Quick View Converge: DeFi Public Chain that takes into account decentralization and compliance, Ethena and Securitize

Author: Alex Liu, Foresight News

On March 18, 2025, at the Tokenize Summit in New York, Ethena, the leader in the synthetic dollar agreement, and Securities, an asset tokenization platform, announced that it will launch a blockchain network designed specifically for institutional investors - Converge. The project is positioned as the "settlement layer of traditional finance and digital dollar". Through seamless compatibility with Ethereum virtual machines (EVMs), it realizes smooth migration of existing smart contracts and DApps, and is planned to be officially launched in the second quarter of 2025.

 Security CEO Carlos Domingo and Ethena founder Guy Young announce Converge

Converge: A mechanism-level DeFi platform that drives dual compliance and

performance

Converge aims to provide traditional financial institutions with an infrastructure platform that meets stringent compliance requirements without sacrificing technical performance.

The platform makes full use of EVM compatibility features to achieve seamless connection between Ethereum smart contracts and decentralized applications, thereby greatly reducing the migration costs of developers and users. At the same time, the architecture borrows technologies such as Rollup to ensure the dual advantages of the system in terms of scalability and security. To meet the multiple requirements of global regulation, Converge has introduced strict compliance measures including KYC/KYB verification, agency-level hosting services (provided by Anchorage, Fireblocks and other institutions), and licensed verification nodes.

The Converge network will support two parallel operation modes - on the one hand, it ensures the free development of DeFi applications that do not require permission, and on the other hand, it creates compliant products for traditional financial institutions. For example, the tokenized securities issued by Securities can not only participate in the customized currency market as on-chain collateral, but the compliance design behind it also provides institutional investors with a trusted access portal.

Core assets and network security guarantees

In Converge's design, USDe, USDtb and sENA will play a vital role as core financial assets supporting the entire chain. At the same time, the network will be built on a licensed institutional verification node system. These validators need to pledge Ethena governance token ENA to ensure the security and stability of the network. In addition, USDe and USDtb will serve as network native GAS tokens, enabling users to trade at lower friction costs, thereby improving the overall transaction efficiency and user experience of the platform.

Complementary Advantages: Ethena's strong alliance with Securitize

The collaboration demonstrates the complementary effect between crypto-native protocols and traditional financial license holders. With TVL's more than $6 billion in synthetic USD, Ethena has played a pivotal role in the DeFi ecosystem, and its operational model to ensure the value of stablecoins through its Delta hedging strategy has attracted the attention of many institutions, including BlackRock. As a pioneer in asset tokenization regulated by the SEC, Securities has issued over US$2 billion in on-chain securities, with its service targets covering traditional asset management giants such as Blackrock and KKR.

The two parties decided to inject their respective core resources and technological advantages into Converge. Ethena plans to migrate its nearly $6 billion ecosystem to the new chain as a whole, and issue the native stablecoin USDe, USDtb supported by BlackRock BUIDL fund, and iUSDe specially built for asset management institutions on the platform; and Securitize will deploy its complete tokenized securities issuance and management system in Converge, covering a variety of asset classes such as stocks, bonds, real estate, etc., and actively explore new application scenarios such as on-chain stock trading.

Diversified ecology: Top DeFi applications and institutional hosting work

together to empower

Converge also shows strong attraction in terms of ecological layout. The platform has absorbed DeFi applications such as Pendle, Horizon, Morpho, and other subsidiary of Aave Labs. In the future, it will jointly develop customized institutional products to meet various financial needs. In terms of asset security and custody, many institutions such as Anchorage and Copper will provide comprehensive support; while cross-chain interoperability solutions such as LayerZero and Wormhole and RedStone oracles ensure the stable operation of the platform in terms of cross-chain transmission of assets and data accuracy.

In addition, Converge's verification node is composed of traditional financial institutions and centralized exchanges, and requires pledge of Ethena governance token ENA. While this design may spark discussions about the extent of decentralization, the team believes that the introduction of regulated entities will greatly enhance institutions' trust in the platform and lay a solid foundation for large-scale capital flows in the future.

Challenges and prospects: The road to exploration of trillion-level

markets

Converge has received widespread attention from the market, but its future development faces many challenges. First, the differences in compliance requirements in different jurisdictions around the world make the platform continuously adapt and adjust the issuance and trading rules of securities tokens; second, whether it can prove the efficiency and cost advantages of on-chain finance in the ecological cold start stage and attract more institutions to actively participate will also be the key to the success of the project.

The total amount of global DeFi locked shares continues to rise, while the traditional capital market size is far exceeding one trillion US dollars. Even if only a very small proportion of capital flows into the chain, it will bring huge increments. As the founder of Ethena said, the crypto industry needs to go beyond the internal flow of existing funds, and Converge's goal is to become an entrance to the trillion-level traditional capital entering the chain.