Trump-Endorsed Pet Project Partners Up with Ethena Labs

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a rising DeFi project endorsed by President-elect Donald Trump, is advancing its presence in the crypto space through a promising partnership with Ethena Labs.

Announced Wednesday, the collaboration signals a "long-term" relationship starting with the integration of Ethena's yield-bearing token, sUSDe.

According to a statement:

"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."

The statement added:

"Introducing sUSDe into WLFI's forthcoming Aave instance ... would enable the instance to benefit from the large TVL and user base of Ethena."

Pending approval of a new governance proposal, sUSDe—a staked version of Ethena's USDe stablecoin—will serve as a core collateral asset on WLFI's Aave v3 instance.

The proposal, set for a governance vote this week, could provide mutual benefits: Ethena gains a significant use case for sUSDe, while WLFI secures a collateral asset already vetted by Aave Core's risk analysis.

This partnership highlights WLFI's strategic ambition and Ethena's expanding utility.

The two firms expressed:

"In the unlikely event that the WLFI Aave instance is not approved by governance, or sUSDe is not approved as a collateral asset, WLFI and Ethena would continue to explore opportunities to collaborate with the full intention of finding points of integration."

Ethena & World Liberty Financial's Partnership Could Reap Healthy Rewards

This strategic partnership holds significant potential for mutual gains.

WLFI's governance proposal highlights that sUSDe, having already passed Aave Core's rigourous risk assessment, is likely to meet similar approval for its Aave v3 instance.

If the proposal succeeds, Ethena plans to co-incentivise sUSDe deposits, creating an opportunity to deepen liquidity.

For WLFI, integrating sUSDe will attract Ethena's user base and total value locked (TVL), while Ethena secures a valuable use case for its yield-bearing token, enhancing stablecoin liquidity and utility.

This collaboration allows Ethena to elevate sUSDe's profile while continuing to develop and promote its broader offerings.

World Liberty Financial and Ethena said in their statement:

"sUSDe has seen strong growth in the Aave markets since its onboarding to Aave Core and Aave's Lido instance in mid-November, reaching ~$1.2 billion in supplied assets in under a month. The integration would also help simultaneously increase stablecoin deposits in the instance, driven by sUSDe's popularity as a collateral asset to borrow stablecoins like USDC and USDT."

The announcement follows WLFI's acquisition of $600,000 worth of ENA, signalling its strategic commitment to the partnership and future growth.

World Liberty Financial co-founder Chase Herro said:

"[The purchase of ENA tokens ] is not directly connected to the collaboration [but is] indicative of WLFI's belief in the long-term viability and success of the Ethena network."

World Liberty Financial co-founder Zak Folkman said in the statement:

“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."