Ethena Labs has started backing its synthetic dollar, USDe, with tokenized U.S. stocks and named Binance as the first venue where it is extending its basis trade into equities. The company announced the partnership on Friday and said allocations would begin the same day.
Binance bStocks form the spot leg
Under the structure, Binance’s bStocks will be used as the spot leg of the position. The products track U.S. equities and exchange-traded funds, and can be converted into the underlying shares on Binance.com, subject to applicable laws.
Ethena said it will hedge that exposure by shorting Binance’s USDT-denominated equity perpetual futures. The company described the setup as the same delta-neutral framework it has used with bitcoin, ether, and other crypto assets since USDe launched.
Guy Young, founder of Ethena Labs, said in a press release, “This is the most significant expansion of USDe’s funding mechanism since we started. 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.”
How bStocks are issued
According to the release, bStocks are issued by BTech Holdings Limited, a Binance group affiliate. Holders receive an interest in shares held by the issuer, rather than direct ownership of the stock itself.
Why Ethena is moving into equities
USDe has historically derived much of its yield from funding payments made by leveraged long traders to short sellers in perpetual futures markets. Ethena said that source of income has become thinner in crypto.
In an August blog post, the company said bitcoin funding rates, weighted by open interest, averaged 11.0% annualized in 2024 before falling to 4.9% in 2025 and 2.2% this year through Aug. 11. The same post said Binance equity perpetuals averaged 17.5% from May 20 to Aug. 11. Ethena added that this carry has narrowed since then.
Kairos Research, which reviewed the trade for Ethena’s Risk Committee, said the Binance names that passed its approval test averaged roughly 18% annualized in late July and about 7% as of Aug. 26, with two of them negative.
The release also said open interest in Binance equity perpetuals exceeds $2.9 billion and has compounded at 105% a month in 2026.
Ethena said Binance also gives eligible delta-neutral accounts, including its own, lower priority for auto-deleveraging, the process an exchange uses to close profitable positions when a liquidation leaves a shortfall.
Shunyet Jan, Binance’s head of exchange and trading, said the move is a clear sign of how the convergence of crypto and traditional assets will create new opportunities.
Risk Committee framework
The expansion follows an approval framework adopted by Ethena’s Risk Committee for tokenized equity basis trades.
In an August report prepared for the committee, Kairos Research proposed that a stock should qualify on a venue only if its perpetual contract has averaged at least $25 million in one-sided open interest over 14 days, carries 30 days of funding history, and has a matching tokenized stock on the same venue. Leveraged and inverse ETFs would be excluded.
Kairos also recommended that bStocks be approved only after a side letter currently being negotiated with the issuer is in place. Until that letter restricts what the issuer can do with the backing shares, the report said, the spot leg amounts to unsecured credit exposure to a Binance affiliate rather than a claim on the stock.
USDe circulation and reserve changes
USDe has about $4.9 billion in circulation, according to DefiLlama. Ethena overhauled USDe’s reserves in April by adding institutional lending and real-world assets. On Friday, the company said it expects to bring the equity structure to more venues.