Winter to take Etena’s USD as a trading margin
Wintermute is accepting USDe, a cryptocurrency-backed stablecoin, as collateral for spot crypto and derivatives transactions, the trading firm said on October 25.
Wintermuth customers can now use “USDe as an alternative currency; [credit default swaps]Future and space trading,” the company said in a post on the X platform.
The stablecoin will join Wintermute's existing list of crypto securities, which includes Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL) and US Dollar Coin (USDC), Wintermute said.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Trading platforms and regulators are increasingly accepting cryptocurrency as collateral for trading.
In September, the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC)—the United States' central securities trading business—completed a pilot program exploring the use of U.S. Treasury bills as trading margin.
Traders are often required to post collateral or “margin” until they complete trades. Clearinghouses manage and continuously update margin deposits, or “settle” trading accounts.
Stablecoins and other tokens pegged to the US dollar have emerged as the primary infrastructure for trade and payments.
Stablecoin's total market capitalization is expected to peak in 2024 and now exceeds $170 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
On October 21, payment processing giant Stripe acquired stablecoin platform Bridge in a $1.1 billion deal.
In the year PayPal USD (PYUSD), the eponymous payment processor launched in 2023, has been used to settle corporate payments ever since.
Source: Etena Labs
Edition USD circulation supply has increased by more than $2.6 billion since Athena Labs launched the unique stablecoin in February, according to CoinMarketCap.
It's still far behind market leaders Tether (USDT) and USDC, which have market capitalizations of around $120 billion and $34 billion, respectively.
Issuer Etena Labs allows users to generate USDe on tokens including BTC, ETH, and Liquid Staking Derivatives (LSDs) and other stablecoins.
Athena then hedges against the internal volatility of the portfolio by using off-chain financial derivatives.
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