When DeFi yields come from Apple and Nvidia, Ethena brings the basis strategy to the stock market.

When the yield of a synthetic dollar can come from the perpetual contract funding rates of Apple and Nvidia stocks, the dividing line between "DeFi" and "TradFi" is becoming increasingly meaningless.

Author: Xiao Bing

Ethena announced on September 25 that it would begin incorporating tokenized U.S. stocks into USDe’s basis trading strategy, with Binance serving as the first execution venue. Allocation begins today.

Founder Guy Young stated, “This is the most significant expansion of USDe’s funding mechanism since its inception.”

Previously, Ethena’s basis trading could only operate in the crypto perpetual futures market, holding spot BTC/ETH while shorting corresponding perpetual contracts to earn funding rates. The market's scale ceiling is bounded by the total market capitalization of the crypto industry, approximately $2.5 trillion.

The equity market, by contrast, exceeds $150 trillion in size.

Basis Trading Expands from Crypto to Equities: Same Logic, Different Underlying Assets

First, let's clarify the mechanics of this strategy.

Ethena's USDe (currently circulating supply of approximately $4.9 billion) is a synthetic dollar. Its yield source is "basis trading," which involves holding a long position in spot assets and a short position in perpetual contracts simultaneously. The price fluctuations of the two offset each other (delta-neutral), allowing Ethena to earn the funding rate paid by longs to shorts in the perpetual futures market.