# Ethena Expands USDe Backing Into Equity Perpetuals

*Author: David Feld*
*Published: Sep 25, 2026*
*Source: https://www.bankless.com/read/news/ethena-expands-usde-backing-into-equity-perpetuals*

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Ethena is partnering with Binance to extend the basis trade backing USDe beyond crypto and into the much larger market for tokenized equities. 

## What's the Scoop?

- **Basis trade goes TradFi:** Ethena will begin backing USDe through delta-neutral equity trades, using tokenized stocks and perpetuals to collect funding payments. In theory, this structure expands Ethena's addressable underlying market from ~$2.5T in crypto assets to $150T+ in real-world assets. 

- **Why Binance:** Binance comes equipped with both bStocks (tokenized spot collateral) and USDT-denominated equity perps, letting Ethena use one single venue for both sides of its trade. Further, eligible delta-neutral accounts like Ethena also receive lower priority for Binance's auto-deleveraging system, reducing the risk its strategy gets forcibly closed during market stress. 

- **Where it can break:** Equity basis trades introduce a major wrinkle: U.S. stocks close while their tokenized versions and perpetuals keep trading. Ethena's Risk Committee calls this the strategy's **["deepest structural risk"](https://gov.ethenafoundation.com/t/a-framework-for-the-tokenized-equity-basis-trade/832)**, since the perp can drift away from the underlying stock during off-hours, potentially weakening the hedge. 

- **Ethena momentum:** The expansion comes as ENA has climbed roughly 60% over the past month, from ~$0.14 to ~$0.23. USDe supply sits around $4.9B, putting it closer to the recently approved fee switch's first trigger: a $7.5B 14-day average supply, at which point Ethena will begin [directing a portion of protocol revenue toward ENA buybacks](https://gov.ethenafoundation.com/t/ena-fee-switch-activation/830). 

> [ — (@)
> ](https://twitter.com/ethena/status/2103439484113346986?s=20)
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