Ethena Labs, an artificial stablecoin startup, has integrated Bybit to utilize its USDe token as collateral on the crypto exchange.

Expanding the support for USDe will enable users to trade perpetuals and earn yield on Ethena, boasting a 15.3% APY and zero fees for Bitcoin and Ether spot trading on Bybit. Bybit users will also have access to the token on the Earn platform.

Ethena's native token, ENA, has seen a 1.5% increase, reaching $0.97, with a market cap of $1.3 billion. A 5% airdrop of ENA targeted early adopters, helping it achieve a $1 billion market cap on the first day. The project has initiated its sats campaign.

This integration adds fuel to the stablecoin competition, which has intensified recently with PayPal allowing PYUSD for international payments and Ripple showcasing its stablecoin. Ethena aims to replicate the success of leading stablecoins like USDT and USDC, which dominate 90% of the $160 billion stablecoin market cap.

The growth of USDT and USDC is attributed to their usage as trading pairs on centralized exchanges. Introducing USDe to these pairs marks the initial step in expanding its adoption beyond DeFi into more liquid trading options.

Positioning USDe on Bybit is advantageous for the ecosystem, ranking behind Binance with $3.6 billion in volume and $39.1 million monthly. Despite a recent downturn, Ethena's ecosystem is on an upward trajectory since its launch in February 2024, despite experiencing a drop from a 27% yield on its stablecoin to 15%, triggering PTSD concerns related to the Terra incident.

USDe, Ethena's artificial stablecoin, maintains a peg of $1, backed by ETH staked on Lido and hedging stETH with ETH on centralized exchanges. Following the airdrop, USDe ranks 5th with a market capitalization of $2.4 billion, experiencing a 20% increase in early April, coinciding with the introduction of Bitcoin as collateral, bringing its market cap to $2.29 billion.