JupUSD, a new stablecoin developed by Jupiter in partnership with Ethana Labs, is set to launch in the fourth quarter of 2025, pending security audits of its Solana-native mint-and-redeem contracts.

This stablecoin will initially be backed solely by Ethana Labs' USDtb, a stablecoin fully collateralized by treasury funds including BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, with plans to add USDe as a secondary backing asset to boost yield potential.

USDe, Ethena's decentralized stablecoin, is currently the largest by market cap among decentralized stablecoins, valued at $14.8 billion, surpassing competitors like Sky's USDS and DAI.

JupUSD will be integrated across all Jupiter ecosystem products, including trading, lending, and perpetuals, replacing approximately $750 million of existing stablecoins and becoming a primary collateral for Jupiter Perps.

This move aims to solidify Jupiter's role as a leading DeFi superapp, expanding its influence beyond decentralized exchange aggregation into broader financial services.

The initiative reflects a broader trend of DeFi protocols issuing their own stablecoins to retain liquidity and revenue, similar to projects like Aave’s GHO and Curve’s crvUSD.

The development of native stablecoins like JupUSD underscores the growing importance of these assets within DeFi ecosystems for liquidity management and revenue retention.

The expansion into stablecoins on Solana is part of Ethena's broader strategy to unlock Solana's market, which is currently much smaller than Ethereum's, where stablecoins make up about 92.7% of the market.

Other projects, such as SUI Group, are also launching stablecoins using Ethena’s infrastructure, including suiUSDe and USDi, with USDi backed by BlackRock’s BUIDL fund shares and suiUSDe as a synthetic dollar.

The trend towards self-issued stablecoins by DeFi protocols is driven by the desire to retain liquidity and fee revenue internally, exemplified by initiatives like Aave’s GHO and Curve’s crvUSD.

In a broader move, North Dakota plans to launch its own dollar-backed stablecoin, the Roughrider Coin, in partnership with Fiserv, utilizing white-label stablecoin solutions for financial institutions.

The stablecoin market has surpassed $300 billion in market cap, driven by increasing regulation and adoption, especially in the US and Europe.

Jupiter has evolved from a decentralized exchange aggregator into a superapp with ventures into AI and lending, positioning JupUSD as a key asset to create value and maintain its central role in DeFi.