Ethena expands USDe into $6.2B equity perps as crypto yields fade

Ethena, issuer of the $4 billion USDe synthetic dollar, plans to expand its basis-trading strategy into equity perpetual futures, where funding rates have averaged roughly 14 percent on Hyperliquid and 17.5 percent on Binance in recent months, several times bitcoin's low single digits.

"One other interesting characteristic which makes this more attractive versus crypto is the natural positive skew of funding distribution," co-founder Guy Young said in an X post.

Equity perp open interest has ballooned to $6.2 billion from less than $1 billion in March. Funding was positive on 94 percent of days on Hyperliquid and 97 percent on Binance once those markets reached meaningful scale, with a median rate of 13.9 percent versus 3.9 percent for bitcoin, Ethena said.

The move gives USDe a return stream less tied to crypto cycles after supply fell below $5 billion from a peak near $15 billion. Ethena expects real-world asset perpetuals to overtake crypto derivatives in USDe backing within 12 to 24 months.

Same trade, different market

The strategy is the same basis trade Ethena has run since USDe's launch with bitcoin, ether and solana: hold exposure to an asset, short its perpetual contract and collect the funding paid by leveraged long traders. That trade turned less lucrative in crypto this year as prices cooled. Bitcoin funding averaged 11 percent in 2024 and 4.9 percent in 2025 before falling to 2.2 percent this year through Aug. 11, Ethena noted.

Equity perps have gone the other way. Stocks have tended to rise over long periods, Young said, creating persistent demand to pay for leveraged long exposure, while crypto funding can compress or turn negative during bear markets. Equity funding also showed almost no correlation with bitcoin funding, potentially giving USDe a return stream less reliant on the crypto market.

The opportunity is larger than crypto. Global equities were valued at about $166.5 trillion in July, compared with roughly $2.2 trillion for crypto, though equity perpetuals remain a fraction of the size of their crypto counterparts today.

Token overhaul and buybacks

The expansion follows Thursday's ENA token overhaul, in which the Ethena Foundation eliminated monthly VC unlocks and put a vote on directing protocol revenue toward token buybacks. The fee switch ties buybacks to USDe supply: 5 percent of gross protocol revenue routes to the Foundation once USDe passes $7.5 billion, scaling to 20 percent at $20 billion, with 95 percent of collected funds going to ENA purchases.

The Foundation also spent the past two weeks buying out early investors who sold into the market after the October 2025 peak, ending the monthly unlock calendar. ENA traded near $0.155, up 11 percent in 24 hours, with a market cap near $1.52 billion, after a near-100 percent monthly rally.

The buyback switch stays off until USDe nearly doubles from its current level near $4.6 billion, and StablecoinX, an ENA treasury company, still holds about 20 percent of supply under a separate lockup. Ethena also announced a $1 billion FalconX facility that can put USDe backing into overcollateralized institutional loans.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.