Ethena Labs has announced a strategic partnership with smart account platform Safe Foundation. Under the agreement, users who transact USDe on Ethereum mainnet using Safe accounts will enjoy gas-free transactions, while their USDe holdings will earn 10x Ethena points rewards.
This collaboration aims to steer the stablecoin economy toward a "self-custody track" and position Safe’s self-custody wallet ecosystem as the preferred gateway to Ethena products.
01 Strategic Alliance: When Leading Stablecoins Meet Top-Tier Custody Platforms
In mid-January 2026, Ethena Labs and Safe Foundation officially announced a strategic partnership designed to reshape the stablecoin user experience.
Safe is an industry-leading multi-signature smart account platform, with over $60 billion in digital assets under custody. Ethena Labs’ synthetic US dollar stablecoin, USDe, has surged to become the world’s third-largest stablecoin, boasting a supply exceeding $6.4 billion.
This partnership is rooted in a highly overlapping user base and strong market demand. Data shows that among Ethena-related assets held on the Safe platform, as much as 85% are in the yield-bearing staked version, sUSDe.
This proportion clearly indicates that Safe’s users—primarily DAOs, various protocols, and institutional entities—have deeply integrated Ethena’s products into their treasury management strategies.
02 Dual Incentives: Eliminating Transaction Friction and Amplifying Returns
At the heart of this partnership are two incentives that directly impact user assets and experience, forming a powerful lever to drive USDe adoption.
The first incentive is gas-free transactions. For users managing USDe through Safe smart accounts, Safe Foundation will sponsor all gas fees for USDe-related transactions on Ethereum mainnet.
This means users can transfer funds, interact with DeFi protocols, and more without paying network fees—a move officially described as "a major user experience unlock for multisig users."
The second incentive is even more direct: a 10x points reward multiplier. During the current Ethena points rewards program, USDe held in Safe accounts will receive a 10x points acceleration multiplier.
This significantly boosts the potential returns for early adopters and institutions managing funds via Safe.
03 Industry Context: The Rise of USDe and Market Divergence
To understand the significance of this partnership, it’s important to consider the recent developments surrounding USDe. Over the past year, USDe has seen a remarkable adoption wave, with its supply surging 75% in 2025 and briefly surpassing the $10 billion market cap milestone.
This has firmly secured its position as the third-largest player in the stablecoin market.
Market views on USDe are sharply divided. On one hand, its high yields and integrations with major exchanges like Binance have fueled strong bullish momentum.
On the other, concerns about its structural risk persist. For example, after a major market correction in October 2025, traders withdrew over $8 billion from USDe, reflecting market anxiety over potential "depegging" risks under stress.
Ethena’s roadmap underscores its commitment to broader adoption. The company plans to launch two new products of comparable scale to USDe in Q1 2026 and participate in security certification pilot programs to bolster institutional confidence.
04 Future Impact: Driving Institutional-Grade DeFi Adoption
Analysts believe the impact of this partnership goes far beyond simple user incentives. By combining Safe’s unmatched custody security with Ethena’s innovative yield model, the partnership paves an "institutional track" for USDe into deeper layers of the DeFi economy.
Safe processes over $4 billion in asset transfers each month, serving as a critical on-chain treasury management infrastructure.
Seamlessly integrating USDe into this ecosystem means that massive institutional and protocol funds can conveniently access and utilize USDe and its yield products—without compromising on security or self-custody.
Ethena founder Guy Young noted that 83% of Ethena capital on Safe is already staked as sUSDe, which "clearly validates the strong, professional demand for Ethena-related products in treasury management."
This partnership is expected to further accelerate this trend.
05 Market and Token Dynamics: ENA Price Shows Positive Signals
ENA, the governance token associated with the USDe stablecoin, has recently shown strong market activity and positive volatility.
According to Yahoo Finance data as of January 14, 2026, ENA’s latest price stands at $0.242128, up 10.40% on the day.
Recent trends show ENA has been on a volatile upward trajectory since late 2025. For example, its price hovered around $0.24 in early December 2025, and after a period of fluctuations, it has now rebounded to similar levels, with a notable intraday surge on January 14.
These price movements partly reflect the market’s positive outlook on the latest developments in the Ethena ecosystem, including the major partnership with Safe. For traders watching ENA on platforms like Gate, adoption rates and product integrations within the ecosystem are key fundamentals influencing its value.
Outlook
Among the more than $6 billion in stablecoin assets custodied by Safe, USDe and its yield-bearing version sUSDe are rapidly taking center stage. This adoption is no accident—data shows that 85% of Ethena assets held by Safe users are staked for yield.
ENA tokens on Gate soared over 10% on the day the partnership was announced, signaling early market approval for this high-profile alliance. Gas-free transactions remove the last barrier for users engaging with the complex world of DeFi, while the 10x rewards directly boost the passive yield of assets held in Safe vaults.
Ethena’s roadmap reveals that two new products, each on par with USDe’s current scale, are set to launch in Q1 2026. This stablecoin revolution, powered by top-tier infrastructure, is just getting started.
