Ethena Labs has introduced the addition of bitcoin as a backing asset for its USDe artificial greenback, tapping into the rising enthusiasm for the world’s oldest digital asset amongst merchants.
The decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol said in a sequence of updates that anchoring USDe with Bitcoin will facilitate important scalability, multiplying its capability by greater than 2.5 occasions and enhancing security measures for merchants. This strategic transfer arrives as bitcoin spinoff markets outshine their ether-based counterparts.
“With Ethena’s scaling trajectory nearing $10 billion, this enhanced backing offers a extra resilient basis, guaranteeing a safer surroundings for customers,” the protocol remarked, noting that the present provide of USDe is valued at round $2 billion.
Ethena additionally highlighted Bitcoin’s superior liquidity and length profile for delta hedging in comparison with liquid staking tokens as a key issue within the resolution to include it as a backing asset.
Beforehand, USDe was solely supported by staked ether (ETH), as indicated on Ethena Labs’ web site. Nonetheless, heightened dealer curiosity in Bitcoin prompted the protocol’s adjustment.
Ethena famous a considerable surge in bitcoin open curiosity, which soared by 150% to achieve $25 billion over the previous yr, resulting in greater than doubling USDe’s scalability potential. In distinction, ether’s open curiosity grew by 100% to $10 billion throughout the identical interval, in accordance with knowledge offered by the protocol.
Bitcoin’s strong demand coincides with its exceptional surge in speculative worth, at the moment buying and selling at $68,384 in accordance with The Block’s worth knowledge, marking a 4% enhance over the previous 24 hours.
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