Ethena Expands USDe Basis Trade to Equity Perpetuals for Higher Yields

Ethena revealed plans on Aug. 28 to expand its USDe delta-neutral basis strategy into equity perpetual futures across venues where it already executes crypto trades. Equity perpetual open interest surged to about $6.2B from less than $1B in March, with funding rates recently averaging 14% on Hyperliquid and 17.5% on Binance. Bitcoin $BTC perpetual funding averaged just 2.2% this year through Aug. 11, pushing crypto basis positions down to around 13% of USDe's total backing. The expansion comes as USDe circulation stands near $4.04B, down sharply from its peak of roughly $15B last year. A governance proposal introduced on Aug. 27 would allocate protocol revenue to ENA buybacks only after USDe supply rebounds to $7.5B. "Equity and commodity-linked perpetuals have become one of the protocol’s biggest potential growth markets." — Guy Young