Ethena Expands Into Equity Perpetuals, Targets $120 Trillion Stock Market
Ethena, a financial protocol, is targeting the massive $120 trillion Wall Street stock market to generate yields five times higher than Bitcoin's.
The move comes as Ethena looks to recover from a contraction in its synthetic dollar (USDe) in 2026. USDe has seen a decline in value, falling to around $4.04 billion from its peak of roughly $15 billion last year.
Ethena's expansion into equity perpetual futures is aimed at tapping into higher funding yields than those available in the crypto market. The protocol's founder, Guy Young, notes that real-world asset perpetual volume has surpassed half of crypto volume on Hyperliquid and reached roughly twice the volume of BTC-USDT on Binance last month.
The expansion increases the pool of underlying assets available to Ethena's basis strategy from a crypto market worth about $2.5 trillion to more than $120 trillion in equities. Young expects open interest and trading volume in the sector to surpass crypto perpetuals across major venues within roughly two years.