Yzi Labs deepens shares in Stablecoin issuer Ethena

Technology-focused venture capital firm Yzi Labs has added its stake in Ethena, the issuer behind USDE, which will help digital dollars adoption on decentralized and centralized platforms.

This investment will assist Ethena USDE (USDE) in its expansion on the BNB chain, while allowing Ethena to continue to establish its USDTB Stablecoin and institutional settlement layers “converge.”

USDTB is backed by short-term fiscal assets including BlackRock’s Buidl, and Converge is an Ethereum virtual machine-compatible chain focused on real-world assets.

The move supports Yzi’s mission, “supporting open, scalable digital dollar infrastructure that can serve as the backbone of efficiency and liquidity across the financial ecosystem.”

Ethena Labs CEO Guy Young added: “The Holy Grail of Digital Dollar Issues has always embedded stable, load-bearing assets directly into the heart of the crypto economy.

“This vision has become a reality as the USDA now crosses communications, the FEFI protocol and the global user base expand.”

The stable adoption is because the Treasury Department estimated in April that the $295 billion market will flourish to $2 trillion by 2028. The momentum was strengthened by U.S. President Trump’s signing of the Genius Act in July, and is regarded as one of the most comprehensive Stablecoin laws to date.

USDE Use Cases to Extend BNB Chain

Yzi, formerly Binance Labs, invested in Ethena for the first time through its Season 6 Incubation Program before it was released publicly in USDE in February 2024. USDE’s synthetic dollar is primarily backed by cryptocurrencies and is stable through a hedging strategy in Delta, which fixes its value in $1.

Yzi said USDE’s expansion to the BNB chain will build on the deployment in April with the development of new currency markets, protocol integration and ecosystem partnerships.

Related: ASIC simplifies licensing rules for Stablecoin distributors in Australia

Since its launch, USDE has reached a market capitalization of $14 billion – only behind Tether (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC), at $171.5 billion and $73.9 billion, respectively. The addition of USDE adoption can allow it to cut it into USDT and USDC dominance and expand its use in the crypto ecosystem.