GTE × Zero × Ethena

Section 01 — The Relationship

GTE and Ethena already chose each other.

This memo starts from an existing relationship. Guy, Nick, and the Ethena team are already investors in GTE. You have been with us for a while. You know the team, the product direction, and the role GTE is taking on inside Zero. We know Ethena's product at the same depth. USDe, sUSDe, USDtb, and the basis trade are not abstract primitives to us. They are assets we can make native to the trading layer.

Ethena is already one of the most important companies in DeFi. The product has earned that position through lending, looping, collateral demand, and the onchain basis trade. The next expansion is trading. Not passive stablecoin distribution. Native market structure.

GTE is the main broker on Zero's Global Liquidity Layer. We are co-designing and co-developing the GLL with LayerZero. The architecture has two lanes. The regulated lane serves institutions that require approved counterparties, compliant access, and institutional-grade assets. The free lane serves global consumers who want access to the same economic exposures without the constraints of legacy brokerage infrastructure.

GTE is the distributor for both lanes. On the regulated lane, GTE routes users to institutional markets. On the free lane, GTE is both the router and the originator. Brokers create markets on Zero, and GTE intends to create every free market that matters.

That is where Ethena becomes the trading currency.

GTE can denominate every market it creates in Ethena products. US equities, global equities, commodities, FX, crypto, rates, gold, and tokenized securities can all be quoted, margined, and settled through USDe, sUSDe, USDtb, and future Ethena assets. The Maggie white-label stablecoin with MakerDAO/Sky already proves Ethena can power another venue's monetary layer. Zero gives Ethena the opportunity to do the same thing for onchain trading.

Ethena does not need another integration. Ethena needs a venue where its products become the unit of account for trading.

The pitch is simple. You are already big in DeFi. You should be big in trading as well. GTE can make that happen inside the LayerZero Global Liquidity Layer, with Ethena products embedded where they matter most: quote currency, collateral, settlement, and basis execution.

This is not a new relationship. It is the next logical form of an existing one.

Section 02 — The Economics

Where Ethena products capture value across the GLL.

The fee waterfall is mechanical. User fees enter at the top. The broker rebate is paid first. The protocol keeps the residual, and the Market Creation Fund pays 25 percent of that residual to the market creator. GTE earns the broker rebate and, on GTE-deployed markets, the creator share of the residual.

For Ethena, the point is not only the fee take. The point is where the collateral, quote depth, settlement flow, and basis demand sit. If GTE-denominated markets run through Ethena products, the trading volume that drives GTE's revenue also drives Ethena's balance sheet utility.

Where Ethena captures value

01 · USDe as quote currency. Free-lane markets can be priced natively in USDe. Traders see USDe as the default dollar for equities, commodities, FX, crypto, and global assets. The product moves from DeFi collateral into the visible unit of account for onchain trading.

02 · USDe as margin and settlement. Positions can post USDe as collateral, settle P&L in USDe, pay fees in USDe, and recycle liquidity back into USDe-denominated books. Every open position expands the surface area of USDe demand.

03 · sUSDe as yield-bearing collateral. This is the killer feature. Traders can hold margin that continues to earn yield while sitting inside the trading stack. GTE can make sUSDe a premium collateral asset for sophisticated users who understand capital efficiency and do not want idle margin.

04 · USDtb for the regulated lane. USDtb, with BlackRock-backed T-bill exposure, gives Ethena a cleaner bridge into institutional trading. It fits counterparties that want tokenized treasury collateral, lower volatility, and a product that can sit naturally beside regulated market access.

05 · Gold and future Ethena products. If Ethena launches gold products, GTE can create markets and collateral rules around them. Gold-backed collateral, gold perps, commodity pairs, and cross-margin structures become native extensions of the same GLL surface.

Ethena invented the onchain basis trade. GTE gives that trade a liquid execution layer across tokenized securities, perps, and stable collateral.

The basis trade is the deeper alignment. Ethena already built the delta-neutral stablecoin model around long spot, short perps, and funding capture. Zero can expose a broader version of that logic to users. A trader can hold tokenized securities, hedge through perps, finance with Ethena collateral, and settle the entire position onchain. The experience becomes atomic, liquid, and denominated in Ethena assets.

This is how Ethena expands from lending and looping into trading. The same products that already dominate DeFi collateral can become the monetary base for a global market venue.

Section 03 — The Scale

Trade.xyz and Hyperliquid proved the demand for decentralized perps on everything. GTE and Ethena can build the aligned version on Zero.

Trade.xyz is useful because it gives us a live reference point. It showed that users want equity perps, spot, and non-crypto exposures onchain when the venue feels native and the markets are liquid. The specific relationship between Trade.xyz, Hyperliquid, and Circle is less important than the demand signal. The category is real.

Per-market revenue at Trade.xyz scale

Applied to Trade.xyz's fee base, a single GTE-deployed market generates the following annual revenue across broker tiers:

A portfolio of 5-10 scaled markets places the free lane at $175M-$500M of annual revenue.

At scale, the stablecoin underneath the market is not incidental. It becomes the monetary layer for the venue.

The implication for Ethena is direct. If USDe and sUSDe sit underneath GTE's free-lane markets, then every scaled market creates recurring demand for Ethena collateral. If USDtb sits underneath regulated-lane access, then institutional activity creates demand for Ethena's treasury-backed product. If future gold products are integrated, then commodity and hedging markets can extend the same flywheel.

$2.1B of daily trading volume implies a durable nine- to ten-figure collateral and settlement footprint on Zero alone. Ethena's opportunity is to own that footprint before another stablecoin becomes the default.

Section 04 — The Coalition

A coalition is forming. Ethena is already inside it.

GTE is the chosen partner to lead connectivity into the coalition forming around Zero. We are the broker, the market creator, and the distribution engine for every major free-lane product. LayerZero brings the messaging and liquidity architecture. The regulated side brings institutional credibility. The free side brings global consumer access. GTE ties the two together through distribution and market creation.

Ethena is uniquely positioned because you are already aligned. You are not evaluating GTE from the outside. Guy, Nick, and the team already invested. You already believe there is something here. The question now is whether we turn that belief into a formal commercial strategy.

The coalition is being set now. Ethena can be a passive investor in GTE, or it can become the monetary layer of GTE's markets.

We should choose the second path.

The formal relationship should be straightforward. GTE and Ethena align on market denomination, collateral support, launch sequencing, and incentives. USDe becomes the default free-lane trading dollar where appropriate. sUSDe becomes premium yield-bearing collateral. USDtb becomes the regulated-lane treasury product. Future Ethena assets get priority consideration in the risk engine and market creation roadmap.

This is offensive expansion. Ethena is not defending an incumbent stablecoin position. Ethena is extending its basis-trade product suite into the markets where traders actually take risk. The next move is to make that same product suite native to trading.

GTE can do that. We are already building the venue. You are already investors. The remaining move is to formalize the partnership and make Ethena the dominant trading currency across Zero.

The trade is there. The distribution is there. The relationship is already there. Now we should make it explicit.