Seraphim Czecker, head of growth at Ethena Labs, stated in an X post on March 8 that Ethena had crossed $6.8 million in daily total income over the past week, making it the highest-earning decentralized application (DApp).
Only two blockchains, Tron ($38.6 million) and Ethereum ($182.5 million daily cumulative income over the past seven days), have generated more revenue than Ethena.
On its webpage, Ethena states that it currently provides over 350,000 consumers with a 67.2% yield on its USDe synthetic currency. DefiLlama data shows that Ethena’s USDe market value increased by 43% in the last week and 409% in the last month to $840 million.
February 19 saw the public mainnet launch of Ethena Labs’ USDe synthetic dollar. When the Ethereum-based synthetic dollar arrived with a 27.6% annual percentage yield (APY), investors were understandably alarmed. This is because the 20% yield that Anchor Protocol had been offering on the TerraUSD(UST) algorithmic stablecoin prior to its collapse in May 2022 was significantly reduced.
Founder of Ethena Labs Guy Young told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview on February 22 that the early worries about USDe’s yield are a symptom of a developing industry, recovering from the collapse of the Terra ecosystem.
“The immediate reference to Terra Luna was just a knee-jerk reaction which people had to the yield itself […] It’s right that people responded in the way that they have because we should be responding with skepticism and trying to work out whether [protocols] are fragile in the beginning rather than letting them get too big if they are.”
As USDe is generated through staking returns and shorting Ether eternal future contracts, it can be publicly verified, unlike the unsuccessful Anchor technology, Young told Cointelegraph.
According to a Feb. 16 announcement from the company, Ethena Labs has raised $14 million for their synthetic dollar. Venture capital company Dragonfly supported the round. An initial financing round led by Binance Labs, Gemini, Bybit, OKX Ventures, Mirana Ventures, and Deribit in 2023 brought $6 million to the firm.