Ethena is moving USDe into equity perpetual-basis trades, targeting funding yields five times higher than Bitcoin's current 2.2 percent. The synthetic dollar protocol announced the expansion Aug. 28 as its crypto basis strategy deteriorates and USDe supply sits at $4.04 billion—just 27 percent of its $15 billion peak from last year.
Equity perpetual funding rates dwarf crypto. Hyperliquid's equity funding averaged 14 percent in recent months; Binance saw 17.5 percent. Bitcoin perpetual funding, by contrast, has cratered to 2.2 percent year-to-date through Aug. 11, down from 4.9 percent in 2025 and 11 percent in 2024. The crypto basis trade that once scaled USDe is broken.
Open interest in equity perpetuals surged from under $1 billion in March to $6.2 billion now. Hyperliquid's real-world asset perpetual volume exceeded half of crypto volume last month. On Binance, aggregate RWA perpetual volume reached roughly twice the BTC-USDT volume.
Ethena founder Guy Young flagged the scale opportunity: the equities market sits at over $120 trillion versus crypto's $2.5 trillion. Young expects equity perpetual open interest and trading volume to eclipse crypto perpetuals across major venues within two years.
The protocol will deploy capital into equity-basis positions over coming weeks using the same infrastructure built for USDe, executing through existing venues. Young said Ethena waited until equity perpetuals achieved deeper liquidity and sufficient trading history.
Ethena's current backing reveals the damage from collapsing crypto yields. Crypto basis positions now represent just 13 percent of USDe reserves. DeFi lending accounts for 30.8 percent ($1.26 billion) at 3.1 percent yields. Liquid stablecoins make up 32 percent. Real-world assets contribute 12.3 percent, with institutional lending at 11.8 percent providing yields as high as 7 percent.
Ethena expects real-world asset perpetuals to become a dominant component of USDe backing within 12 to 24 months, stabilizing yield generation by tapping markets far larger than crypto.
