Decentralized stablecoin project Ethena, issuer of the “synthetic dollar” USDe, has reportedly conducted a private token sale to launch a new cryptocurrency.
Ethena has raised $100 million from investors, including Franklin Templeton, to build a blockchain and launch a token focused on traditional finance (TradFi), Bloomberg reported on Feb. 24, citing a person with knowledge of the matter.
The private sale was reportedly completed in December 2024, offering Ethena’s eponymous governance token, Ethena (ENA), to investors at an average price of $0.40.
Amid the news of the sale, ENA surged to a multimonth high of $1.30 in mid-December before later losing 70% of its value, according to CoinGecko data.
Trump’s World Liberty Financial partnered with Ethena in late 2024
Alongside Franklin Templeton, Ethena’s private sale reportedly included major industry investors, such as Fidelity Investments-affiliated F-Prime Capital, Dragonfly Capital Partners, Polychain Capital and Pantera Capital Management.
The reported private sale came amid Ethena entering a partnership with World Liberty Financial (WFLI), a decentralized finance (DeFi) project backed by United States President Donald Trump.
Ethena (ENA) price chart over the past year. Source: CoinGecko
As part of the partnership, WFLI and Ethena agreed to integrate sUSDe — a staked version of Ethena USDe (USDE) — with WFLI’s Aave instance, enabling users to deposit USDe and receive rewards in both sUSDe and World Liberty’s WLF token.
Ethena Labs’ founder teased a TradFi token in January
According to the report, Ethena plans to use the token sale proceeds to invest in launching its own blockchain and introducing the TradFi token.
In a January blog post, Ethena Labs founder Guy Young announced plans to roll out iUSDe, a product designed for regulated financial institutions.
Crypto dollar landscape as viewed by Ethena. Source: Ethena
Identical to sUSDe, the forthcoming iUSDe token aims to introduce a “simple wrapper contract” that adds transfer restrictions at the token level “so that it can be held and used by traditional financial entities.”
According to Young, enabling iUSDe access for TradFi distribution partners will be Ethena’s singular focus for the first quarter of 2025.
Cointelegraph approached Ethena for comment regarding the $100 million raise but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
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