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This Week In DeFi – March 29

This Week In DeFi – March 29

Alex Miguel
March 29, 2024

Happy Friday, DeFi readers!

This week…

USDe’s Ethena to airdrop ENA token
RWA tokens see 81% rally
Bitcoin DeFi garners attention

USDe’s Ethena to airdrop ENA token

Ethena, the protocol behind the synthetic dollar stablecoin, USDe, has unveiled its plans to debut its ENA governance token.

ENA will make its first appearance in the form of an airdrop, as 750 million tokens representing 5% of the total supply will be distributed to users on April 2.

The airdrop targets users holding the USDe token – which is backed by a combination of stETH and ETH short positions – with eligibility depending on those users not unstaking or selling their USDe before April 1.

The total USDe supply has surged from $85 million to $1.3 billion since the start of the year, with high yields driving user adoption.

We are excited to announce the first step in decentralizing the Ethena protocol with the launch of:
$ENA
— Ethena Labs (@ethena_labs)
7:58 PM • Mar 27, 2024

RWA tokens see 81% rally

Real-World Asset (RWA) governance tokens have seen a jump in price this week, as the combined market cap of the sector rallied 81%.

Ondo finance led the charge with a 123% increase, which has been attributed to financial institutions exploring new on-chain applications for real-world assets. This included BlackRock’s tokenization of a US Treasury fund, named BUIDL – to which Ondo has already allocated funds.

News also arose of major Australasian bank, ANZ, leveraging Chainlink’s cross-chain interoperability protocol for tokenized asset transfers.

What is RWA and BlackRock's BUIDL?
Signaling they’re making another step into the digital asset space

BlackRock unveiled its first tokenized fund on ETH… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
— Gemini (@Gemini)
7:18 PM • Mar 28, 2024

Bitcoin DeFi garners attention

Focus on Bitcoin-centric DeFi has been ramping up significantly, with a pair of projects acquiring funding for development in the sector.

First-up was Automated Liquidity Exchange (ALEX) raising $10 million in a strategic funding round led by Spartan Capital, seeking to continue developing its infrastructure on Bitcoin Layer-2 platform, Stacks.

“Hybird” Layer-2 blockchain BOB also raised $10 million in a seed funding round led by Castle Island Ventures, as it aims to introduce the first Bitcoin layer-2 network that is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

Alex TVL surpasses $200M! Still the king of #BitcoinDeFi 👑🥇
alexgo.io
— ALEX 🟧 THE Finance Layer on Bitcoin (@ALEXLabBTC)
11:20 PM • Mar 27, 2024

Jumping across to the Ethereum blockchain itself, BadgerDAO has launched its own BTC-pegged token, eBTC, which will be backed by stETH.

The initiative was created in partnership with Ether staking protocol, Lido, enabling users to take out no-fee, reward-bearing Bitcoin loans.

1/ The wait is over. eBTC is now live 🚀
Use ETH, WETH, stETH or wstETH to borrow the most decentralized Bitcoin built for Ethereum DeFi at no cost.
Take the Purple Pill anon.
ebtc.finance
#Bitcoin will never be the same.👇
— eBTC | Get Paid to Borrow Bitcoin (@eBTCprotocol)
1:07 PM • Mar 26, 2024

BlackRock meets DeFi?

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, has dived right into the deep end of the crypto pool with its new fund, BUIDL, launched on the Ethereum blockchain.

Perhaps as expected, the venture isn’t designed for just any average Joe – it specifically targets accredited investors with a minimum investment of $100,000.

Although its exciting to see the world’s financial giants synthesising their offerings into crypto, BUIDL isn’t very exciting itself. It focuses entirely on U.S. Treasury bills and repo agreements, giving investors a shot at earning some yield in a flashy, high-tech way.

But the vanilla world of traditional finance is big finance, and in just its first week, BUIDL has raked in a whopping $245 million, quickly snagging the title of second-biggest tokenized U.S. treasury fund.

The behind-the-scenes work is likely done by Securitize Markets, known for their dabbling in tokenized securities – though they've been shy about listing BUIDL on their roster. Meanwhile, BlackRock isn't new to the crypto game, having previously launched the iShares Bitcoin Trust, making waves as a top spot Bitcoin ETF. They've even got eyes on an Ethereum ETF, hinting that this is just the beginning of their blockchain bonanza.

Ondo Finance, sitting pretty with $220 million TVL, has commited a hefty chunk of its OUSG fund straight into BUIDL, celebrating BlackRock’s foray into the world of tokenization.

But BlackRock isn’t the only old-school finance giant keeping up with the rapdily-evolving space. HSBC and the Australia and New Zealand Bank (ANZ) are also testing the waters with their own tokenized tricks. HSBC's rolled out a tokenized gold product for the retail crowd in Hong Kong, while ANZ has been playing around with NFTs that represent Aussie natural resources.

It's clear the finance world's getting a blockchain makeover, and everyone's invited to the party.