Ethena Labs Successfully Raises $100M in Fundraising to Fund its New TradFi Token Called iUSDe

According to Bloomberg, Ethena, a DeFi protocol, has just completed a $100 million fundraising round from major investment funds

DeFi protocol Ethena has reportedly closed a $100 million fundraising round from major investment funds, including Franklin Templeton, F-Prime Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Polychain Capital, and Pantera Capital, informed Bloomberg on Thursday.

As Draper Dragon, a seed-stage venture capital firm, joins the investors in Ethena, the round is said to be completed at a valuation of around $1 billion.

Ethena is a decentralized finance protocol focused on developing innovative solutions for the digital asset industry. The protocol is aiming to expand the adoption of its stablecoin USDe and develop iUSDe, a stablecoin specifically designed for traditional financial institutions.

Moreover, Ethena plans to launch its blockchain, leveraging the newly raised capital to grow its ecosystem.

The Ethena Labs development team has stated that their primary goal for Q1 this year is to collaborate with financial service providers to enable their clients to access iUSDe easily without relying on crypto infrastructure—an objective that was already part of the 2025 roadmap announced in January by Guy Young, the founder of Ethena.

This move highlights Ethena’s push to connect the worlds of cryptocurrency and traditional finance.

After the news of successful $100 million fundraising, $ENA went around at $0.45, a slight increase compared to the figure of $0.36 last week.

IUSD: A Combination With TradFi

A key part of this plan involves launching iUSDe, a new token tailored for regulated financial institutions. USDe makes money by using price differences between the spot and futures markets to do arbitrage and delta-hedging.

IUSD, on the other hand, will cater to TradFi by adding “simple wrapper contracts.” These contracts enforce on-chain transfer restrictions, allowing asset managers to control where tokens are sent, aligning with regulatory and risk management needs.

With this new capital, Ethena aims to build an independent blockchain and roll out iUSDe in Q1 2025. Founder Guy Young is focused on onboarding TradFi distribution partners to make iUSDe widely accessible, positioning it as a compliant, institution-friendly version of their staked stablecoin (sUSDe). This move is designed to attract traditional financial players, potentially unlocking significant new capital for the crypto ecosystem by blending DeFi with conventional markets.

About Ethena

Ethena is a DeFi project projected to be built on the Ethereum blockchain and Restaking Narrative that aims to provide a crypto-native alternative to traditional stablecoins. It introduces a synthetic dollar called USDe, designed to maintain a stable value pegged to the US dollar without relying on centralized banking systems.

Unlike conventional stablecoins like USDT or USDC, which are typically backed by fiat currency reserves held by institutions, USDe achieves stability through a combination of cryptocurrency collateral—such as staked Ethereum (e.g., stETH)—and hedged positions in the derivatives market, specifically short futures contracts. This approach, often referred to as a “delta-neutral” strategy, offsets price volatility in the collateral to keep USDe’s value steady at approximately $1.