TL;DR
- Ethena expanded its USDe basis trade into tokenized equities, using Binance’s bStocks as spot collateral and equity perpetual futures as hedging instruments.
- Binance records over $2.9 billion in open interest in equity perpetual futures, posting a compound monthly growth rate of 105% in 2026.
- Ethena Labs’ founder estimates that the equities perpetuals market will far surpass the crypto market as more assets migrate on-chain.
Ethena is expanding the delta-neutral strategy backing its synthetic dollar USDe into the equities market, incorporating Binance‘s bStocks as tokenized collateral and stock perpetual futures as hedging instruments.
This expansion represents one of the most profound changes to the backing mechanics of USDe since the protocol’s launch.
Ethena’s Risk Committee had previously approved a framework to integrate basis trades on tokenized equities within its allocation strategy. bStocks represent an interest in securities held in custody by BTech Holdings Limited and can be converted into the underlying assets within Binance’s platform, subject to applicable legislation.
Ethena is partnering with @Binance as our first venue for the extension of the basis trade into equity perpetuals, one of the most exciting updates to the USDe collateral backing since launch.
This expands the addressable market of underlying collateral from $2.5 trillion of… pic.twitter.com/be4Mz7XHk1
— Ethena (@ethena) September 25, 2026
Until now, the protocol’s delta-neutral strategy had operated exclusively on crypto assets, using derivatives positions as the hedging mechanism.
Basis Trade with Equities: Ethena’s Largest Expansion
Binance holds over $2.9 billion in open interest in equity perpetual futures, posting a compound monthly growth rate of 105% throughout 2026. The average basis of these contracts stood at 3.56% annualized over the past six months, according to data provided by the protocol itself. Meanwhile, the supply of USDe currently stands at around $4.9 billion.
Guy Young, founder of Ethena Labs, stated that the integration is a key expansion of USDe’s funding mechanism. “Equities trade in the hundreds of trillions of dollars globally, and as more of that market migrates on-chain, we see a substantial opportunity to continue diversifying our backing strategy,” he said.
Shunyet Jan, Head of Exchange and Trading at Binance, noted that the adoption of bStocks and equity perpetuals grows alongside their liquidity. Binance offers trading for more than 7,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs for users outside the U.S. In August, its perpetual futures on traditional assets generated approximately $433.4 billion in volume, with equity-linked contracts accounting for roughly $342.9 billion of the total.
