Ethena Seeks New Yield for USDe: Equity Funding More Than 3 Times Higher Than Bitcoin

Ethena plans to shift its strategy toward equity perpetual futures as it seeks higher funding income for nearly $4 billion worth of USDe.

As crypto market yields weaken, Ethena aims to expand USDe’s yield model to leveraged equity trading. The company’s plan has not yet been implemented. According to Ethena data cited by CoinDesk, open interest in equity perpetual futures surged from under $1 billion in March to $6.2 billion.

The company expects to announce its first exchange partnerships and the platforms where the strategy will be implemented in the coming weeks. In perpetual futures, traders make regular funding payments to carry their positions. To generate income from these payments, Ethena takes a spot position in the asset itself while opening an offsetting position in the futures contract.

Funding rates are higher in equity trading

According to data shared by Ethena, the median funding rate in equity perpetual futures stands at 13.9%. For Bitcoin, the same rate is cited as 3.9%. In recent months, average rates reached approximately 14% on Hyperliquid and 17.5% on Binance.

This gap has become more pronounced as Bitcoin funding rates declined throughout the year. Bitcoin funding averaged 11% in 2024 and 4.9% in 2025, while it has been only 2.2% this year through August 11.

Ethena noted that equity funding shows a low correlation with Bitcoin. The long-term upward trend of stocks could support demand for leveraged long positions. This way, USDe’s revenue sources could become less dependent on crypto trading.

This new pursuit comes at a time when USDe supply has fallen from a peak of nearly $15 billion to under $5 billion.