Ethena Laboratories announcement the launch of its stablecoin USDtb, which will leverage BlackRock tokenized fund, USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), for 90% of its support.
According to the December 16 announcement, the partnership was facilitated by Securitize.
USDtb will operate independently of Ethena’s existing algorithmic stablecoin, USDe, providing users and exchange partners with a stablecoin with a differentiated risk profile. The Ethena Risk Committee also approved USDtb as a potential support asset for USDe, improving its ability to weather volatile market conditions.
USDtb’s design provides flexibility and risk mitigation across the entire Ethena ecosystem and beyond, as Spark’s $1 billion Tokenization Grand Prize touts incentives’ focus toward the stablecoin. The initiative will boost tokenization efforts.
Additionally, USDtb is inherently multichain, built like LayerZero’s Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT). Users can transfer USDtb across various blockchains, such as Ethereum, Base, Solana, and Arbitrum.
USDtb liquidity will be supported by prominent market makers including LeapCumberland, Winter MuteAmber, GSR and SCB Limited.
Notably, Ethena Labs’ move represents a significant step forward for stablecoins, which combine the stability of traditional finance with the efficiency and scalability of blockchain. BlackRock’s BUIDL currently has a market capitalization of nearly $562 million.
Additionally, this consolidates Ethena’s position in the stablecoin market following the success of its The algorithmic stablecoin USDe, which has risen 93% over the past 30 days to reach a market cap of $5.6 billion, making it the third-largest stablecoin on the market.
The growth could be closely linked to its value accumulation mechanism, which offers USDe investors an annual percentage yield (APY) of 27% at press time.
TradFi meets DeFi
In addition to Ethena Labs, other DeFi protocols are also considering leveraging BUIDL.
Aave Money Market Platform propose a new GHO Stability Module (GSM) on August 26 based on BlackRock’s tokenized fund. Aave created GSM to help maintain the anchor of its ecosystem’s stablecoin, GHO.
Meanwhile, BlackRock plans to expand its BUIDL offering for the giants of traditional finance. The asset manager plans to use shares in its tokenized fund as collateral for derivatives trading.
Such an approach connecting the trillion-dollar derivatives market to the burgeoning tokenized money market sector, which was worth about $3 billion as of December 16.
