Ethena Labs has proposed adding Solana (SOL) to the collateral mix of its synthetic stablecoin USDe, targeting a $100-200 million initial allocation.
Ethena Labs, the developer behind the synthetic stablecoin USDe USDe $1.00 24h volatility: 0.0% Market cap: $9.24 B Vol. 24h: $247.49 M , has put forth a proposal to add Solana SOL $176.0 24h volatility: 5.4% Market cap: $96.92 B Vol. 24h: $5.85 B to the stablecoin’s collateral mix. If the proposal gains approval from Ethena’s independent Risk Committee, the platform aims to gradually introduce SOL as a collateral asset for USDe. The initial allocation target for SOL stands between $100 million and $200 million, representing roughly 5-10% of SOL’s global open interest.
This move mirrors USDe’s existing stakes in other major assets, including a 3% share of Bitcoin’s BTC $108 118 24h volatility: 2.7% Market cap: $2.15 T Vol. 24h: $48.05 B global open interest and a 9% stake in Ethereum ETH $3 726 24h volatility: 4.2% Market cap: $447.87 B Vol. 24h: $30.20 B .
Notably, unlike traditional stablecoins like Tether USDT $1.00 24h volatility: 0.0% Market cap: $183.47 B Vol. 24h: $94.38 B or Circle’s USD Coin USDC $1.00 24h volatility: 0.0% Market cap: $75.75 B Vol. 24h: $13.70 B , USDe does not rely on fiat backing. Instead, it maintains its $1 peg through a combination of stablecoin collateral and a hedged cash-and-carry trade strategy. This approach helps stabilize value by taking futures positions with open interest and leveraging a reserve fund to mitigate risks during volatile market conditions.
Adding Liquid Staking Tokens to the Mix
As part of the proposal, Ethena Labs is also exploring the potential of integrating Solana-based liquid staking tokens (LSTs) like BNSOL and bbSOL into USDe’s treasury. Incorporating these staking tokens would provide more flexibility and yield opportunities for USDe’s collateral base, potentially strengthening its reserve structure.
It is important to note that Ethena already uses Ethereum LSTs, which account for one-third of Ethena’s ETH allocation.
This development represents Ethena’s ongoing effort to adapt to DeFi trends while managing risk effectively. By expanding its collateral options to include SOL and staking tokens, USDe can build a more diversified and robust treasury.
Recently, Ethena Labs took another major step by allocating $46 million from its USDe reserve fund to tokenized real-world assets. This allocation targets investments in asset-backed tokens, such as BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), Mountain’s USDM, Superstate’s USTB, and Sky’s USDS.
Other Ventures
In September, Ethena Labs also announced a partnership with Securitize, a leading real-world asset tokenization platform, to introduce another stablecoin called UStb. This stablecoin plans to invest its reserves in BUIDL, which has been tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain.
As we know, USDe stablecoin differs from traditional stablecoins by using derivative hedging strategies instead of asset backing or direct fiat. Therefore, UStb will be incorporated within the USDe ecosystem, to serve as a collateral option for integration with Ethena’s centralized exchange (CEX) partners. This would help unlock access to more top-tier platforms, including Bybit and Bitget.
Meanwhile, the Ethena community is voting on a proposal to integrate Ethereal, a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on the soon-to-launch Ethena Network, into its reserve management system to boost liquidity and drive demand for USDe. If approved, Ethereal would manage both spot and derivative positions that support USDe.
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