What did Ethena announce?
Ethena, the issuer of the synthetic dollar USDe, announced on August 28 that it plans to add so-called basis trades on equity perpetual futures to its backing strategy. The news is reported consistently by CryptoSlate, The Defiant, and CoinDesk.
Let's clear up the terms. USDe is a synthetic dollar whose value stays close to one dollar thanks to a hedging (delta-neutral) strategy. A basis trade means simultaneously holding the underlying asset and opening an opposite position in futures, with profit coming from the gap between the spot and futures price and from the funding rate (a payment exchanged between holders of long and short positions on perpetual, i.e. never-expiring, futures contracts).
Until now, Ethena ran this strategy mainly on crypto markets. Now it wants to extend it to equity perpetuals, meaning derivatives tied to stocks. That is where the framing about targeting an equity market worth roughly 120 trillion dollars comes from, as CryptoSlate put it.
Why equity perpetuals? Where are the higher yields?
The reason is funding. According to CryptoSlate, funding rates on equity perpetuals have averaged around 14% on Hyperliquid and 17.5% on Binance in recent months.
For comparison, the same source cites funding on Bitcoin perpetuals averaging 2.2% for this year (as of August 11), down from 4.9% the previous year. That is the basis for the claim of yields more than five times higher than Bitcoin's.
The market itself is growing fast. Open interest on equity perpetuals jumped to roughly 6.2 billion dollars from less than 1 billion dollars in March, according to CryptoSlate.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Average funding, equity perp (Hyperliquid) | ~14% | CryptoSlate |
| Average funding, equity perp (Binance) | ~17.5% | CryptoSlate |
| Funding BTC perp (2026 through Aug 11) | ~2.2% | CryptoSlate |
| Open interest equity perp | ~6.2 bn USD (from <1 bn in March) | CryptoSlate |
| USDe circulating supply | ~4.063 bn tokens | The Defiant (Etherscan) |
How big is USDe today?
The Defiant, citing Etherscan, puts USDe circulating supply at roughly 4.063 billion tokens. CoinDesk describes USDe as a token worth approximately 4 billion dollars.
CoinDesk also cites Ethena's expectation that perpetuals on real-world assets (RWA) will surpass crypto derivatives in what backs USDe within 12 to 24 months. That is a future ambition, not a completed reality.
What is happening with the ENA token at the same time?
Separately from the USDe backing strategy, Ethena is also addressing its governance token ENA. According to Cointelegraph, the Ethena Foundation proposed buying back the token stake held by large early investors and introduced a so-called fee switch that would direct 95% of the protocol's net revenue into ENA buybacks.
Cointelegraph reports that the ENA token rose 10% on this news. charliedesk does not consider this a recommendation to buy or sell; it is a description of the market's reaction to a specific announcement.
What is not certain yet?
Key caveat: according to The Defiant, the announced rollout is still only planned. So this is a stated intention, not a live feature.
Moreover, the high funding rates are observed past data, not a guaranteed future yield. Funding changes over time and can even turn negative, which is a risk in any basis strategy. Whether the expected shift toward backing via RWA perpetuals within 12 to 24 months actually materializes remains open.
What to watch with this type of news?
With announcements like this, three things are worth watching: (1) whether and when an actual launch happens and how much volume genuinely moves into the new strategy, (2) how funding rates on equity perpetuals evolve, since they are exactly what determines the yield, and (3) how USDe circulating supply changes as a signal of demand. Anyone can verify these numbers with the exchanges and on-chain (for example via Etherscan).