Ethena strikes lending deals with Anchorage and Maple amid USDe reserve overhaul. The synthetic dollar protocol is moving beyond its crypto basis trade roots into institutional lending, real-world credit, and equity and commodity perpetuals. Ethena Labs is finalizing its first direct lending agreements with Anchorage Digital, Maple Institutional, and Coinbase Asset Management as part of a sweeping plan to diversify the assets backing its USDe synthetic dollar. Under the agreements, Ethena would lend stablecoins from USDe's reserves to facilitate overcollateralized loans originated by those entities, with borrower collateral held in secured triparty custody. Each loan will operate within parameters set by the Ethena Risk Committee, including minimum overcollateralization ratios, concentration limits, automatic liquidation thresholds, and tenors designed to minimize liquidity risk during large USDe redemption events. Ethena framed the move as a natural extension of the stablecoin lending it already does on DeFi protocols like Aave and Morpho, but for institutional counterparties with only high-quality, immediately liquid collateral such as BTC and ETH. Beyond the basis trade. The institutional lending push is one piece of a broader four-part diversification strategy Ethena outlined Monday, which also includes expanding real-world asset (RWA) exposure beyond tokenized Treasury bills, extending its delta-neutral framework into equity and commodity perpetuals, and exploring prime lending to trading firms. The shift reflects how far USDe's reserve composition has already moved. Perpetual futures positions, once the mainstay of USDe's backing, now make up just 11% of the stablecoin's reserves, with the rest allocated to stablecoin reserves and DeFi lending positions. Ethena recently proposed replacing its static 7-day unstaking cooldown with a dynamic model, arguing the fixed period no longer reflects the liquidity available to meet redemptions. USDe's circulating supply has contracted to approximately $5.9 billion from a peak above $14.6 billion before the October 10 crash that wiped more than $5 billion from its market cap. Meanwhile, the protocol's ENA token is up 9% over the past 24 hours, but has dropped 94% from its peak two years ago. Equity and commodity perps. Perhaps the most novel element is Ethena's plan to apply its basis trade methodology to equity and commodity perpetual futures - a market that has grown rapidly since Hyperliquid launched its HIP-3 framework in October 2025. HIP-3 open interest has surged from $70 million at launch to over $2 billion, driven by non-crypto pairs such as equities, commodities, and indices. Ethena noted that gold perpetual funding rates on Binance averaged 24.6% in March, presenting a clear basis opportunity for delta-neutral operators. On the RWA side, Ethena said initial allocations will likely be limited to AAA-rated CLOs, which have no history of defaults, with potential expansion into investment-grade corporate bond funds and short-duration credit products. This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All its stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

HTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, has launched USDe minting and redemption services on its platform, along with a daily rewards programme for USDe holders. The integration allows users to directly mint or redeem USDe via Ethena's smart contracts without relying on spot order books. USDe is a synthetic dollar developed by Ethena Labs, backed by crypto assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum and stabilised through delta-neutral hedging. The service offers unlimited scale, uniform costs and improved liquidity efficiency. HTX users holding USDe in their spot accounts will receive daily rewards paid weekly. The exchange is also launching a USDe flexible product on HTX Earn with up to 15% APY, and running a trading campaign offering a 10,000 USDe prize pool until 20th February.