BlackRock pushes deeper into DeFi with Ethena integration, sending ENA up 8%

Ethena said its yield-generating "synthetic dollar" token will be integrated into BlackRock's (BLK) Aladdin investment management platform as the crypto protocol is deepening its relationship with traditional finance firms.

The Monday announcement sent Ethena's governance token ENA (ENA) up about 8% on the day as investors welcomed another high-profile institutional partnership.

Aladdin is BlackRock's portfolio construction, trading and risk management platform used by banks, insurers, pension funds and asset managers overseeing more than $20 trillion in combined assets. The integration will give institutions using Aladdin access to USDe, Ethena's yield token designed for onchain savings and settlement.

Ethena also said BlackRock's tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, will serve as the primary reserve asset for a forthcoming white-label product. The companies also plan to establish a liquidity facility for BlackRock's tokenized products.

The announcement is the latest in a series of partnerships between global asset managers and decentralized finance protocols.

Earlier this year, BlackRock expanded its tokenized money market fund through a partnership with Uniswap and also invested an undisclosed amount in the decentralized exchange's UNI token. Private markets giant Apollo Global Management (APO) struck a deal with lending protocol Morpho to bring tokenized private credit assets onchain.

Ethena has been increasingly focused on expanding to institutions as well. Asset manager Janus Henderson, which oversees roughly $480 billion, recently made a strategic investment in ENA and planned to use USDe for treasury management while exploring ways to distribute the token through exchange-traded products. Ethena also announced plans to allocate $250 million to Securitize's tokenized AAA-rated collateralized loan obligation fund, deepening its exposure to tokenized credit markets.

Earlier this month, Coinbase Ventures disclosed its first investment in Ethena and unveiled plans to bring Ethena products to Coinbase's user base. Ethena also expanded its relationship with Anchorage Digital to support institutional lending through Anchorage's collateral management platform.