Ethena (ENA) developer company Ethena Labs has announced the addition of Bitcoin as the collateral asset for its “synthetic dollar” USDe.
The project, which recently distributed airdrops to its users, some of them via Binance Launchpool, claimed that this Bitcoin move would enable its USDe token pegged to the dollar to scale more than 2.5 times.
“As Ethena approaches $10 billion, this provides more robust support and ultimately a more secure product for users,” the official statement said. The current USDe supply is estimated to be worth approximately $2 billion.
Ethena Labs also said Bitcoin has a superior liquidity and duration profile for delta hedging compared to liquid staking tokens. This was a key factor in the decision to add Bitcoin as a supporting asset, according to the statement.
According to information on Ethena Labs' website, USDe was so far only backed by staked Ethereum (ETH). However, token holders are showing more interest in Bitcoin trading.
Last year, Bitcoin open interest increased by 150% to $25 billion, according to Ethena, which led to USDe more than doubling its scaling capacity. In comparison, Ethereum's open interest only increased by 100% to $10 billion during the same period.
*This is not investment advice.