MEXC invests $36M in Ethena to boost USDe adoption and expand Ethena ecosystem

MEXC announced a $20 million allocation to Ethena’s synthetic dollar USDe and a $16 million in Ethena Labs to fund user incentives to drive stablecoin adoption. 

On Feb. 26, MEXC crypto exchange announced that it had allocated $20 million to USDe. Additionally, MEXC Ventures, the investment branch of MEXC, has invested $16 million into Ethena (ENA) to be used for user-focused stablecoin-related incentives for users, including opportunities to earn rewards in high-APR staking events. 

Ethena’s USDe is classified as a stablecoin, but it differs from classic stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and USD coin (USDC) in that it offers its holders a 9% yield. As of the time of writing, USDe’s market capitalization is $5.86 billion, which makes it the the third largest stablecoin by marketcap, after USDT and USDC.

Ethena didn’t just issue USDe for yield generation. It’s also building a comprehensive ecosystem to support it, including Ethereal, a platform for spot trading, and Derive, a protocol for on-chain options. 

MEXC’s investment follows Ethena’s recent closing of a $100-million funding round, which had seen backing from major investors like Franklin Templeton. According to Bloomberg, this fundraising was conducted through a private sale of Ethena’s governance token ENA. 

The fundraising effort was for the launch of the new token, iUSDe. iUSDe will be a regulated version of Ethena’s existing synthetic dollar, tailored for traditional financial institutions looking for crypto exposure without directly investing in digital assets, according to Guy Young, the founder of Ethena Labs. Reportedly, Ethena also intends to use part of the funds to support the development of its own blockchain.

Buoyed by these developments, ENA price is up by 7% over the past 24 hours, trading at $0.44, with the trading volume of approximately $300 million, according to Coinmarketcap.