Ethena officially launched the new stablecoin USDtb, which is a traditional stablecoin similar to USDC or USDT, primarily backed by BlackRock's BUIDL fund and incorporates USDe reserves to reduce its risk.
BlackRock BUIDL and its role in UStb.
BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company, launched the first tokenized fund on a public blockchain (Ethereum) in March this year—the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL). BUIDL primarily invests in US dollars, short-term US treasury bonds, and repurchase agreements, managing assets exceeding $440 million.
The operation of UStb is similar to that of traditional stablecoins, but the main difference is that the reserves of UStb will be invested in BlackRock's BUIDL fund. According to its announcement, the vast majority (90%) of USDtb's reserve assets will be BUIDL. Any remaining reserves will be held in stablecoin form to facilitate redemption.
The distinction between UStb and USDe.
The USDe initially launched by Ethena emphasizes that it is a stablecoin that does not rely on traditional finance. Investors include Dragonfly Capital and Arthur Hayes' family office Malestrom, as well as Binance Labs, Deribit, Bybit, OKX, Gemini, Kraken, and traditional finance's Franklin Templeton.
Its principle is to use users' collateral (ETH) to hedge price risks and maintain its peg to the US dollar through shorting perpetual contracts. Through Delta hedging, it ensures that the gains or losses of any asset offset each other.
USDe is also supported by freely floating assets such as BTC, ETH, and SOL, as well as stablecoins like USDC and USDT. Last week, Ethena's risk committee voted to include USDtb as a qualified asset in the reserve fund. Since UStb will not be affected by negative financing rates, it also reduces the risk of USDe.
UStb will operate independently.
UStb will serve as a 'completely independent product,' offering risk characteristics different from Ethena's current stablecoin USDe, providing users with greater stability and diversification.
The design goal of the USDtb infrastructure is to be completely independent and free from other commercial interests, ensuring that even the bankruptcy of Ethena Labs and related infrastructure of the Ethena Protocol will not affect it. USDtb is issued by Pallas (BV) Ltd., and all reserve assets are legally and operationally owned by Pallas. Pallas does not offer any other products.
In addition to the Ethereum mainnet, USDtb will also connect through LayerZero on Base, Solana, and Arbitrum, and can be bridged on Stargate.
This article announces Ethena's launch of the new stablecoin UStb, backed by BlackRock's BUIDL as asset reserves to reduce the risk of USDe. It first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.
