Home›Crypto›Market Structure›Ethena plans equity perpetual-basis trades to boost US…

Ethena plans equity perpetual-basis trades to boost USDe yields

Ethena said open interest in equity perpetual futures rose to about $6.2 billion from less than $1 billion in March, while equity funding rates have averaged about 14% on Hyperliquid and 17.5% on Binance.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Market Structure

Ethena is expanding its USDe synthetic dollar strategy into equity perpetual futures, aiming to capture higher funding yields from equity-linked basis trades, according to CryptoSlate. On Aug. 28, the protocol outlined plans to extend the approach behind USDe into perpetuals tied to equities, saying the equity market’s liquidity has improved enough to evaluate performance.

CryptoSlate reports that open interest in equity perpetual futures has climbed to about $6.2 billion, up from less than $1 billion in March. In recent months, funding rates in the market have averaged about 14% on Hyperliquid and 17.5% on Binance, versus bitcoin perpetual funding that averaged 2.2% this year through Aug. 11.

Ethena founder Guy Young said equity and commodity-linked perpetuals are one of the protocol’s biggest potential growth areas. CryptoSlate adds that Young pointed to rising real-world asset perpetual activity on venues such as Hyperliquid and Binance, and said he expects equity-related open interest and volume to surpass overall crypto perpetuals across major venues within roughly two years.

For Ethena, the move increases the pool of assets available to its basis strategy from a crypto market worth about $2.5 trillion to more than $120 trillion of equities, CryptoSlate reported. The protocol plans to begin deploying into equity-basis positions over the coming weeks through venues where it already trades crypto, as USDe remains near $4.04 billion, below its roughly $15 billion peak last year.

Latest closeBitcoin $77,785.62 ▼3.1%

More like this

Sources