Group 1 - YZi Labs, founded by Binance co-founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao and Yi He, has increased its investment in Ethena Labs, which operates the USDe protocol, now valued at over $13 billion in circulation, making it the third-largest U.S. dollar-denominated crypto asset [1] - Ethena Labs is expanding its presence on the BNB Chain and is developing products that bridge crypto and traditional finance, including a fiat-backed stablecoin called USDtb and an institutional settlement layer named Converge, in collaboration with Securitize and partners related to BlackRock [2] - USDe, described as a "synthetic dollar," utilizes bitcoin, ether, and Solana as backing assets, maintaining a $1 peg through short perpetual futures positions, and has surpassed the $10 billion supply milestone faster than any other dollar-pegged crypto asset [3] Group 2 - Ethena has positioned itself as a leader in yield-bearing synthetic dollars since its initial meeting with YZi Labs in late 2023, providing users with more options for utilizing digital dollars across various platforms [4] - The introduction of products like Converge aims to establish a familiar settlement layer for tokenized assets, which could enhance the adoption of on-chain financial infrastructure among institutions [4]