Author: Weilin, PANews
On December 16, DeFi project Ethena Labs announced the official launch of its new stablecoin USDtb. As a blockchain-based dollar stablecoin, 90% of USDtb's reserve funds are invested in BlackRock's tokenized fund BUIDL and partnered with leading real asset tokenization company Securitize.
On its first day of launch, according to DefiLlama data, USDtb's TVL reached $64.5 million. Previously, Ethena CEO Guy Young predicted that USDtb's first-month TVL would reach $500 million to $1 billion. He also mentioned that some TradFi entities, although they haven't truly engaged with other cryptocurrencies, already have considerable exposure to what Ethena is doing.
Supported by the BlackRock BUIDL fund, addressing market volatility in a bear market
The newly launched USDtb is a relatively traditional crypto stablecoin that looks almost identical to USDC and USDT. The only difference is that Ethena uses BlackRock's BUIDL Treasury fund as collateral to support this stablecoin. BUIDL is a tokenized fund that invests in assets equivalent to the US dollar (such as cash, US treasuries, and repurchase agreements). Ethena does not manage financial assets but entrusts them to various banks or service providers in the real world. Essentially, it is BlackRock and Securitize that are responsible for the entire process. Therefore, USDtb is fundamentally different from Ethena's flagship stablecoin USDe in terms of product principles.
USDtb will serve as an alternative stablecoin for Ethena, taking on the funds from USDe during extreme market conditions. Ethena CEO Guy Young recently mentioned on the Unchained podcast that USDtb looks very similar to regular stablecoins and does not generate yield by itself, so retail users who buy it will not earn returns like they would with treasury bond funds. He stated that the two products actually work in parallel, and in 98% of cases, when cryptocurrency exchange rates appear more attractive than traditional financial rates, USDe operates as it does now. Then, to the extent that the environment changes (such as entering a bear market), users always retain the option to close (positions) and switch to USDtb, keeping their balance sheet in their own products.
Thus, USDtb may help holders of USDe 'navigate difficult market conditions.' Ethena Labs stated in a December 16 announcement: 'Ethena will be able to close the hedging positions behind USDe and reallocate its supporting assets to USDtb to further mitigate related risks.'
90% of the stablecoin is supported by BlackRock's BUIDL and is partnered with blockchain tokenization company Securitize. One of Ethena's committee members, Block Analiticia, pointed out in an already approved proposal that stablecoins like USDC will account for the remaining 10% of USDtb's reserves, providing additional liquidity during weekends or other periods when the treasury market is not trading. The 'core' part of USDtb's smart contract passed three full audits in October by Pashov, Quantstamp, and Cyfrin.
USDtb is likely to drive significant amounts of funds from TradFi into our space
Ethena Lab's synthetic stablecoin USDe was launched in February this year and has quickly grown, now being the third-largest stablecoin after USDT and USDC. Since November 1, which was just a month and a half ago, its market cap more than doubled to nearly $6 billion, even surpassing DAI, the long-standing DeFi native stablecoin.
The key to USDe's success lies in the yield it offers. The token has an annual yield of 27%, far exceeding the 12.5% offered by DAI and USDS. USDe is created by depositing Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana into the Ethena protocol, followed by opening short positions on futures exchanges like Bybit. This creates a so-called 'delta-neutral' position, where the value of the assets and the short positions offset each other, maintaining overall price stability.
Currently, as most traders hold a bullish view on cryptocurrencies, they pay funds to Ethena for shorting, while the protocol transfers these funds to USDe holders through staking. As long as this situation continues, the yield on USDe should remain high. But if traders turn bearish, Ethena will not be able to offer such high yields.
In addition, the Staked USDe (sUSDe) launched by Ethena is a yield token that allows users to earn additional returns by staking USDe tokens. Through staking rewards and basis trading strategies, sUSDe provides high yields for holders.
Blockworks Research recently posted on Twitter about the different ways Ethena is primarily used. Pendle is the preferred destination for Staked USDe with assets exceeding $1 billion, with Aave in second place. Ethena CEO Guy Young recently mentioned on the Unchained podcast that about 50% to 60% of Pendle's TVL is built on sUSDe. Aave has increased its TVL by more than $1 billion in a few months.
Returning to the new stablecoin USDtb itself, after the launch of USDtb, Ethena's growth leader Seraphim Czecker stated that Ethena's roadmap is very clear:
- Incorporate conservative TradFi into USDtb
- Help them adapt to USDe
- Help them understand on-chain opportunities like Aave and Maker
José Maria Macedo, one of the founders of blockchain research and development company Delphi Labs, predicts that USDtb will become the largest tokenized treasury product within a month of its launch. Ethena's growth leader Seraphim Czecker stated that USDtb has the potential to expand to $100 billion, as the company can now effectively allocate capital in a bearish market environment by creating an APY 'floor' around treasury rates. 'USDtb will drive a significant amount of funds from TradFi into our space,' Seraphim concluded.
Currently, Ethena has indeed surpassed a plethora of crypto-native protocols on many different metrics. One of them is that it has consistently been one of the highest fee-generating 'machines.' It has repeatedly outperformed Tether, Uniswap, Ethereum, Jito, Solana, and has become an important project for DeFi user interaction.
