Ethena began allocating USDe backing to an equity basis-trading strategy on Binance on Sept. 25, extending its delta-neutral structure from crypto into tokenized equities.
The strategy pairs tokenized stock positions (bStocks) as spot collateral against corresponding USDT-denominated equity perpetual contracts on Binance. Yield accrues from the basis spread between spot and derivative pricing plus funding payments on the perp leg.
Ethena cited historical equity basis performance averaging more than 11 percent annualized over the past six months, though the company noted this does not guarantee returns on current allocations.
Binance provides Ethena with lower auto-deleveraging priority as a delta-neutral account holder, reducing ADL risk during extreme market stress.
The addressable market for the strategy expands significantly beyond crypto's $2.5 trillion in assets to more than $150 trillion in real-world assets, though Ethena clarified this represents the broader opportunity, not current allocation size.
Ethena projects that equity perpetuals could eventually exceed the $15 billion in crypto perpetual volume achieved in the previous cycle. Supporting that view, Binance data showed open interest in equity perpetuals grew roughly 30 percent per month over the last three months.
Before deployment, Ethena's Risk Committee reviewed the strategy and approved it on Aug. 28. Kairos Research prepared an evaluation framework using market data from Aug. 26, which Ethena published alongside its existing transparency dashboards.
