Ethena Targets Equity Perpetuals to Boost USDe Yield

Ethena (ENA), the crypto protocol behind the $4 billion synthetic dollar USDe, plans to expand its yield-generating strategy into equity perpetual futures as returns from traditional crypto derivatives weaken.

Ethena said Friday that it intends to apply its basis-trading strategy to stock-linked perpetual futures, a rapidly growing market where open interest has surged to $6.2 billion from less than $1 billion in March.

According to Ethena, equity perpetual funding rates averaged about 14% on Hyperliquid and 17.5% on Binance in recent months. Those returns significantly exceed the low-single-digit funding rates available from Bitcoin derivatives.

Ethena expects to reveal its first exchange partners and equity perpetual deployments in the coming weeks. The protocol predicts that real-world asset perpetuals could surpass crypto derivatives as a source of USDe backing within 12 to 24 months.

The strategy mirrors the model Ethena has used with Bitcoin, Ether and Solana. The protocol maintains exposure to an underlying asset while shorting its perpetual futures contract, allowing it to collect funding payments from leveraged long traders.

However, declining crypto markets have reduced the profitability of this approach. Ethena said Bitcoin funding rates averaged 11% in 2024 and 4.9% in 2025 before dropping to just 2.2% this year through Aug. 11.

Equity perpetuals have offered stronger conditions. Funding was positive on 94% of trading days on Hyperliquid and 97% on Binance after the markets reached meaningful scale. Median equity funding stood at 13.9%, compared with 3.9% for Bitcoin.

Ethena co-founder Guy Young said equities also benefit from a natural positive funding bias because stocks historically trend higher over long periods, supporting persistent demand for leveraged long positions. Equity funding has also shown little correlation with Bitcoin funding, potentially diversifying USDe's yield sources.

The expansion comes as USDe supply has fallen below $5 billion from a peak near $15 billion. Ethena recently announced a $1 billion FalconX facility for overcollateralized institutional loans and unveiled changes to ENA tokenomics, including eliminating monthly venture-capital unlocks and considering revenue-funded ENA token buybacks.