Author: Jake Koch-Gallup, Messari analyst; Compiled by: 0xjs@金财经

Earlier this week, Ethena’s USDe surpassed DAI to become the third largest stablecoin in the world. Its total value locked (TVL) currently exceeds $5.5 billion.

Yield snapshot: Ethena’s current yield is 24.5%. Since February 2024, sUSDe holders have enjoyed an average APY of 17.5%, with a peak of 55.9% (March 7, 2024) and a low of 4.3% (August 8, 2024).

Record Growth: Ethena reached $3 billion in TVL just four months after its public launch in February 2024, becoming the fastest-growing USD-denominated asset in cryptocurrency history. Today, its TVL exceeds $5.5 billion.

ENA Price Performance: The Ethena token ENA is currently trading at $0.91, with a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $13.6 billion. Since the April 2, 2024 TGE, ENA hit a low of $0.19 on September 6, 2024 and has gained 361.7% since then.

Fees: Over the past year, Ethena collected nearly $200 million in fees, ranking 16th overall.

Remember: The next major token unlock—2.06 billion ENA—will arrive on April 2, 2025.

Ethena’s USDe is fully backed by ETH and BTC, using corresponding short futures to maintain a delta-neutral portfolio. Simply put, when a portfolio's delta is close to zero, USDe remains pegged to the U.S. dollar regardless of market movements. Ethena leverages the returns on the pledged assets (think Lido’s stETH), plus funding and basis from the perpetual contracts and futures markets, to pass these returns on to sUSDe holders.

Funding Risk: What is the Biggest Worry? Negative funding rates continue for ETH and BTC. To mitigate the situation, Ethena's $47 million reserve fund will step in if revenue drops below zero. During the period 2021-2023, negative revenue days accounted for only 10.34% of the total, even during the global market sell-off on August 5, 2024 (redemptions exceeded 50 millionUSD), USDe still maintains its peg and remains fully collateralized. After a series of negative funding days in August, sUSDe’s APY remains positive (bottoming at 4.34% on August 8, 2024).

Other potential pitfalls: Exchange failure, liquidation, staking and custody risks are always present. Ethena’s low leverage and tight collateralization help protect against stETH decoupling and severe liquidation events. However, there are centralization risks due to reliance on over-the-counter settlement providers. Ethena actively manages collateral risk and centralization risk to minimize these vulnerabilities.

Ethena’s successful integration of sUSDe into Aave has made it the fastest growing asset in the top DeFi currency markets. As more institutions gravitate toward stablecoins, sUSDe’s proven performance and strong returns make it the premier “internet bond.” The global bond market is worth $135 trillion (yes, that’s the word “trillion”), and the potential for the future is huge. sUSDe may become the bond of choice, even over the mighty US Treasuries.