Synthetic stablecoin protocol Ethena Labs has integrated with centralized exchange wallets of Binance, Bybit, OKX, and Bitget as of April 10.
“Users locking USDe for at least 7 days through exchange Web3 wallets are eligible for a 20% reward boost starting today,” said Ethena developers. The incentives, issued in the form of “Ethena sats,” can be converted to its native ENA token at the end of each campaign. To earn sats, users must first deposit Ethena USDe stablecoins into their exchange wallets, connect to the Ethena decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, and stake their holdings. The protocol has a total value locked of $2.274 billion at the time of publication, generating an annualized revenue of $178 million.
The protocol’s ecosystem rewards have attracted considerable attention and usage. As told by blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain, since the start of Ethena Staking Season 2, the ten top wallets have withdrawn a total of 37.5 million ENA ($51 million) and staked them. On March 8, less than one month after the launch of its USDe stablecoin, Ethena became the highest-earning decentralized application in crypto when it offered a 67% annual percentage yield (APY) on USDe. The protocol currently has an APY of 24% on its stablecoins. However, the yield is not without risks as it relies on trading income of complex Ethereum derivatives to payout promised returns.
Amid concerns over its high yield, Guy Young, the founder of Ethena Labs, told Cointelegraph in an interview on Feb. 22 that comparisons to the failed Terra Luna stablecoin USTC were just “knee-jerk reactions” and that the firm’s yields were organic and sustainable. “The biggest piece we’re trying to get across is that Anchor’s yield was just totally made up,” Young said. “It was just venture capital firms putting money into [USTC yield protocol] Anchor and then paying out a yield, which came from nowhere.”
Meanwhile, Ethena's yields, which are publicly verifiable, are derived from a combination of Ethereum consensus layer inflation rewards, execution fees paid to Ether stakers, maximal extractable value fee captures acquired by Ether stakers, and trading income provided by Ethena Labs. Specifically, the firm opens short derivative positions when it receives long-position collateral assets for minting USDe. The spread, or difference in value between the two positions, is then paid out to USDe holders as yield.
Related: Frax Finance dives into DeFi liquidity with $250M USDe allocation
