Ethena and Binance launch equity perpetual contracts using tokenized stocks

2h ago•

bullish:

bearish:

Ethena and Binance have opened a new front in synthetic dollar backing, rolling out equity perpetual contracts that use tokenized stocks as collateral for a market-neutral trading strategy. The move, confirmed in a statement shared with The Block, extends Ethena’s basis-trade playbook beyond crypto assets and into listed U.S. equities for the first time, using Binance’s tokenized stock products known as bStocks alongside the exchange’s equity perpetual futures market.

Key takeaways

Ethena and Binance launched equity perpetual contracts using tokenized stocks (bStocks) as collateral, denominated in Binance’s USDT for hedging.
The structure targets market-neutral returns by capturing the price gap between spot stocks and futures or perpetual contracts, rather than betting on stock direction.
According to data supplied by Ethena, Binance’s equity perpetual open interest exceeds $2.9 billion, and this year that figure has been expanding at a 105% compound monthly rate.
Binance is giving eligible delta-neutral accounts, including Ethena, lower automatic deleveraging priority to support trading stability.
Binance Coin (BNB) traded at Rp13,989,616 on Sep 25, 2026, up 1.50% in a day, with Pluang users showing nearly balanced order flow.

Launch of Equity Perpetual Contracts Using Tokenized Stocks

Ethena is folding tokenized U.S. equities into the same delta-neutral machinery that already backs part of its USDe stablecoin, and Binance is supplying the tools to do it. In practice, this means Ethena’s synthetic dollar can now draw funding from equity markets, not just from crypto derivatives, broadening where USDe’s backing actually comes from.

Product Structure and Purpose

The setup pairs tokenized stocks, issued through Binance’s bStocks program, with offsetting short positions in Binance’s equity perpetual contracts. Gains or losses on the tokenized spot side are meant to be balanced out by the derivatives leg, leaving the funding rate, or basis, between the two markets as the main source of return. This is the same market-neutral logic Ethena has run in crypto for years, just extended into listed equities. According to figures Ethena provided, the equity basis has averaged 3.56% annualized over the past six months, while Binance’s equity perpetual open interest has expanded at a compound monthly rate of 105% during 2026.

Ethena’s Risk Committee had already approved a framework for adding tokenized equity basis trades to the protocol’s allocation strategy before this launch, according to the statement shared with The Block. Ethena Labs founder Guy Young called it “the most significant expansion of USDe’s funding mechanism since we started,” adding that “equities trade in the hundreds of trillions of dollars globally, and as more of that market moves onchain, we see a substantial opportunity to continue diversifying our backing strategy.”

Collateral and Hedging Details

bStocks represent an interest in securities held by issuer BTech Holdings Limited and can be converted into the underlying shares on Binance where local laws allow it, though holders do not get the voting rights tied to direct share ownership. Binance first launched bStocks in June with tokenized versions of Nvidia, Tesla, Circle, Micron and Sandisk, backed 1:1 by the corresponding securities. By August, the value of Binance bStocks had climbed to roughly $610.6 million, moving past xStocks to become the second-largest tokenized stock issuer tracked by Token Terminal, behind Ondo Finance.

The equity perpetual contracts themselves are denominated in Binance’s USDT, which is what allows Ethena to hedge the tokenized equity exposure directly on the exchange. In August, Binance’s wider TradFi perpetual futures business produced roughly $433.4 billion in trading volume, of which equity-linked contracts made up about $342.9 billion, highlighting the substantial liquidity already backing this market segment.

Automatic Deleveraging and Delta-Neutral Account Features

Binance is smoothing the path for large, hedged players by lowering the automatic deleveraging priority for eligible delta-neutral accounts, a category that includes Ethena. Automatic deleveraging is the mechanism exchanges use to unwind positions during extreme volatility, and giving delta-neutral accounts lower priority in that queue reduces the odds their hedges get forcibly closed at the wrong moment.

For a strategy built on offsetting spot and derivative legs, that detail matters. Why this matters: if one side of a market-neutral position gets deleveraged while the other stays open, the whole hedge falls apart and exposes the trader to the very price risk it was designed to avoid. Binance’s adjustment is aimed squarely at protecting that structural integrity for accounts running this type of trade at scale.

Binance Head of Exchange and Trading Shunyet Jan framed the expansion as evidence of where crypto and traditional markets are heading. “Binance’s bStocks and equity perpetuals are seeing increased adoption as their liquidity and use case grows,” Jan said. “Ethena runs one of the largest systematic strategies in digital assets, and their expansion into tokenized securities and equity perps is a clear sign of how the convergence of crypto and traditional assets will surface new opportunities.”

Market Response and Binance Coin Activity on Pluang

Trading activity around Binance’s ecosystem token has stayed steady since the launch, with Pluang users showing measured but consistent interest in BNB rather than any dramatic shift in positioning.

Trading Metrics and Market Capitalization

As of September 25, 2026, at 18:43 WIB, BNB traded at Rp13,989,616, up 1.50% over the previous day. Its market capitalization stood at Rp1.853,03 trillion, while trading volume reached Rp27,29 trillion, pointing to active engagement around Binance’s broader ecosystem following the equity perpetual contracts news.

Order Activity and Holding Patterns

On Pluang, order flow for BNB remained close to even, split 52% sell orders against 48% buy orders, a pattern that suggests neither strong conviction nor panic among retail traders reacting to the news. The typical holding period for BNB positions on the platform sat at 88 days, indicating most users are treating the token as a medium-term hold rather than a short-term trade.

Why the Tokenized Equity Push Matters

Ethena’s total USDe supply currently sits at roughly $4.9 billion, and the stablecoin’s backing has already shifted well beyond its original crypto basis trades.

Against that backdrop, adding equity perpetual contracts is less a one-off product launch than another building block in a stablecoin backing model that keeps diversifying away from pure crypto derivatives. For Binance, it reinforces a strategy of stacking tokenized stocks, options and perpetual futures on top of a fast-growing TradFi trading business. For the wider market, it signals that the line between onchain crypto infrastructure and traditional equity exposure is getting thinner, one basis trade at a time.

FAQ

What are equity perpetual contracts launched by Ethena and Binance?

They are derivatives using tokenized stocks (bStocks) as collateral, aimed at market-neutral trading by profiting from spot and futures price differences.