Ethena Labs Eyes $20B USDe Expansion with BNB, XRP, and HYPE Collateral Boost

Ethena Labs just supercharged its synthetic dollar—and the crypto world's paying attention.

Collateral Revolution

The protocol's adding BNB, XRP, and HYPE to its backing assets, pushing toward that massive $20 billion target for USDe. This isn't just diversification—it's a strategic power move to capture more liquidity across chains.

DeFi's playing chess while traditional finance still struggles with checkers. Another day, another reminder that banks would rather debate committee meeting times than integrate actual innovation.

Watch the stablecoin space shift—again.

Liquidity concerns

According to the Ethena Risk Committee, the framework addresses liquidity concerns in spot and perpetual futures markets. The committee noted that the considered assets must clear a minimum threshold before they can be deemed suitable for the hedging strategy that underpins USDe.

Under the policy, an asset must show more than $1 billion in open interest over a two-week period, at least $100 million in combined daily spot and perpetual trading volume, and sufficient market depth on both sides.

Specifically, the order books must demonstrate about $500,000 in spot depth and $10 million in perpetual depth, averaged over two weeks.

The committee said these high criteria aim to reduce the risk of slippage and execution delays that could occur during portfolio rebalancing.

Although approval signals that a token meets the framework’s requirements, the committee clarified that onboarding may not happen immediately. Notably, BNB is the first eligible asset backing USDe under this new framework.

USDe to $20 billion

Ethena founder Guy Young has shared a bullish outlook for USDe growth, predicting that the asset’s supply could reach $20 billion.

According to him, USDe’s circulation nearly doubled during the Federal Reserve’s late-2024 easing cycle, when funding spreads against Treasury bills jumped from NEAR zero to over 20% in just a few weeks.

Considering this, Young predicted that the stablecoin’s supply could exceed $20 billion within a month if similar conditions emerge in the current cycle.

The projection comes as USDe secures a listing on Coinbase, marking a significant milestone for the project’s accessibility in the US market.

USDe is the third-largest stablecoin, trailing only USDT and USDC, with a circulating supply of $11.8 billion, according to CryptoSlate data.