Ethena ENA -1.41% 's USDe can now be used as a collateral asset to trade perpetual futures on the Bitget derivatives exchange.
This move will enable the exchange's users to potentially earn a yield on their collateral, which will be distributed by Bitget, according to a statement.
The exchange is also offering USDe as a savings product within Bitget’s "Earn" program, and integrating USDe into spot order book pairs.
Ethena Labs Founder Guy Young claimed that if traders use stablecoins instead of USDe for trading any derivative product, they lose substantial value. "Our goal is to ensure that no trader has to forgo that value any longer," Young said. This is because the token offers yield based on both staking rewards and a delta-neutral trading position.
A digital dollar experiment
However, USDe carries with it some risks beyond those associated with normal stablecoins, as the project acknowledges.
The token is backed by a delta-neutral position that balances a basket of staked ether derivatives with ether shorts on centralized exchanges. This is designed to generate a yield as long as funding rates are positive, which they have typically been, historically speaking.
The main risk to the token would be if funding rates went negative for a sustained period of time, which would either reduce the yield to zero or start chipping away at its assets. Other concerns include custodial counterparty risks.