Ethena officially kicked off its $USDe yield reserve expansion to RWA (real-world asset) basis trading on Friday on the Binance exchange.
In a statement, the protocol said the move into equity or RWA perps was the –
Most exciting update to the $USDe collateral backing since launch.
The team first announced final plans for the RWA perps expansion last month, noting that it offers a massive scaling opportunity of +$150T compared to crypto’s $2.5T.
As part of the arrangement, Ethena will use Binance’s bStocks (Spot tokenized stocks and ETFs) and the $USDT-denominated perps versions for both sides of the trade.
For the unfamiliar, a basis trade involves buying a spot asset and shorting its equivalent perpetual Futures contract to pocket the price difference and funding rate.
According to Ethena, the Binance equity basis trade has averaged 11% in the past six months, nearly 2x the returns offered on short-term U.S. Treasury bonds.
Additionally, Binance was chosen as the first platform for RWA-basis trade expansion because of low-risk and strong equity perps (30% monthly growth).
Importantly, Binance provides lower ADL priority for eligible delta-neutral accounts, including Ethena’s, adding another layer of risk mitigation for $USDe holders.
Will $USDe yield expansion boost $ENA?
$USDe is Ethena’s main flagship synthetic stablecoin product that allows holders to earn yield. As mentioned, the RWA perps basis is just one way it captures the yield shared back to holders.
Ethena also deploys some of the reserves to DeFi lending (Aave/Morpho), crypto basis trade, institutional lending (BTC), liquid stablecoins, and RWA (syndicated company loans).
Think of it as Circle’s USDC or Tether’s $USDT. Both park their reserves in U.S. T-bills, but they pocket nearly all the +4% earned interest income. That’s where Tether’s billions in profits come from.
Instead, $USDe diversifies the reserve backing to scale the yield beyond the short-term bond yields of 4%. And a portion of the yield is shared back to $USDe holders.
During the peak of crypto winter in June/July, basis trade accounted for only 1% of $USDe yield backing. As of writing, the basis trade share has risen towards 20%, and Ethena believes it could drive $USDe demand.
We expect the market opportunity size for equity perpetuals to far exceed the $15B+ of crypto perpetuals captured by Ethena last cycle.
The $USDe market supply currently stands at $4.8B. But analysts project that growth will spill over to $ENA, the protocol’s native ecosystem and governance token.
Sam Ruskin, Investment Associate at VC firm Reciprocal Ventures, echoed the same.
There are very, very few projects in crypto with as much potential upside as Ethena.
Already, $ENA posted 105% gains over the past two weeks, rallying from $0.13 to $0.28.
Final Summary
- Ethena kicked off its equity perps basis trade on Binance to tap its 11% yield.
- $USDe’s yield-basis trade backing increased from 1% to 19% in H2 2026.