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Key Takeaways
- Coinbase Ventures bought ENA tokens on the open market and partnered with Ethena to offer a new onchain savings product to Coinbase’s 100 million-plus users, with the first integration set to launch within days.
- Delphi Ventures’ Yan Liberman suggested the deal could link Coinbase’s $19 billion USDC ecosystem with Ethena’s yield infrastructure, though neither company confirmed the specific product mechanics.
- In a separate announcement, Ethena expanded its partnership with Anchorage Digital to manage collateral for institutional loan investments through Anchorage’s Atlas platform.
Coinbase Ventures purchased ENA tokens on the open market and announced a partnership with Ethena to offer a new on-chain savings product to the exchange’s more than 100 million users, with the first integration set to launch next week. ENA, Ethena’s governance token, surged 20% following the announcement before paring gains, and was up 3% over the past 24 hours despite a broader crypto market pullback at the time of reporting.
Coinbase Already Serves as Ethena’s Primary Custodian, Wallet Provider, and Perpetuals Venue
Ethena announced Tuesday that it had partnered with Coinbase to expand on-chain finance and savings offerings, with the first initiative set to launch within days. Coinbase disclosed that it already functions as Ethena’s primary custodian, wallet provider, and perpetuals venue.
Under the partnership, Ethena’s USDe yield token will be distributed on the Base network and across the broader Coinbase ecosystem. Neither company disclosed specific product details ahead of the launch. Ethena founder Guy Young said in a post on X:
“Excited to partner with Coinbase for the first time to support their dollar savings products. The upcoming integration next week will be the first time Ethena products are available for their 100m+ user base.”
Ethena’s protocol assets reached $15 billion at the October 2025 market peak before declining to $5.3 billion as demand and yields fell. In the same post, Young said that if the CLARITY Act, a market structure bill currently before U.S. lawmakers, passes, it could benefit on-chain-native assets like USDe, Ethena’s synthetic dollar token.
Delphi Ventures Partner Says Partnership Could Link Coinbase’s $19 Billion USDC Ecosystem to Ethena’s Yield Infrastructure
While neither Coinbase nor Ethena disclosed the mechanics of the upcoming product, Yan Liberman, managing partner at Delphi Ventures, an existing investor in Ethena, said the deal could potentially connect Coinbase’s roughly $19 billion USDC stablecoin ecosystem with Ethena’s yield-generating infrastructure.
Liberman argued in a post on X that the arrangement could unlock a new source of capital for Ethena while enabling Coinbase to offer more competitive lending yields to its users. Neither company confirmed this characterization. Liberman wrote:
“If sUSDe yields clear baseline USDC rates, Coinbase can offer better USDC lending yields. Ethena gets deeper and cheaper funding than native DeFi alone.”
Anchorage Digital Expands Partnership With Ethena to Manage Collateral for Institutional Loan Investments
Also on Tuesday, and separate from the Coinbase announcement, Ethena said it had broadened its existing partnership with crypto bank Anchorage Digital to support institutional lending activity.
Under the expanded arrangement, Anchorage will manage collateral for Ethena’s loan investments through its Atlas platform. The setup allows borrowers to keep assets in regulated custody rather than moving them on-chain. Ethena and Anchorage said the arrangement is designed to make crypto-native lending more accessible to institutions that require compliance controls.
“Institutions want access to crypto-native capital, but not at the cost of custody, controls, or operational rigor,” Anchorage CEO Nathan McCauley said in a statement.
The expanded deal builds on an existing relationship between the two firms. Anchorage Digital Bank already serves as the U.S. issuer of Ethena’s USDtb stablecoin, making Tuesday’s announcement an extension of a partnership that predates the new institutional lending arrangement.
