Franklin Templeton digital asset veteran takes helm at StablecoinX

StablecoinX has appointed Christopher Jensen, a former Franklin Templeton portfolio manager and director of digital asset research, as its new chief executive. Jensen steps into the role previously held by Ted Chen, who guided the company through its June public listing and will continue to serve as the board’s chairman.

The publicly traded firm, listed on Nasdaq under the ticker USDE, is dedicated to the Ethena ecosystem. StablecoinX holds about 3.03 billion ENA governance tokens, which the company says represents roughly 20% of ENA’s total supply and makes it the largest corporate holder of the token. ENA grants holders voting rights over protocol changes, while Ethena issues USDe, a synthetic dollar that ranks as the fifth-largest stablecoin with nearly $4.4 billion circulating according to DefiLlama.

Jensen’s appointment follows a long involvement with digital assets: he helped establish Franklin Templeton’s digital asset group after the firm launched it in 2018, and the asset manager’s blockchain venture fund took part in Ethena’s seed round, giving Jensen exposure to the protocol from its early stages. StablecoinX said Jensen will lead the company as it continues to focus on the Ethena ecosystem.

The leadership change arrives about a week after Ethena released Ethena Pay, a self-custodial app designed to let users spend, save and transfer USDe. ENA’s market performance has been volatile year to date — the token was down roughly 20% year-to-date but had surged more than 80% in the prior month, trading around $0.16 according to CoinGecko.