Ethena, one of the fastest-growing decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms of 2024, today announced the launch of its new stablecoin, USDtb.
According to the developers, this stablecoin is designed to complement the protocol’s platform’s native stablecoin, the USDe token, and balance its performance in bearish crypto market conditions.
USDtb is pegged to the US dollar and holds 90% of its reserves in BUIDL, a tokenized money market fund issued by asset management giant BlackRock in partnership with Securitize. Ethena founder Guy Young highlighted the innovation behind USDtb, saying: “Given the rapidly growing demand for different stablecoin options, we saw a clear opportunity to offer users a new product that offered a completely different risk profile to USDe without them having to leave our trusted ecosystem.”
Ethena has attracted nearly $6 billion in user funding since going public earlier this year. The company’s native token, USDe, maintains its $1 price by implementing what it describes as a unique investment strategy: shorting perpetual swaps on Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) while increasing funding rates. This approach has yielded impressive returns during bull markets (currently 27% annually), but has struggled in bearish conditions due to persistently negative funding rates.
To address these risks, USDtb will serve as a balancing mechanism. During periods when funding rates are negative, Ethena will close underlying derivative positions in USDe and redirect assets to USDtb to mitigate losses. The team also plans to position USDtb as collateral for margin trading on centralized exchanges in the future.
*This is not investment advice.
