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Decentralized finance firm Ethena Labs rolled out its new BlackRock BUIDL Fund-backed stablecoin, USDtb, on Dec. 16, amassing $65.4 million in total value locked on the first day. 
Ethena’s new USDtb stablecoin will function similarly to Tether (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/tether-price-index" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">USDT</a>) and USD Coin (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/usdc-price-index" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">USDC</a>) as it is backed by cash or cash equivalents at a 1:1 ratio. It may help holders of Ethena’s flagship product, USDe, “weather difficult market conditions.”
“Ethena will be able to close the hedging positions underlying USDe and re-allocate its backing assets to USDtb to further ameliorate related risks,” Ethena Labs <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://mirror.xyz/0xF99d0E4E3435cc9C9868D1C6274DfaB3e2721341/LgHNQeP2q2R91yPlhBuLG3ZkKX6golgTdA2TYOviBMM" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">said</a> in a Dec. 16 announcement.
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 <img alt="Optimism high for Ethena’s USDtb stablecoin as it clocks $65M TVL on day 1" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/0193d253-bdca-79e1-87d9-215ca2892286" title="">
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 Source: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/ethena_labs/status/1868657723799470361" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" text="null" title="https://x.com/ethena_labs/status/1868657723799470361">Ethena Labs</a>
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USDtb has received praise from José Maria Macedo, one of the founders of blockchain research and development firm Delphi Labs, who <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/ZeMariaMacedo/status/1868673718911713602" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">predicted</a> that USDtb will become the largest tokenized treasury product within one month of launch.
Ethena’s head of growth, Seraphim Czecker, <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/MacroMate8/status/1868668451918913893" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">said</a> USDtb has the potential to scale to $100 billion because the firm can now effectively allocate capital in bearish environments by “creating an APY ‘floor’ around the T-Bill rate.”
The stablecoin is 90% backed by <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/blackrock-buidl-goes-multichain" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund</a> in partnership with blockchain tokenization firm Securitize.&nbsp;
One of Ethena’s committee members, Block Analiticia, <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://gov.ethenafoundation.com/t/proposal-usdtb-as-a-usde-backing-asset-and-eligible-asset-for-the-reserve-fund/385" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">noted</a> in the now-approved proposal that stablecoins like USDC would make up the remaining 10% of USDtb’s reserves, which can help provide additional liquidity over weekends or other times when US Treasury bill markets are unavailable.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
 Now tracking <a href="https://twitter.com/ethena_labs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ethena_labs</a> USDtb on <a href="https://twitter.com/ethereum?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ethereum</a> USDtb is an independent, bankruptcy-remote USD stablecoin issued by Pallas (BVI) Ltd., backed by institutional custodial investments and tokenized U.S. treasury funds <a href="https://t.co/9Y9XuCs1qD">pic.twitter.com/9Y9XuCs1qD</a>— DefiLlama.com (@DefiLlama) <a href="https://twitter.com/DefiLlama/status/1868789526199701855?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 16, 2024</a>
</blockquote>
The “core” of USDtb’s <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/learn/articles/what-are-smart-contracts-a-beginners-guide-to-automated-agreements" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">smart contracts</a> passed three full audits from Pashov, Quantstamp and Cyfrin in October with no high or medium-level findings. <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethena-new-stablecoin-blackrock-buidl-fund" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">USDtb was given the green light</a> after being approved by Ethena’s risk committee in late September, though details weren’t finalized until earlier this month. Cointelegraph reached out to Ethena Labs for comment but received no response by the time of publishing.
Related: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethena-labs-accused-farming-ethena-tokens" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Ethena dismisses inaccurate claims over ENA token staking</a>
It comes as Ethena’s USDe stablecoin recently surpassed Dai (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/dai-price-index" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">DAI</a>) to become the <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethena-usde-beats-dai-third-largest-stablecoin" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">third-largest stablecoin</a>, trailing only USDT and USDC.
However, USDe’s market cap of $5.87 billion is still far behind USDT and USDC’s market cap of $140.6 billion and $42.1 billion, respectively, DefiLlama <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://defillama.com/stablecoins" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">data</a> shows.
The stablecoin market cap recently surpassed $200 billion, and crypto asset manager Bitwise predicts that number to <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitwise-predicts-five-crypto-unicorns-will-launch-ipo-in-2025" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">double to $400 billion</a> in 2025, citing the likely passing of stablecoin legislation in the US.
Magazine:<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/solana-champion-mert-mumtaz-fud-sol-most-helius/" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null"> The rise of Mert Mumtaz: ‘I probably FUD Solana the most out of anybody’</a>

Optimism high for Ethena’s USDtb stablecoin as it clocks $65M TVL on day 1

Cointelegraph

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