Ethena integrates tokenized stocks into its USDe yield strategy via Binance

Cash and carry in a suit and tie. Ethena extends the yield engine that powers its synthetic dollar USDe to tokenized US stocks. Binance becomes the first exchange platform to host the operation. The bStocks on the exchange will serve as spot collateral, covered by perpetual stock contracts denominated in USDT.

Guy Young sees this as the most significant transformation of USDe’s financing mechanism since the protocol’s launch. The supply of the synthetic dollar today is around $4.9 billion.

Key Points

Ethena opens its delta neutral strategy to tokenized US stocks, with Binance as the first place of execution

bStocks issued by BTech Holdings form the spot leg, with hedging through stock perpetuals settled in USDT

Open positions on these contracts exceed 2.9 billion at Binance, for an annualized average basis of 3.56% over six months

Synthetics circulate at $4.9 billion, far from their peak in fall 2025

USDe: Ethena’s basis trade opens to tokenized shares

The Ethena protocol caused a stir when it was launched by unveiling USDe, a stablecoin covered by perpetual contracts. However, until now the mechanics remained confined to crypto assets. Ethena buys a spot asset, short sells the corresponding perpetual contract and collects the funding rate paid by long traders, without ever exposing itself to the direction of the price. This is the basis trade, transposed onchain and applied so far to Bitcoin, Ether and Solana.

From now on, Ethena will expand the assets that secure its USDe. Thus, on September 25, the protocol announced its partnership with Binance to ensure its USDe with tokenized shares.

In practice, Ethena will use bStocks, issued by BTech Holdings Limited and which can be converted into underlying securities on Binance, subject to applicable laws.

Concretely, Ethena takes two positions:

on the hedge side, she opens a short position on Binance's USDT stock perpetuals, on the same underlying;

on the spot side, Ethena holds bStocks, tokenized US shares of Binance, backed 1:1 with real shares in custody.

This is an evolution of the partnership between the two entities. Indeed, Binance had already integrated USDe across its entire platform, including as collateral for trading futures and perpetuals.

“This is the most significant expansion of USDe’s financing mechanism since our inception. Stocks trade for hundreds of trillions of dollars globally, and as an increasing share of this market moves onchain, we see a substantial opportunity to continue to diversify our backing strategy. »

Guy Young, founder of Ethena Labs

Binance exceeds $2.9 billion in open interest on perpetual shares

Obviously, the choice of Binance is not trivial. In fact, its market already has the necessary depth. Thus, Binance displays more than $2.9 billion in open interest on its perpetual shares, with compound monthly growth of 105% since the start of the year, according to figures provided by Ethena. Over the last six months, according to data shared by Ethena, its basis trade would have reported an average annualized return of 3.56%.

“Binance bStocks and perpetuals are seeing increasing adoption as their liquidity and use cases expand. Ethena operates one of the largest systematic strategies in digital assets, and their expansion into tokenized securities and perpetuals is a clear sign of how the convergence between crypto and traditional assets will unlock new opportunities. »

Shunyet Jan, Head of Exchange and Trading at Binance

The volumes follow the same slope. The exchange opened trading of more than 7,000 US-listed stocks and ETFs to its eligible users outside the US, before rolling out bStocks a few weeks later. Its traditional finance-backed perpetuals have since crossed $433.4 billion in monthly volume, including $342.9 billion in equity-linked contracts, according to data compiled by The Block.

Ethena plays decorrelation after USDe supply falls

But USDe's performance has always depended on traders' appetite for long leverage, a variable that no one controls. Funding can turn negative. The strategy then costs money instead of making money, and the protocol's reserve fund absorbs the difference.

By the fall of 2025, the supply of USDe peaked at nearly $15 billion. The October 10 crash triggered the contraction: around 40% of the supply disappeared in one month, before it continued to fall to the current $4.9 billion.

During the cascade of liquidations, the token briefly traded around $0.65 on the Binance book, while it held parity elsewhere. Fortunately, the exchange compensated affected users to the tune of approximately $283 million.

The perpetual actions do not go beyond this mechanism. Their funding remains a leverage price, paid by longs to shorts. But it obeys other flows than just the BTC-ETH market, and its correlation with the crypto base has so far been weaker. An annualized return of 3.56% seems modest compared to the peaks of a bull market. Above all, it has the advantage of not dying out at the same time as Bitcoin funding.

ENA gained 13.6% in the hours following the announcement, to $0.24. The $2.9 billion in open interest at Binance gives real market depth. However, they do not measure the pocket that Ethena will be able to occupy: the protocol is limited to a fraction of the open interest, the supply of bStocks and the book. Enough to initiate the diversification of the collateral, not enough to back the entire 4.9 billion USDe.