Ethena (ENA) is incorporating tokenized U.S. equities and equity perpetual futures on Binance into the basis trade that supports the backing allocation of its USDe (USDe) synthetic dollar, pushing the strategy into traditional equity markets.
As stated in a release provided exclusively to The Block, Ethena will deploy bStocks as tokenized spot collateral alongside Binance equity perpetual contracts to execute the hedge. The Ethena Risk Committee previously cleared a framework enabling tokenized equity basis trades to be integrated into its allocation model. bStocks signify an interest in securities managed by their issuer, BTech Holdings Limited, and are redeemable for the underlying securities on Binance, in accordance with applicable regulations.
Historically, Ethena executed this delta-neutral approach across digital assets, employing derivative positions to counterbalance exposure. Last year, Binance integrated USDe throughout its ecosystem, incorporating it as collateral for perpetual and futures trading.
Looking ahead, Ethena noted that it anticipates the scope of equity perpetuals to eventually surpass the digital asset perpetual market by a wide margin.
“This represents the most crucial growth of the USDe funding architecture since our inception,” stated Ethena Labs founder Guy Young. “Equities represent hundreds of trillions of dollars globally, and as an increasing share of that sector migrates onchain, we recognize a major pathway to further diversify our reserve strategy.”
At present, the USDe supply hovers near $4.9 billion, based on metrics from The Block’s data dashboard.
Equity markets enter Ethena’s basis trade
Data supplied by Ethena shows that Binance maintains more than $2.9 billion in open interest across equity perpetual futures, expanding at a compound monthly rate of 105% throughout the year, whereas the equity basis has posted an annualized average of 3.56% over the preceding six months.
“Adoption of Binance’s bStocks and equity perpetuals is accelerating alongside their expanding liquidity and utility,” remarked Binance Head of Exchange and Trading Shunyet Jan. “Ethena operates among the premier systematic strategies in the crypto economy, and their venture into tokenized securities and equity perps highlights how the merging of digital and traditional assets will unlock novel possibilities.”
Earlier, Binance enabled trading for over 7,000 U.S.-based equities and exchange-traded funds for qualified non-U.S. participants back in June. The platform subsequently introduced bStocks later that same month. As previously documented by The Block, Binance’s traditional finance perpetual futures produced roughly $433.4 billion in trading volume during August, with equity-focused contracts driving approximately $342.9 billion of that total.
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/deals/2026-09-25-ethena-expands-usde-backing-strategy-into-bstocks-and-equity-perpetuals-on-binance-416367.
