Ethena plans to launch a new stablecoin called UStb, backed by BlackRock's BUIDL tokenised fund. This will be done in collaboration with Securitize, a platform specialising in the tokenisation of real assets. According to a statement shared with The Block, UStb reserves will be invested in BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), itself tokenised on Ethereum.
Since its launch in March this year, the BUIDL fund has rapidly grown to over $522 million in assets under management. The market for tokenised government securities now exceeds $2 billion, according to data compiled by 21.co, the parent company of Bitcoin exchange-traded fund provider 21Shares.
UStb will exist as a completely independent product offering a different risk profile compared to Ethena's existing stablecoin, USDe. Launched last February, USDe relies on derivative hedging strategies rather than direct reserves of fiat or physical assets. It uses ether (ETH), bitcoin (BTC), solana (SOL) and other crypto-assets as collateral to maintain its peg to the US dollar.
USDe recently faced several challenges including nearly $100 million in redemptions during a stress test of the crypto market this summer. The price briefly fell to $0.997 before returning to its target level of $1. Ethena Labs also temporarily disabled its user interface after the domain's registrar account was compromised.
According to the team, UStb could help USDe better withstand difficult market conditions. ‘If deemed necessary and appropriate by Ethena's governance, during periods of negative rates, Ethena may close the hedge positions underlying USDe and reallocate its assets to UStb to mitigate related risks,’ the representatives explained.
Ethena also anticipates that UStb could be used as alternative collateral for partner centralised exchanges such as Bybit and Bitget. Last February, Ethena Labs announced that it had raised $14 million in a strategic round jointly led by Dragonfly and Maelstrom, the family office of BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes.
With these new initiatives, Ethena continues to innovate in the crypto-currency space while offering diversified solutions to meet the varied needs of investors.
