6.18% on $8.5M. Pools that small can swing on a few big borrowers or withdrawals. Save, the old Solend, pays 2.97%. Its USDC pool holds $23.0M and the whole protocol about $89M, against the $300M this page used to quote. USDT pays less everywhere: 4.18% on Jupiter Lend is the best plain USDT rate in the table.

Rates follow utilisation, the share of a pool that’s borrowed: more borrowing pays lenders more, and when borrowers leave the rate drops (how lending pools work). That’s why 24-39% USDC screenshots from 2024 don’t apply now. They came from a short borrowing frenzy.

Kamino USDC vaults: APY, curators and risk labels

Kamino’s USDC vaults paid 4.28% to 8.73% on 10 October, and the Conservative ones like Steakhouse USDC are where I’d point most people. A curator is a risk firm (Steakhouse, Gauntlet, Sentora, RockawayX, Elemental) that picks which Kamino markets a vault lends into and how much. Conservative vaults stick to the safest markets and pay 4.28-4.53% on USDC today. Balanced and Aggressive vaults lend into riskier markets for more. Right now a Balanced vault (Plume x Re7, 8.73%) pays the most, so the label doesn’t tell you much on its own. Open the allocation and see where it actually lends.

Turn off “Include KMNO Rewards in APY” to see how much of a rate is paid in Kamino’s own token (what KMNO is).

The higher-paying vaults lend into markets where borrowers post RWA tokens as collateral and loop them, which is why they pay more (Kamino’s OnRe market pays USDC lenders 6.72%). If that collateral depegs, trading below its value, and liquidations can’t clear, the vault’s lenders take the hit.

Where RWA and yield-bearing stablecoins get their yield

These tokens earn from reinsurance, US home and car loans or Treasuries, so their rates (3.65% to 11.02% before leverage) move less than lending rates. A rushed DEX sale can pay you less than the token is worth.

• ONyc (OnRe): 11.02% on $286.6M, from reinsurance premiums plus what its collateral earns. Reinsurance carries underwriting risk, so a bad claims year can cut returns or cause losses. You can sell on a DEX any time, but redeeming with OnRe joins a queue, costs 0.25%, and needs a KYC’d wallet that also passes Bermuda’s “Qualified Acquirer” test (roughly $200K income or $1M net worth for individuals). OnRe excludes the UK and US, so it’s off limits for me. If you’re eligible, the ONyc and points guide goes deeper.
• PRIME (Hastra): 6.14% from US home equity loans. Buy wYLDS with USDC on Hastra or Raydium and stake it for PRIME. Unstaking has no lock-up, then you swap wYLDS back to USDC on Raydium or Kamino.
• AUTO (Hastra): 9.92% on $78.1M, from US car loan payments. No lock-up and no mint or redeem fee beyond gas, but each address runs one redemption at a time, and Hastra takes a 50 bps (0.5 percentage-point) platform fee out of the yield. Hastra doesn’t publish a list of restricted countries, so check you’re eligible before you mint PRIME or AUTO.
• USDY (Ondo): 3.65% on $179.8M. US persons can’t acquire or redeem it, DEX buys included, and UK residents must qualify as professional or qualified investors. It pays less than plain USDC on Jupiter anyway.
• eHYUSD (Hylo): earns on-chain instead. Staking rewards and borrow interest from Hylo’s collateral pools compound into it, so it grows against hyUSD.

How to start earning on Jupiter Lend or Kamino

Get USDC into a Solana wallet

Any wallet that connects to Jupiter and Kamino works. Solflare is my pick right now; Phantom has fallen off and feels slower (my wallet picks by use case). New to Solana? Start with the basics.

From an exchange, withdraw USDC on the Solana network, not Ethereum or Base (the Coinbase withdrawal, step by step). Already on Base? Compare the Base routes. On another chain, bridge it across first, and for USDT on Tron or BNB Chain see moving USDT to Solana.

Keep about 0.01 SOL for fees

Deposits and withdrawals each cost a small network fee, and without SOL the transaction fails. If you only hold USDC, buy a little SOL first.

Deposit USDC on Jupiter Lend

Open Jupiter Lend’s Earn page, click the USDC row, enter an amount and approve in your wallet. Before a large deposit, read the page’s FAQ on dynamic withdrawal limits so you know how fast a big exit can leave.

Or pick a Kamino Earn vault

On Kamino Earn, switch off Include KMNO Rewards in APY so the APY shows without token rewards. Check the vault’s label and allocation, click Deposit and approve in your wallet.

Test a withdrawal, then check monthly

Put in a small amount first and take part of it back out. Your balance grows in place and you withdraw from the same page. Re-check the rate monthly. Moving USDC between Jupiter and Kamino only costs network fees, but a big exit has to clear the withdrawal limit, and switching to another stablecoin adds a swap. In the UK, lending returns are taxable, so keep records (tax software that handles Solana DeFi).

Kamino Multiply loops for 16-24%, and how they break

A loop (Kamino calls it Multiply) deposits a yield token, borrows against it, buys more and deposits again, multiplying both the yield and the liquidation risk. On 11 October the three featured loops showed AUTO/wYLDS up to 23.61% at its 4.5x maximum with $935K of capacity left, ONyc/USDC up to 17.52% at 2.9x (16.87% on the fixed-rate version), and PRIME up to 15.60% at 8.3x. Both ONyc/USDC loops had no borrow liquidity left. Smaller loops show more, up to 38.49% on apyUSD, which had about $694K to borrow.

At 4.5x you earn AUTO’s roughly 9.9% on 4.5 units and pay the current term’s fixed 6% on the 3.5 you borrowed: 44.6% minus 21% is about 23.6%. The fixed rate lasts 30 days, then rolls into a new term if there’s liquidity. If not, the loan moves to Kamino’s variable rate, and if that fails too, Kamino gradually repays it from your collateral.

It breaks two ways. At 4.5x your debt is already about 78% of your collateral, so a small dip in the token’s oracle price can liquidate you. Or the borrow rate climbs past what the token earns and the loop bleeds. ONyc loops carry OnRe’s UK and US exclusion. The numbers look great right up until the borrow rate moves, so I wouldn’t touch a loop until I’d happily hold the token on its own.

PYUSD yield vs USDC: is switching worth it?

Rarely. Kamino’s Sentora PYUSD vault shows 8.02% on $112.1M against 5.12% for USDC on Jupiter Lend. Take the rewards out of both (about 2.3 points on Sentora, 0.4 on Jupiter) and it’s roughly 5.7% against 4.7%. A point isn’t worth swapping in and back out when the gap could close next month.

Part of Sentora’s recent boost came from a 30-day Binance Wallet campaign that started on 3 September and has ended, and the rewards still showing can be cut any time. If you already hold PYUSD, there’s no swap to pay and Sentora is the best PYUSD rate here.

How to judge a stablecoin yield claim

Ask three questions of any rate, including the ones on this page:

1. Where does it come from? Borrowers, RWA cash flows or incentives. If a “15% APR on USDC” pitch doesn’t say who pays, assume token rewards or leverage. It’s the same thing I check before opening a Meteora LP position: fees only come if there’s volume to pay them, and if an APY doesn’t match the activity behind it, something else is paying (how LP pools earn).
2. What’s it paid in? The stablecoin you deposited, or a reward token whose price can fall.
3. How do you get out, and how fast? Instantly, within a withdrawal limit, by redemption request, by selling on a DEX or by unwinding a loop.

The April exploit came through hijacked admin control, and Carrot went down with it just because its deposits sat inside. So open a vault’s allocation and see where your money actually ends up. Rules can shift too: the US CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate in September, with stablecoin yield one of the sticking points. And lock down the wallet that holds the deposit (Solana wallet security practices).

FAQ

What’s the safest stablecoin yield on Solana?

Plain USDC lending on Jupiter Lend or a Conservative Kamino vault such as Steakhouse USDC. It still isn’t risk-free: an exploit, a depeg in the collateral borrowers post or a slow exit from a busy pool can all cost you, so start small.

Can you stake USDC on Solana?

Not the way you stake SOL. “Staking” USDC really means lending it, on Jupiter Lend (5.12%) or in a Kamino vault (4.28% and up), where borrowers pay the interest.

Do I need KYC to earn stablecoin yield on Solana?

Not for Jupiter Lend or Kamino Earn: you connect a wallet and deposit. Redeeming ONyc directly with OnRe needs KYC and a wealth test. Where you live matters more: Jupiter Lend isn’t open to US residents, OnRe and Solstice exclude the UK and US, and USDY is closed to US persons.