Ethena expands USDe backing strategy into bStocks and equity perpetuals on Binance

Ethena is broadening the basis trade that underpins its USDe synthetic dollar, adding tokenized U.S. equities and equity perpetual futures traded on Binance to its backing allocation. The move, confirmed in a statement shared with The Block, follows approval of a framework by the Ethena Risk Committee for including tokenized equity basis trades in the strategy.

Under the structure, Ethena will hold bStocks as tokenized spot collateral and use Binance equity perpetuals as the offsetting hedge. bStocks represent an interest in securities held by their issuer, BTech Holdings Limited, and can be converted into the underlying securities on Binance, subject to applicable laws. Until now, the protocol's delta-neutral approach had been applied only to crypto assets, with derivatives positions used to neutralize price exposure. Binance added USDe across its platform last year, including as collateral for futures and perpetuals trading.

"This is the most significant expansion of USDe's funding mechanism since we started," said Ethena Labs founder Guy Young. "Equities trade in the hundreds of trillions of dollars globally, and as more of that market moves onchain, we see a substantial opportunity to continue diversifying our backing strategy." Ethena said it expects the equity perpetual opportunity to eventually grow well beyond the crypto perpetual market.

Binance equity derivatives scale up

Binance currently carries more than $2.9 billion in open interest across equity perpetual futures, according to data provided by Ethena, a figure growing at a compound monthly rate of 105% this year. The equity basis has averaged 3.56% annualized over the past six months.

"Binance's bStocks and equity perpetuals are seeing increased adoption as their liquidity and use case grows," said Shunyet Jan, Binance's Head of Exchange and Trading. "Ethena runs one of the largest systematic strategies in digital assets, and their expansion into tokenized securities and equity perps is a clear sign of how the convergence of crypto and traditional assets will surface new opportunities."

Binance opened trading in more than 7,000 U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs to eligible users outside the United States in June and rolled out bStocks later that month. Its TradFi perpetual futures generated roughly $433.4 billion in volume in August, with equity-linked contracts accounting for about $342.9 billion. USDe supply stands at approximately $4.9 billion, according to The Block's data dashboard.