Ethena Targets $6.2 Billion Equity Perps Market to Boost USDe Yield

Ethena is preparing to expand the strategy behind its $4 billion USDe synthetic dollar beyond cryptocurrencies and into equity perpetual futures. The protocol says open interest in equity perps has surged from less than $1 billion in March to roughly $6.2 billion, while funding rates have remained substantially higher than those available in Bitcoin derivatives. Ethena expects to announce its first exchange partners and deployments in the coming weeks. More significantly, it projects that real-world-asset perpetuals could eventually surpass crypto derivatives within USDe’s backing mix over the next 12 to 24 months.

Equity Perps Offer Higher Funding Rates

Ethena’s plan extends the same broad market-neutral strategy it already uses across Bitcoin, Ether and Solana.

The basic structure is relatively straightforward. Ethena maintains exposure to an underlying asset while simultaneously taking an offsetting short position in its perpetual futures. When demand for leveraged long positions is strong, long traders generally pay funding to traders holding short positions.

That funding can become a source of yield without requiring Ethena to make a simple directional bet that the underlying asset will rise.

The problem is that crypto funding rates have fallen substantially.

According to Ethena’s analysis, average Bitcoin funding fell from approximately 11% in 2024 to 4.9% in 2025, before declining to just 2.2% in 2026 through August 11.

Equity perpetuals have moved in the opposite direction.

Ethena said funding rates averaged roughly 14% on Hyperliquid and 17.5% on Binance during the periods it analyzed. Median equity-perp funding was approximately 13.9%, compared with 3.9% for Bitcoin.

The consistency also stands out. Funding was positive on about 94% of trading days on Hyperliquid and 97% on Binance after the respective equity markets reached meaningful scale.

Those numbers help explain why Ethena sees equities as a potential new source of returns.

USDe Looks Beyond Crypto Derivatives

Ethena co-founder Guy Young argues that equity markets have a structural characteristic that could make their perpetual contracts particularly useful.

Global stocks have historically carried a positive long-term return bias. That creates persistent demand among investors seeking leveraged long exposure, which can result in long traders paying funding to the short side of perpetual contracts.

Crypto markets behave differently.

During severe cryptocurrency downturns, speculative demand can disappear quickly. Funding rates can compress toward zero or turn negative, reducing the profitability of the basis strategy supporting USDe.

Ethena also found that equity-perpetual funding displayed very little correlation with Bitcoin funding.

That could be important for USDe because diversifying funding sources may reduce its dependence on a single crypto-market cycle. Equity derivatives could potentially continue producing positive funding even when demand for leveraged Bitcoin or Ether positions is weak.

The strategy nevertheless introduces different risks. Equity perpetuals remain relatively young markets, and their liquidity is far smaller than established stock and futures markets. Funding rates are variable rather than guaranteed, while exchange, counterparty, basis and liquidation risks still require active management.

Higher historical funding therefore should not be interpreted as a guaranteed 14%-17% future return.

$166 Trillion Stock Market Expands Scope

The longer-term opportunity is considerably larger than the cryptocurrency market.

Ethena estimates that global equity markets were worth approximately $166.5 trillion in July, compared with roughly $2.2 trillion for crypto assets.

Equity perpetuals represent only a tiny fraction of that stock-market value today. Their rapid expansion, however, suggests growing demand for blockchain-based leveraged exposure to companies and other real-world assets. Open interest has increased to approximately $6.2 billion from below $1 billion in March, according to Ethena.

That is more than a sixfold increase in a matter of months.

The expansion arrives at an important time for USDe. Its circulating supply has fallen to below $5 billion after previously approaching $15 billion, increasing pressure on Ethena to diversify its revenue and yield sources.

Ethena has also announced a $1 billion facility with FalconX designed to deploy portions of USDe backing into overcollateralized institutional lending arrangements.

Meanwhile, the Ethena Foundation is proposing significant changes to the economics of the ENA token, including ending monthly investor unlocks and considering whether revenue generated across Ethena businesses should be directed toward ENA buybacks.

Taken together, the initiatives point toward a broader shift: Ethena is attempting to develop USDe into infrastructure that generates returns across multiple financial markets rather than relying primarily on crypto funding.

Conclusion

Ethena’s move into equity perpetuals could materially change how USDe generates yield and manages its backing. Crypto funding has become less attractive, with Bitcoin’s average rate falling to roughly 2.2% this year, while Ethena says equity-perp funding has recently remained in the double digits. The opportunity is substantial, but the strategy is not proven at USDe’s scale, and funding rates can change quickly. The next meaningful test will be Ethena’s first exchange deployments. If liquidity continues expanding, its prediction that real-world-asset perpetuals could overtake crypto derivatives in USDe backing within 12 to 24 months becomes more credible.