Abstract: Ethena’s $46 million investment in a tokenized fund backed by real-world assets (RWA) reflects the growing trend of DeFi platforms pursuing on-chain returns linked to real assets.

Ethena, the DeFi protocol that issued a $2.5 billion “synthetic dollar” token USDe, has just announced a major investment plan. They intend to invest $46 million of their reserve funds in several selected tokenized funds, including BlackRock and Securitize’s BUIDL, Mountain’s USDM token, Superstate’s USTB, and Sky (formerly Maker)’s newly launched stablecoin USDS.

According to a post published by Ethena on the governance forum, they plan to allocate the protocol’s reserve fund as follows; approximately $18 million will be invested in BUIDL, a tokenized fund jointly launched by BlackRock and Securitize, $13 million will be allocated to USDS, a new stablecoin launched by Sky (formerly Maker), $8 million will be invested in Mountain’s USDM token, and $7 million will be used for Superstate’s USTB.

USDe’s DeFi protocol operation mechanism

The operating mechanism of USDe is very interesting. It earns income by holding the spot of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) and shorting or selling the same amount of BTC and ETH derivatives. In simple terms, it is to profit from the difference in funding interest rates between spot and derivatives. Such a strategy not only brings additional income to Ethena, but also accumulates a reserve for the protocol.

At the same time, the allocation of this fund will also help Ethena maintain stable returns in a negative interest rate environment that may appear in the future. In other words, even if the cost of funds in the market becomes expensive, Ethena can rely on this fund to safeguard its operations and ensure that the interests of investors are not affected. This forward-looking financial planning undoubtedly provides Ethena with a safety cushion in a volatile market.

This series of actions by Ethena actually closely follows a new trend of DeFi platforms and protocol foundations. This trend is that they have begun to shift part of their treasury assets to invest in tokens backed by real-world assets (RWA), such as short-term U.S. government bonds. The advantage of doing so is that you can obtain relatively stable returns that are not affected by crypto market fluctuations without leaving the blockchain world.

RWA leads the new trend of DeFi investment

According to rwa.xyz, the trend of real-world assets (RWA) is no small feat. It has tripled the size of the tokenized U.S. Treasury market to $2.2 billion in a year. This shows that more and more DeFi participants are beginning to realize that allocating part of their assets to tokens pegged to real-world assets can not only enjoy the convenience of blockchain but also obtain relatively stable returns. Why not? This step by Ethena is clearly at the forefront of the RWA trend.

Back in July, Ethena had already set a plan to invest its reserve fund in products backed by real-world assets (RWA). This decision attracted about 25 issuers to apply for the funds. Ultimately, which issuer will receive the funds is decided by Ethena’s risk committee.

It is reported that the Ethena committee is composed of five companies specializing in risk management and consulting services in the DeFi field, namely Gauntlet, Block Analitica, Steakhouse, Llama Risk and Blockworks Advisory, and they all have voting rights. As a member of the committee, the Ethena Foundation participates in the discussion but has no voting rights.

This decision-making process reflects Ethena's rigorous attitude towards fund management. Instead of making decisions alone, they gathered the wisdom of multiple professional companies in the industry to jointly decide where the funds will go. This approach not only increases the transparency of decision-making, but also improves the efficiency and security of fund use. In this way, Ethena also ensures that its investment decisions can meet the best practices and high standards of the DeFi industry.

Conclusion:

With the rise of the tokenization trend of real-world assets (RWA), the DeFi field is ushering in an investment revolution. This innovation of combining traditional assets with blockchain technology provides investors with a new asset class that can enjoy the transparency and efficiency of blockchain while obtaining relatively stable returns.

The rise of this trend indicates that the DeFi market is gradually maturing, and investors' demand for risk management and asset diversification is growing. In the future, we may see more DeFi platforms and protocol foundations follow this trend, introducing more real-world assets into the blockchain ecosystem, and opening up new investment horizons for global investors.

#RWA代币化  #Ethena  #DeFi协议  #区块链投资