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Ethena plans to expand USDe basis trades into equity perpetual futures

Equity perpetual open interest has risen to $6.2 billion, and Ethena cites funding rates averaging about 14% on Hyperliquid and 17.5% on Binance as it moves beyond crypto derivatives.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Market Structure

Ethena, the crypto protocol behind the $4 billion synthetic dollar token USDe, says it plans to expand its basis-trading strategy into equity perpetual futures, targeting yield from the leveraged stock trading boom rather than relying solely on crypto markets. The approach aims to produce return streams less dependent on crypto cycle swings as Ethena looks to rebuild growth after USDe supply fell sharply from its 2025 peak.

CoinDesk reports that equity perp open interest has surged to $6.2 billion from less than $1 billion in March, giving Ethena liquidity to begin deploying the strategy. Ethena also pointed to funding rates on equity perpetual contracts averaging roughly 14% on Hyperliquid and 17.5% on Binance over recent months, contrasted with low single-digit funding levels for bitcoin over the same period.

The protocol expects to announce its first exchange partners and deployments for the equity strategy in the coming weeks. Longer-term, it said it expects real-world asset perpetuals to overtake crypto derivatives in USDe backing within 12 to 24 months.

Ethena is making the shift while working through changes to its token structure after a major ENA token overhaul. CoinDesk notes the overhaul eliminated monthly VC unlocks and included a vote on directing revenues from Ethena businesses toward token buybacks.

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