RWA Update: Ethena and Securitize Leverage Arbitrum and Celestia for Converge Blockchain, Aiming for Q2 Rollout

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Ethena and tokenization firm Securitize have announced their collaboration to leverage Arbitrum’s technology and data availability network Celestia for their real-world asset-focused, Ethereum-compatible blockchain, aiming for a mainnet launch in the second quarter of this year. The Converge chain is designed to have fast block times, allowing users to pay gas fees through Ethena’s USDe and USDtb, while implementing security measures via its Converge Validator Network, as explained by the two protocols in a recent technical update.

“The idea is that we go on a testnet very soon, in the next few weeks, because we’ve already been working on this for a while,” said Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize, in an exclusive interview. “Then, the mainnet: the goal is to accomplish this before the end of Q2.” The rollout schedule will also depend on third-party integrations like Anchorage for custody support and Fireblocks for key management, among others.

Converge, which was introduced last month, aims to integrate the rapidly expanding tokenized real-world assets (RWA) sector with DeFi, capitalizing on the existing ecosystems established around Ethena and Securitize, which together hold assets valued in the billions. Ethena has quickly emerged as a leader in DeFi, driving the yield-bearing stablecoin trend with its $5 billion “synthetic dollar” token, USDe. Concurrently, Securitize has facilitated the issuance of nearly $4 billion in tokenized assets backed by traditional finance giants.

“Converge’s ambitious vision of onboarding tens of billions of institutional capital on-chain requires providing users with high performance and elevated security guarantees,” stated Guy Young, founder of development firm Ethena Labs.

To meet these objectives, the performance of the Converge chain relies on a custom sequencer configured for an Arbitrum-powered blockchain, utilizing Celestia as the underlying data availability layer. A sequencer plays a crucial role in blockchain infrastructure by consolidating transactions from layer-2 networks and posting them back to the layer-1 network.

Data availability layers such as Celestia aim to reduce the costs of downloading and storing data for data-intensive blockchain networks. The integration of Conduit’s G2 sequencer, along with Arbitrum and Celestia’s technology, is expected to push the limits of throughput on EVM-based networks, as noted in the technical update.

The network will utilize Ethena’s USDe and USDtb as gas tokens to cover transaction expenses across the platform. Both tokens are designed to maintain a price pegged around $1, facilitating smoother transaction accounting.

Converge will support both permissionless and permissioned applications operating concurrently, allowing developers to freely deploy permissionless DeFi applications while providing institutional issuers like Securitize the means to create compliant environments for real-world asset products.

In addition, the Converge Validator Network (CVN) is set to provide the security foundations of the network, effectively serving as the chain’s security council. The CVN will be capable of intervening in emergencies, implementing circuit breakers to pause user activity during critical issues, and reviewing significant governance proposals.

To participate in the CVN, validators will need to stake ENA, Ethena’s governance token. The CVN is expected to go live shortly after the mainnet launch.

“Technical breakthroughs on this initiative will drive asymmetric product outcomes for Converge, thereby fostering growth in USDe, USDtb, and other offerings from Ethena and Securitize,” Young remarked.