Ethena Labs has expanded the list of eligible assets to support its synthetic dollar, USDe, by approving BNB, XRP, and Hyperliquid’s HYPE.
The move is part of a new Eligible Asset Framework that sets clear benchmarks for which tokens can be used in the stablecoin’s collateral system.
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.
