Ethena takes USDe basis trade into tokenized US equities

Ethena has added tokenized U.S. equities and equity perpetual futures to the basis trading strategy used for part of USDe’s backing, taking a funding model previously centered on crypto markets into listed stocks.

According to a statement shared with crypto.media, Ethena will use Binance’s bStocks as the spot side of the trade while taking offsetting positions through equity perpetual futures on the exchange.

The structure follows a framework previously approved by the Ethena Risk Committee for adding tokenized equity basis trades to the protocol’s allocation strategy. Ethena has historically used a delta neutral approach in crypto markets, pairing asset exposure with derivatives positions intended to hedge movements in the underlying asset.

Under the new setup, bStocks will provide tokenized equity exposure while Binance’s corresponding perpetual contracts will provide the hedge. The strategy seeks to capture the difference between the spot and perpetual markets without relying primarily on the direction of the underlying stock.

“This is the most significant expansion of USDe’s funding mechanism since we started,” Ethena Labs founder Guy Young said.

“Equities trade in the hundreds of trillions of dollars globally, and as more of that market moves onchain, we see a substantial opportunity to continue diversifying our backing strategy,” Young added.

How will Ethena use tokenized stocks for USDe?

Binance’s bStocks represent interests in securities held by issuer BTech Holdings Limited. Eligible users can convert the tokens into the corresponding securities through Binance where permitted by applicable laws.

The exchange launched its first bStocks in June with tokenized versions of Nvidia, Tesla, Circle, Micron and Sandisk. The assets are backed 1:1 by corresponding securities and can be converted between stock and tokenized form without conversion fees for eligible users.

Unlike direct share ownership, bStocks provide economic exposure to the linked securities without giving token holders the voting rights associated with owning the shares themselves.

Demand for the product grew quickly after its launch. By August, the value of Binance bStocks had reached roughly $610.6 million, putting the product ahead of xStocks as the second largest tokenized stock issuer in the dataset tracked by Token Terminal. Ondo Finance remained the largest issuer at the time.

Ethena plans to pair the tokenized assets with short positions in Binance equity perpetual futures. Gains or losses in the spot position can therefore be offset by movements in the derivatives position, leaving the funding or basis between the two markets as the main source of return.

Binance had more than $2.9 billion of open interest across equity perpetual futures based on figures provided by Ethena. Open interest in the products has grown at a compound monthly rate of 105% this year, while the equity basis averaged an annualized 3.56% during the past six months.

Ethena USDe backing moves beyond crypto basis trades

USDe’s backing model has already changed considerably as Ethena has added lending, stablecoin liquidity and tokenized real world assets alongside its original crypto basis positions.

Crypto.news previously reported that crypto basis positions accounted for roughly $39 million, or 1%, of USDe’s backing portfolio in early July. DeFi lending represented around 46%, while liquid stablecoins made up 35% and tokenized real world assets accounted for another 11.2%.

Institutional lending has become another part of the allocation. Ethena and FalconX launched a $1 billion facility in August that allows assets backing USDe to finance overcollateralized loans to institutional borrowers. FalconX originates and services the loans through a special purpose vehicle, while qualified custodians hold collateral worth more than the outstanding loans.

Institutional lending represented roughly $310 million, or 6.9%, of USDe backing in early July, according to Ethena governance data cited at the time.

Adding equities gives the protocol another market in which it can run the basis strategy that formed the original foundation of USDe. Ethena expects the opportunity in equity perpetuals to eventually become significantly larger than the corresponding crypto perpetual market.

Binance Head of Exchange and Trading Shunyet Jan said growing liquidity around bStocks and equity perpetuals was creating more use cases for both products.

“Ethena runs one of the largest systematic strategies in digital assets, and their expansion into tokenized securities and equity perps is a clear sign of how the convergence of crypto and traditional assets will surface new opportunities,” Jan said.

Binance equity markets provide the other side of the trade

Binance has spent much of 2026 building stock products alongside its crypto trading business, giving Ethena both tokenized spot instruments and derivatives within the same trading ecosystem.

The exchange opened access to more than 7,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs for eligible users outside the United States in June. Fractional purchases start at $5, while users can fund positions with USDT, USDC, BNB and selected cryptocurrencies.

bStocks followed later that month as the tokenized layer of the equity offering. Eligible holders can trade the assets around the clock and withdraw supported tokens to compatible self custody wallets.

Activity in Binance’s traditional finance derivatives business has grown alongside the spot offering. The exchange’s TradFi perpetual futures generated roughly $433.4 billion of trading volume during August, according to figures previously reported by The Block. Equity linked contracts accounted for approximately $342.9 billion of the total.

The exchange has continued building products around the same market. Binance recently said its Direct Stocks service crossed $1 billion in user held U.S. equities within 30 days of launch, while trading volume approached $3 billion over the period.

Equity perpetuals give traders leveraged exposure without requiring ownership of the underlying securities, while bStocks create tokenized representations tied to securities held by BTech Holdings. Ethena’s strategy uses the two sides together instead of treating them as separate directional trades.

Tokenized equities have grown across crypto platforms

Ethena’s allocation arrives as tokenized stocks have become one of the faster growing parts of the real world asset market.

Token Terminal data cited in August put the tokenized stock market it tracked at around $2.7 billion, compared with roughly $80 million a year earlier. Binance’s bStocks accounted for more than $600 million at the time, while Ondo Finance and xStocks represented other major issuers in the dataset.

Binance Research previously estimated that tokenized stocks had grown 422% as the wider tokenized real world asset market expanded during 2026. The firm said adoption would continue to depend on factors including regulation, custody, market depth and exchange support.

Traditional market products have meanwhile become a larger part of activity on crypto exchanges. Binance Research said TradFi linked perpetual contracts already represented roughly 10% of stablecoin trading volume earlier this year, with stablecoin settlement providing a route for users to trade traditional assets through existing crypto accounts.

Ethena’s equity allocation will operate within the risk framework approved by its Risk Committee, using tokenized spot positions and corresponding perpetual hedges as the protocol begins deploying its basis strategy outside crypto assets.