Ethena said BlackRock has integrated its synthetic dollar USDe into the Aladdin investment platform, giving financial institutions a way to access the asset through their existing portfolio and risk-management systems. The market reacted quickly. Ethena’s governance token ENA rose as much as 12% to $0.083 shortly after the announcement, before easing to around $0.081, still about 7% higher on the day. At the same time, Bitcoin was trading below $60,000.
USDe now sits inside institutional portfolio workflows
In a June 29 post on X, Ethena said institutions using Aladdin can now access USDe within the same investment and risk-management workflows they already use. The company described the integration as a new route for Aladdin-connected firms to allocate capital to the synthetic dollar while managing positions on the same platform.
StablecoinX founder Ted Chen said the move sharply expands USDe’s reach across institutional investors because insurers, pension funds, and large asset managers already depend on Aladdin. He added that organizations such as Deutsche Bank and Citi use the platform to oversee portfolios. In his words, that represents more than $20 trillion in assets managed through Aladdin.
BlackRock and Ethena are widening an existing relationship
Alongside the USDe integration, Ethena said BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund BUIDL will become the primary reserve asset for its white-label product. The two companies already had ties through USDtb, Ethena’s stablecoin backed mainly by BUIDL, so the latest step expands an existing working relationship rather than creating a new one.
Ethena also said it will provide a liquidity facility for BlackRock’s tokenized products. No financial terms were disclosed, and the company did not give a launch date. It described the setup as another move to connect tokenized assets with institutional infrastructure.
Ethena has been stacking deals around stablecoins and tokenization
The announcement came after several Ethena deals tied to its stablecoin business this month. Earlier, the company chose Centrifuge as its tokenization partner and entered an agreement with global asset manager Janus Henderson. As part of that deal, Janus Henderson committed to invest in ENA, Ethena’s governance token.
Another recent development involved StablecoinX completing its merger with TLGY Acquisition Corp. That transaction allowed the Ethena-focused infrastructure company to begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker USDE. The company said its public warrants started trading under USDEW on June 26, one day after the business combination was completed. The listing gives public-market investors direct exposure to StablecoinX’s Ethena-centered strategy, even as demand for USDe remains below last year’s peak.
ENA outpaced the broader crypto market
On price action, ENA clearly outperformed the wider market on the day of the announcement. Data cited by crypto.news showed the token spiking after the BlackRock update while the broader crypto market remained under pressure. The report said part of the reaction may be tied to Ethena’s fee-switch mechanism: under the protocol’s design, a portion of revenue is used to buy back ENA. If activity around USDe increases, that structure could direct more value toward the governance token over time.