Airdrop Army

Ethena is rolling out a new stablecoin, UStb, backed by the real-world asset tokenization platform Securitize. Unlike its other stablecoin, USDe, UStb will be anchored in a very different liquidity pool. The key? Ethena says UStb’s reserves are sliding into BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), tokenized on Ethereum.

BlackRock BUIDL: The Foundation for UStb

BlackRock’s BUIDL fund isn’t some crypto gimmick. It invests in straight-up U.S. dollars, Treasury bills, and repurchase agreements, all of which are fully tokenized. Launched in March, BUIDL now manages over $522 million, making it the largest tokenized U.S. Treasuries fund in play. That means UStb comes with the traditional finance creds while staying crypto-native.

The tokenized securities market? It’s flexing, with more than $2 billion in action, according to 21.co’s latest data. Securitize, a big player in the tokenization scene, already manages around $950 million. They’ve tokenized funds for heavyweights like BlackRock and KKR, which says a lot about where this space is heading.

UStb: Standing Alone, But Still in the Mix with USDe

Ethena’s team isn’t just copy-pasting their stablecoin game with UStb. They’re making it clear that this one’s a “wholly independent product.” Different beast, different risks. Ethena’s first stablecoin, USDe, went live in February and now sits pretty as the fifth-largest stablecoin by market cap. But USDe doesn’t play by the same rules. It’s backed by derivatives, not fiat, and uses ether, bitcoin, and solana for collateral. It’s a riskier but more dynamic system with arbitrage-based minting and redeeming.

But with risk comes volatility. USDe took a hit in August, sliding to $0.997 during a market selloff. The peg held, but there’s always that underlying risk tied to collateral volatility and derivatives exposure.

UStb as Margin Collateral: A Backup for USDe?

The team says UStb could step in if USDe’s hedging strategies go sideways during negative funding rates. Ethena’s governance might shift USDe’s backing assets into UStb to mitigate risks. But it doesn’t stop there. Ethena also plans to use UStb as margin collateral on centralized exchanges like Bybit and Bitget, making it a key tool for traders who need that extra security.

Ethena Labs, fresh off a $14 million funding round led by Dragonfly and BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes’ Maelstrom, is stacking more chips into the stablecoin game. With both USDe and UStb in the mix, they’re building a flexible, hedge-friendly system that could thrive even when the market goes sideways.