Kairos Research: Risk Committee Re-Election Application (August 2026)
Entity Background and Nominated Individuals
We launched Kairos Research in January 2024 as an independent crypto research firm, after Ian Unsworth and Teddy Oosterbaan spent their early careers together on the Growth and Listings team at Binance US. Researching protocols and running listings at one of the largest exchanges in the world made us familiar with a wide range of protocols and venues, many of which Ethena now uses for its positions. From day one our work has centered on where protocol mechanics meet market dynamics, which is exactly the type of work the Risk Committee focuses on every week.
Ian and Teddy will again serve as Kairos’s representatives on the committee, and both attend meetings.
-
Ian Unsworth: Foundation-selected Jito governance delegate, active in its crypto-economic subDAO on token value-accrual mechanisms; former Protocol Specialist at Binance US.
-
Teddy Oosterbaan: Investment associate at a Chicago family office; BBA in Finance from the Ross School of Business; CAIA Level I; former Research Analyst at Binance US.
Beyond Ethena we are a top delegate at ether.fi, an active Jito delegate, and we run validators with FirstSet across Solana, Monad, Celestia, Babylon, and Fogo. Running nodes and voting in other DAOs keeps us close to key operational and governance events, broadening our domain knowledge.
Statement of Intent
We have served two terms now, and they covered the two hardest things Ethena has had to do. The first was living through the compression of the basis trade. Funding rates fell through late 2025 and into 2026, and USDe supply dropped roughly 70% from its October 2025 peak. That was a real test of the delta neutral model Ethena was built on. The second was rebuilding what sits behind USDe while all of that was happening. The crypto collateral and perp book shrank to single digits of backing, and the collateral book moved to roughly 99% stablecoins, real world assets and cash. Ethena is backed very differently today than it was a year ago.
Now Ethena is entering a different kind of chapter, one where its dollar is distributed through some of the largest financial channels in the world. In recent months USDe has been integrated into BlackRock’s Aladdin platform, chosen as the primary collateral for Robinhood’s new in-app earn product, and put to work behind Coinbase’s onchain yield vaults, while StablecoinX now trades on Nasdaq under the ticker USDE. USDe is no longer only a DeFi instrument, it’s reaching mainstream and institutional users through regulated intermediaries who are placing real trust in what stands behind it, which raises the bar on backing quality, transparency, and the kind of independent verification the committee exists to provide.
We were in the seat for the transitions that got Ethena to this point, and much of what replaced the old backing came through work we led, including the whitelabel stablecoin framework, the tokenized gold backing framework, and the Solana lending assessment. We want to keep serving because this next phase moves risk into places that are harder to see. The growing RWA backing, the partner stablecoins, and the direct lending relationships are the plumbing behind the distribution we just spoke about, and each one takes risk out of mechanisms anyone can watch onchain and puts it into counterparties and configurations that someone actually has to check. That is the work we do best.
Previous Involvement with Ethena
We were elected first in vote order in August 2025, the only new applicant standing against six incumbents (results), and re-elected at the top of the ballot in February 2026 with 13.2mm of the 20.8mm ENA cast (results).
How the protocol held. The drawdown in USDe’s supply was significant, bottoming at $3.75bn in late April before climbing back to roughly ~$4bn today. Through all of it the peg stayed within a few basis points of a dollar, backing stayed over-collateralized at a >100% solvency ratio, and the reserve fund held steady, never having to be drawn upon. sUSDe remained attractive even while the collateral book moved to nearly 99% cash and stablecoins. None of this work is ours alone, but ensuring billions of dollars can flow into and out of the protocol in size while holding these numbers steady through a genuine drawdown is exactly what the committee is there for.
What we shipped this term.
-
Whitelabel stablecoin backing (April 2026). Our proposal set concentration guardrails that tighten as exposure grows, and ensured that the underlying yield flows to sUSDe holders. Ethena whitelabel stablecoins grew to over $620mm at their peak.
-
Tokenized Gold + Commodity Backing Framework (April 2026). Our four part analysis of PAXG and XAUT worked through the gold market, liquidity depth, and funding, and proposed an open interest threshold framework for judging non-crypto backing assets going forward.
-
Solana lending (May 2026). Our assessment of lending USDe backing into Kamino and Jupiter gave conditional support, with specific blockers per protocol and a cap structure that treated SOL collateralized vaults differently from the rest. This unlocked the fastest growing stablecoin lending markets Solana had ever seen, growing to over $1bn in just a few days after launch.
-
Reporting through the spring drawdown (May and June 2026). Our March and April governance update walked through the roughly $2bn supply contraction, including $1.68bn absorbed in four days during the rsETH incident window with no peg break and no draw on the reserve, and offchain we reviewed Ethena’s RWA drawdown framework before that exposure scaled further.
-
L2 USDe PSM review (July 2026). Ethena shared their proof of concept on Base, and we checked it against the deployed bytecode, matched it byte for byte against the source verified mainnet USDtb PSM, and confirmed exactly what code was running before we said anything about it. We supported approval with five conditions covering timelocked multisig control, MPC custody separated from the admin role with capped approvals, proof of reserve carve-outs before the mint ceremony, published ceremony batches, and reserve confirmation at seeding. Ethena moved to a fresh timelocked deployment, and our colleagues Blockworks Advisory agreed with all five points. We believe this will unlock significant adoption for Robinhood Chain and Base associated products.
Evidence of Expertise and Value to the Committee
We check data ourselves onchain, we put numbers on proposals before we recommend, and we turn what we find into conditions the protocol can act on. Our record above shows that across a dynamic market structure, new deployments and new partnerships, we are here to serve the ENA community under any conditions. ENA holders have looked at our approach in two elections and put us first both times, and we intend to keep working alongside our existing colleagues in the committee to continue safely growing the protocol into one of the largest, most trusted names not only in crypto, but in all of finance.
Priorities for the Next Term
-
Ensure Growth & Proper Risk Management Through Key Partnerships. It has become clear that the winners of crypto’s next era will be those who can combine exceptional products with high quality distribution channels. As we mentioned above, the partnerships Ethena has struck with Robinhood, Coinbase, and Blackrock are just beginning, and we believe that these partnerships as well as similar future ones will be key for furthering the reach of USDe, meeting new customers where they already are.
-
New Product Support. The Ethena team has continuously shipped new products and inked new partnerships at a much faster rate than its peers, and we intend to be there to move fast and support all the new initiatives from day one. As we said in our last application: we recognize that risk is an inherent and necessary component of growth, not an isolated factor. Whether pursuing new product lines, adding an additional venue, or approving new backing assets, growth fundamentally requires the willingness to take risks. We will continue to keep this mindset at the forefront of our decision making in our third consecutive term as well.
-
RWA backing composition. Align reserve provisioning and drawdown frameworks with expanding exposure, ensuring liquidation discipline is established prior to market stress rather than in the midst of it.
-
Whitelabel scaling. Apply the concentration guardrails as partner stablecoins grow, with monitoring in place before thresholds are crossed rather than after.
-
Yield differentiation. A wave of stablecoins is coming from large incumbents, and most will lead with the same thing, a T-bill yield and a well known name. That yield is capped at the risk free rate and gets competed away as everyone offers it. Ethena’s advantage is harder to copy, the ability to mint and redeem at real size, which held up this term as multi-billion dollar redemption waves cleared with the peg intact, plus yield that comes from somewhere other than T-bills. Keeping that advantage is the same job as managing the backing that produces it, and that is where we intend to spend our attention.
Closing
The GENIUS Act is already law and Ethena’s USDtb has been compliant through Anchorage since October 2025, while the CLARITY Act works through the Senate with the treatment of stablecoin yield still open. Rules will matter, but the market will ultimately judge Ethena on the quality of its backing long before the rules are settled. We intend to keep serving with a growth mindset, bringing rigorous frameworks to the expansion of USDe supply, the next wave of partnerships, and the products that follow, so that value can accrue to ENA holders. We would like a third term to keep doing it.