Fast-growing decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Ethena announced on Dec. 18 that it has introduced a new stablecoin, USDtb, that will help stabilize the protocol’s main stablecoin, USDe, against negative movements in crypto markets.
According to the Ethena team, USDtb aims to remain stable at $1 and holds 90% of its reserves in BUIDL, a tokenized money market fund issued by BlackRock and Securitize.
Ethena founder Guy Young made the following statements about the new stablecoin:
“We are seeing a rapidly growing demand for stablecoins and in response to this demand, we took the opportunity to develop a new product that would offer our users a completely different risk profile than USDe, without leaving our trusted ecosystem.”
Ethena’s current stablecoin, USDe, offers investors annualized returns of up to 27% by opening perpetual swap positions on crypto assets like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) and collecting funding rates. However, when crypto markets are bearish and negative funding rates persist for extended periods, this strategy can become inefficient.
The newly announced USDtb stablecoin aims to reduce risks by closing derivative positions behind USDe and directing support assets to USDtb during times of negative market movements. In this way, it is aimed to provide a more stable option against market fluctuations.
Ethena also plans to allow USDtb to be accepted as collateral for margin trading on centralized exchanges.
Last week, Ethena’s token ENA$ENA
It has attracted interest from Donald Trump-affiliated World Liberty Financial (WLFI). WLFI showed its interest in the platform by purchasing around $500,000 worth of ENA tokens on Saturday.