Changpeng Zhao’s YZi Labs Boosts Investment in Stablecoin Issuer Ethena

YZi Labs has doubled down on Ethena, aiming to accelerate the adoption of its USDe stablecoin across multiple chains and support the launch of a new digital dollar.

• Funding will drive USDe’s growth on BNB Chain and back Ethena’s upcoming USDtb stablecoin and Converge settlement layer.
• U.S. Treasury projects the stablecoin market could surge to $2T by 2028.
• USDe already boasts a $14B market cap, ranking behind only Tether and USDC.
• Ethena also enjoys support from Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, and DragonFly.

YZi Labs, the tech-focused venture firm founded by Changpeng Zhao, is strengthening its commitment to stablecoin innovation with a fresh investment in Ethena, the issuer of the USDe digital dollar. The additional funding will speed USDe’s expansion across decentralized and centralized platforms, particularly on BNB Chain, while supporting development of Ethena’s USDtb stablecoin and its new institutional settlement layer, Converge.

USDtb will be backed by short-duration U.S. treasury assets such as BlackRock’s BUIDL, and Converge will run as an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible chain designed to tokenize real-world assets. YZi Labs said the move aligns with its mission to create scalable, open digital dollar infrastructures capable of boosting global liquidity and efficiency.

Ethena’s CEO Guy Young described the initiative as a step toward embedding yield-bearing digital dollars at the heart of the crypto economy. Since its launch, USDe has quickly reached a $14 billion market cap, trailing only Tether’s $171.5 billion and Circle’s $73.9 billion. The stablecoin’s synthetic dollar is primarily crypto-backed and stabilized through a delta-neutral hedging strategy to maintain its $1 peg.

The timing is promising: the U.S. Treasury recently projected the stablecoin market could grow from $295 billion to $2 trillion by 2028, while President Trump’s signing of the GENIUS Act in July gave regulatory clarity for further expansion. YZi, formerly Binance Labs, first invested in Ethena in early 2024 and is now driving USDe’s broader deployment with new money markets, integrations, and ecosystem partnerships on BNB Chain.

Looking ahead, USDe is set for adoption on new platforms, including Aster, a decentralized perpetuals exchange promoted by YZi. Major traditional finance players such as Fidelity and Franklin Templeton, along with crypto VC firm DragonFly, have also thrown their weight behind Ethena, signaling strong institutional confidence in the project’s future.

Final Thought

With YZi Labs’ reinforced backing, Ethena’s USDe is poised to challenge dominant players like Tether and USDC, potentially reshaping the stablecoin landscape as adoption accelerates across chains and institutions.