"Both the underlying stablecoins and associated rewards are safeguarded by our industry-leading custody and security architecture," a spokesperson told CoinDesk via email. "We provide our rewards program through an entity wholly separate from Anchorage Digital Bank."
The initiative is funded by Anchorage and aims to give institutions "more flexibility and capital efficiency in their treasury management," the Anchorage spokesperson added.
The $GENIUS Act, passed earlier this year to provide a legal framework for the fast-growing stablecoin sector, prohibits issuers to pay out interest on stablecoins in an effort to prevent unregulated banking activity, effectively banning yield-bearing stablecoins.
Anchorage's proposed structure aims to offer a template for U.S. issuers to distribute reward-like benefits and incentives to token holders while remaining compliant with U.S. regulations.
Ethena's USDtb stablecoin, issued by Anchorage, is backed by short-term Treasuries including BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund. Meanwhile, the $USDe token, was designed as a "synthetic dollar" where it holds spot crypto assets like bitcoin BTC$86,842.13 and ether ETH$2,894.12 and an equal amount of short futures to anchor its price to $1.
"We are proving that stablecoins can deliver both rewards and regulatory integrity, a powerful combination that will define the next era of participation in digital assets," Ethena Labs founder Guy Young said in a statement.
coindesk.com
