World Liberty Financial Partners with Ethena Labs

World Liberty Financial, a nascent DeFi project backed by President-elect Donald Trump, is advancing in the cryptocurrency space through a collaboration with Ethena Labs.

On Wednesday, both firms announced their intention for a "long-term collaboration," which will begin with implementing Ethena's yield-bearing token, sUSDe.

> "As a first step in the collaboration, Ethena and WLFI will explore the potential implementation of sUSDe as the first new token available as collateral on the WLFI protocol, backed by Aave," stated a joint announcement. Introducing sUSDe into WLFI’s upcoming Aave instance would leverage Ethena's significant Total Value Locked (TVL) and user base.

World Liberty Financial's governance is set to evaluate this measure this week.

In the unlikely event that governance does not approve the WLFI Aave instance or the inclusion of sUSDe as a collateral asset, WLFI and Ethena will continue to seek collaborative opportunities aimed at integration.

Since Trump was elected to return to the White House in November, World Liberty Financial has gained momentum; last month, they appointed Tron founder Justin Sun as an advisor. His associated crypto exchange, HTX, has invested $30 million into World Liberty.

According to the statement, sUSDe has experienced notable growth in Aave markets, achieving approximately $1.2 billion in supplied assets within a month after its onboarding in mid-November. This integration is expected to amplify stablecoin deposits within the instance, as sUSDe's appeal as a collateral asset for borrowing stablecoins like USDC and USDT rises.

The announcement follows WLFI's acquisition of $600,000 worth of ENA tokens. While not directly related to the collaboration, this purchase signifies WLFI’s confidence in the long-term potential of the Ethena network.

Zak Folkman, co-founder of World Liberty Financial, remarked that, “Collaborating with Ethena Labs brings us one step closer to democratizing access to financial tools that deliver better experiences, and greater accessibility for users around the world.”

World Liberty Financial is a decentralized lending platform that launched in September, with its public token sale commencing in October. This marks a significant move for Trump in the crypto sector, an industry he previously criticized. Recently, he has aligned himself with crypto interests and hinted at reducing regulation within the digital asset space.