CZ's $10B Family Office Boosts Ethena Investment as USDe Stablecoin Surges to $14B Market Cap

YZi Labs, the $10 billion family office of former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, has significantly increased its stake in Ethena Labs, the developer behind the rapidly growing USDe synthetic dollar. This strategic move comes as USDe's market capitalization hits approximately $14 billion, making it the world's third-largest stablecoin according to The Block.

YZi Labs, established in 2024 after Zhao's $4.3 billion settlement with US authorities, manages his personal fortune estimated at over $30 billion. The family office has been actively investing in digital assets, AI ventures, and Asian tech startups. Ethena was among YZi's earliest supporters, having been selected for its Season 6 Incubation Program in February 2024 before USDe's official launch.

The investment coincides with several major developments for Ethena. Binance recently listed USDe as both a spot trading pair and collateral asset for derivatives traders, resulting in remarkable trading volumes exceeding $1.2 billion in the first 72 hours. This placed USDe among the top five new pairs by turnover this quarter.

Ethena is also expanding its presence on BNB Chain, planning to support new money markets, protocol integrations, and ecosystem partnerships. The project's rapid growth has been fueled by annualized yields of 7-12% generated through its unique delta-neutral hedging strategy, attracting both retail users and institutional DeFi funds.

Guy Young, Ethena's founder and CEO, stated: "We're thrilled to deepen our partnership with YZi Labs, a long-standing and strategic backer. The holy grail of digital dollar distribution has always been embedding stable, yield-bearing assets directly into the core of the crypto economy."

Ethena has attracted an impressive roster of backers including Arthur Hayes' Maelstrom, Dragonfly, Brevan Howard, Franklin Templeton, Galaxy Digital, and Coinbase Ventures. The company is also developing USDtb, a token backed by BlackRock's BUIDL fund (the world's largest tokenized money-market fund with over $500 million in assets), and Converge, a settlement layer developed with Securitize and BlackRock aimed at bringing institutional-grade tokenized assets on-chain.