# USDe Stablecoin Surpasses $5 Billion Supply, Solidifies Position in DeFi and CeFi
Etena Labs’ (ENA) stablecoin, USDe, has surpassed $5 billion in supply just 18 months after its launch, establishing itself as a key infrastructure in both decentralized finance (DeFi) and centralized finance (CeFi). ParaFi Capital has analyzed Etena’s growth and system structure, focusing on USDe’s stability, profitability, and scalability.
Since its release, USDe has maintained a strong peg to the dollar despite extreme market volatility, including eight occurrences where Bitcoin experienced drops exceeding 10% and the largest hacking incident in history. Approximately $3.3 billion in redemptions occurred, yet over the past 12 months, USDe’s price deviated less than 0.5% from the $1 mark. Even after April 2-16’s so-called ‘Liberation Day,’ over $4.09 billion was redeemed, but stability held firm.
# sUSDe Emerges as a Yield Benchmark
The staking issuance of USDe, known as sUSDe, has gained attention as a yield benchmark in DeFi. Traditional finance (TradFi) institutions are also using this yield as a measure of market risk appetite. sUSDe yields are composed of funding fee-based returns, staking ratios, and capital efficiency-driven concentrated allocations.
Over the past six months, sUSDe yielded an average return of 12.3%, surpassing Sky (formerly MakerDAO) deposit rates at 8.8% and Bitcoin funding yields at 9.2%. Etena has historically operated in high benchmark rate environments. Analysts suggest that if real rates decline, the increase in leverage demand could boost yields further.
# Dynamic Collateral Adjustments and Expansion Potential
Etena dynamically adjusts its collateral structure based on yield performance. In December 2024, it introduced USDtb, based on BlackRock’s BUIDL product, with current supply exceeding $1.4 billion. Currently, 72% of Etena’s collateral assets comprise liquid stablecoins, marking a significant shift from the end of the last year when Bitcoin and Ethereum formed 53% and 28% of the structure, respectively.
Concerns about scalability issues have not materialized. The current $5 billion USDe supply represents only 12% of the open interest in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana futures. Even during the rapid market expansion at the end of 2024, Etena’s supply remained around 14% of the total market.
# Ecosystem Expansion and Risk Factors
USDe and sUSDe are deeply integrated into major DeFi platforms. USDe accounts for 60% of the total value locked (TVL) in Pendle (PENDLE) and 12% in Morpho ($MORPHO). Etena holds around 6% of the overall DeFi TVL. Despite a 23% decrease in DeFi TVL this year due to price drops, USDe experienced only a 17% decline. It remained relatively robust even after the Bybit hacking incident in February.
ParaFi Capital has highlighted several future factors to watch: changes in USDe supply under negative funding fee environments, exchange operation risks, USDtb growth and integration, introduction of iUSDe for institutions, Converge (Converge) launching, and the potential expanded use of USDe as a payment method.
Etena is emerging beyond the core of DeFi as an experimental ground for new stablecoin models.
