Ethena’s March and April 2026 Governance Update
Prepared by Kairos Research
This is the combined March and April installment of Ethena’s monthly governance report. Two months defined by structural change: the activation of a dynamic sUSDe cooldown framework, Ethena’s first direct-lending agreements with institutional counterparties (Anchorage Digital, Maple Institutional, Coinbase Asset Management), a 4× expansion in Whitelabel stablecoin supply to over $600M, and a tested resilience event in late April as the protocol operated through the industry-wide rsETH incident without disruption. Headline supply contracted from $5.92B to $3.90B over the period; the Reserve Fund remained flat at ~$62M; protocol revenue ticked higher; and the annualized run-rate accelerated to $234M by month-end.
Key Takeaways
- Direct Institutional Lending: Ethena finalized its first direct lending agreements with Anchorage Digital, Maple Institutional, and Coinbase Asset Management, broadening USDe’s backing into overcollateralized institutional credit while preserving the protocol’s liquidity and risk standards.
- Dynamic sUSDe Cooldown: The static 7-day sUSDe unstaking cooldown was replaced with a dynamic model that adjusts between 1, 3, 5, and 7 days based on the current backing composition. The cooldown was reduced to 1 day at activation, given that liquid stables now represent the dominant share of backing.
- Whitelabel Stablecoin Growth: Total Whitelabel stablecoin supply across jupUSD, USDm, and suiUSDe crossed $600M in April, a ~4× expansion from the $150M+ mark hit in early March. More Whitelabel partners are in the pipeline.
- Our Whitelabel-in-Backing Proposal: On April 14 we published a Risk Committee proposal to allow USDtb-backed Whitelabel stablecoins (jupUSD, USDm) to be held directly within USDe’s backing portfolio. The thesis: these assets are economically equivalent to direct USDtb holdings, so routing them through USDe’s backing captures yield for sUSDe holders without introducing new credit exposure. The proposal also sets concentration guardrails and attestation-timeliness triggers.
- Resilience Through the rsETH Incident: Ethena operated through the April rsETH incident without disruption. Billions in USDe mint and redeem flows were handled cleanly, with no peg break and no draw on the Reserve Fund. The protocol paused the LayerZero OFT bridge as a precaution, hardened its DVN configuration on restoration, published refreshed proof-of-reserves with four independent verifiers, and contributed to the DeFi United coalition recovery effort alongside EtherFi and Lido.
- Ecosystem Footprint: USDe gained an Aave MegaETH instance listing, a full-range Pendle pool refresh, a new Origami vault, 3Jane credit-money-market support, BitGo institutional dollar-savings integration, a LI.FI Earn embeddable-savings partnership, USDe-native prediction-market alpha on Ethereal Predict, $BASED claiming live for sENA holders, and $4M in cumulative rewards distributed to reUSD / reUSDe holders via @re. March additions included Compound V3 collateral support, Lista DAO fixed-rate PT-sUSDe borrowing, an Aave V4 dedicated environment with two Spokes (more than any other ecosystem), Privy wallet integration (120m+ accounts), WalletConnect Pay merchant checkout, and a LiFi Composer single-transaction onboarding path into Ethena vaults.
- Protocol Solvency & Reserve Fund: Solvency held above 101% throughout the period (101.10% at the start of March, 101.63% at the April 30 attestation). The Reserve Fund remained flat at ~$62.0M across every weekly attestation, including through the rsETH redemption window. The April 8 subcommittee update sized the recommended buffer roughly 9x below the current fund balance, prompting a recommendation to redirect future USDtb interest to sUSDe holders. (Full detail in the Risk & Resilience Metrics section.)
- Our Tokenized Gold Proposal: On April 16 we published a proposal advancing PAXG and XAUT as new basis-trade backing assets, motivated by gold’s near-zero funding correlation with crypto and structurally higher gold-funding yields (PAXG ~3.6%, XAUT ~5.1%) during compressed crypto carry regimes.
- Institutional Distribution Rails: BitGo integrated Ethena-powered dollar savings for institutional clients, and Kraken went live as the first US exchange to support USDe rewards. The LI.FI Earn partnership extends Ethena-powered savings into any wallet, app, or fintech.
- Multichain Backing Expansion: Plasma scaled from $10M to $450M of liquid backing and MegaETH went live at $300M in its first month, together adding $740M of backing on chains where Ethena had effectively zero exposure entering the period. (See the Liquid Backing Distribution by Chain table for the full breakdown.)
Protocol & Risk Metrics
Supply and Yield
| Attestation Date | USDe Supply | Total Backing (incl. Reserve Fund) | Reserve Fund | Solvency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Feb 2026 | $6.07B | $6.07B | $62.03M | 101.10% |
| 6 Mar 2026 | $5.97B | $5.97B | $62.01M | 101.09% |
| 13 Mar 2026 | $5.92B | $5.93B | $62.01M | 101.12% |
| 20 Mar 2026 | $5.92B | $5.93B | $62.00M | 101.07% |
| 27 Mar 2026 | $5.92B | $5.93B | $62.01M | 101.13% |
| 2 Apr 2026 | $5.89B | $5.89B | $62.01M | 101.10% |
| 9 Apr 2026 | $5.84B | $5.84B | $62.02M | 101.09% |
| 16 Apr 2026 | $5.83B | $5.83B | $62.03M | 101.09% |
| 19 Apr 2026 (post-rsETH) | $5.64B | $5.64B | $62.07M | 101.15% |
| 23 Apr 2026 | $3.96B | $3.96B | $62.04M | 101.61% |
| 30 Apr 2026 (end-of-month) | $3.90B | $3.90B | $62.06M | 101.63% |
- USDe Supply: Supply tracked broadly sideways between $5.83B–$5.97B from late February through mid-April, then contracted ~$1.93B between the April 16 and April 30 attestations as the post-rsETH redemption window cleared. The bulk of the drawdown was concentrated between April 19 and April 23 (~$1.68B), with supply effectively stabilizing in the final week (–$62M between April 23 and April 30). The mint/redemption contract absorbed the entire window without disruption, and Ethena’s
approvedAssetsOnlyanddeltaNeutralattestation flags remainedtrueacross every weekly snapshot.
- sUSDe Supply & Staking Ratio: According to Dune (sUSDe contract
0x9D39...3497), sUSDe supply was $1.71B at end of April, implying a staking ratio of ~44.0% of USDe supply, down from 57.96% at end of February. Two factors compressed the ratio: (i) the post-rsETH redemption window fell disproportionately on sUSDe positions, and (ii) the move to a 1-day dynamic cooldown reduced the lock-in cost of moving in and out of sUSDe, encouraging more elastic staking behavior at the margin in a softer funding environment. - sUSDe APY: According to the Ethena yield API, sUSDe APY was 3.50% at end of April, down from 3.75% one week earlier. The continued step-down reflects three compounding effects: (i) ongoing softness in BTC and ETH perpetual funding rates that has defined the regime since Q4 2025, (ii) the late-April supply contraction, which mechanically reduces the size of the delta-neutral basis book, and (iii) Aave-side rate dynamics, where USDe borrow and supply rates likely spiked during the leverage unwind in mid-April before normalizing lower as utilization fell. The Aave-rate story has a supporting datapoint: the “Aave liquid leverage” allocation in the fee waterfall fell only ~9% month-over-month (from $2.59M to $2.35M) despite Aave-side TVL contracting ~80%, consistent with elevated rates partially offsetting the position-size reduction during the spike window. The 30-day average sUSDe yield sits at 3.49% and the 90-day average at 3.50%. Headline protocol yield (pre-staking-ratio split) is 4.07% at end of April. sUSDe continues to outperform the Aave USDC lending rate and major savings-rate benchmarks. Forward yield will track funding, the pace of supply recapture, and Aave utilization as redemption pressure abates.
Liquidity & Redemptions
- DEX Liquidity: Total USDe DEX TVL was $135.2M at end of March and $116.1M at end of April, a ~14% decline broadly proportional to the supply contraction. End-April distribution:
- By chain: Ethereum $84.6M (73%) | Mantle $30.0M (26%) | Plasma $1.5M (1%)
- By DEX (Ethereum): Curve $56.3M | Fluid $16.5M | Uniswap $11.7M
- Largest pair (Ethereum): USDe/frxUSD ~$54.8M, followed by USDe/USDT $20.5M
- Mint/Redemption Stablecoin Buffer: the on-chain immediate-redemption stablecoin buffer held remarkably steady through the rsETH redemption window at $92.8M at end-March and $93.1M at end-April (USDC ~$31M / USDT ~$31M / USDtb ~$31M / PYUSD ~$5K). The Reserve Fund subcommittee buffer-recommendation framework, the dynamic cooldown’s Tier-1 daily redemption capacity of $1.88B at activation (7.72× the P99 historical benchmark), and bilateral RFQ redemption channels for institutional flow all combined to absorb the redemption pulse without compromising retail-accessible redemption capacity. Refreshed proof-of-reserves attestations were published in the days following the rsETH incident by Chainlink, Chaos Labs, LlamaRisk, and Harris & Trotter, all confirming USDe collateralization above 100%.
Risk & Resilience Metrics
-
Solvency: 101.61% at the most recent published April 23 attestation, with the full series sitting in a tight 101.07%–101.61% band across the two months. Solvency mechanically improved during the redemption wave because supply contracted faster than backing.
-
Reserve Fund: $62.04M at the April 23 attestation (composed of $41.98M in USDtb and $20.02M in a USDtb/USDC LP position), virtually unchanged from $62.03M at end of February. The Reserve Fund was not drawn during the redemption wave; the immediate-redemption stablecoin buffer at the mint/redemption contract carried the load. The April 8 Reserve Fund subcommittee update (jointly authored by LlamaRisk and Blockworks Advisory) revised the recommended buffer down sharply to ~$7M (LlamaRisk Conservative), ~$5M (LlamaRisk Moderate), and ~$6.3M (Blockworks Advisory), reflecting the structural decline in perp-futures exposure as USDe TVL contracted from ~$6.5B. The fund is now roughly 9x overcapitalized versus current tail-risk requirements, prompting a recommendation to redirect future USDtb interest earnings (~$42M accrued over four months) to sUSDe holders, with future interest continuing to flow to stakers as long as reserves exceed 2× the highest estimate (~$14M threshold).
-
Collateral Composition: The structural shift toward non-perp backing continued across both months. On April 18, Ethena refreshed the public taxonomy from two buckets (Crypto Basis vs. Liquid Cash) to four (Crypto Basis, Liquid Stables, DeFi Lending, Institutional Lending), providing better visibility into non-crypto-basis backing.
Bucket End-March (old taxonomy) End-April (new taxonomy) Crypto Basis $670.6M (11.4%) $519.3M (13.3%) Liquid Stables (part of Liquid Cash) $2.24B (57.2%) DeFi Lending (part of Liquid Cash) $1.15B (29.3%) Institutional Lending (not yet live) $10M (0.3%) Liquid Cash (combined, old basis) $5.22B (88.6%) $3.39B (86.7%) Total Backing $5.89B $3.92B Two structural observations: (i) the Crypto Basis share rose from 11.4% → 13.3% even as absolute basis-trade notional fell from $670M → $527M, because liquid stables drew down faster during the rsETH redemption window; (ii) Institutional Lending is a brand-new category at $10M, reflecting the first deployments under the Anchorage / Maple / Coinbase Asset Management direct-lending agreements approved in April.
- Crypto Basis Composition:
- End-March: ETH (incl. WBETH/mETH/stETH) $431.6M (64% of basis) | BTC $220.8M (33%) | BNB $13.7M (2%) | XRP $2.4M | SOL $2.1M
- End-April: ETH $392.7M (74% of basis) | BTC $116.8M (22%) | BNB $13.7M (3%) | XRP $2.4M | SOL $2.1M
- BTC notional contracted ~47% over the period; ETH notional only ~9%, leaving the basis book more ETH-concentrated heading into May.
- Delta-Neutral Venue Mix (% of crypto-basis exchange positions, ex-liquid cash held at custodians):
- End-March: Binance 60.4% | OKX 16.1% | Bybit 13.0% | Deribit 7.3% | Coinbase International 3.2%
- End-April: Binance 63.3% | Bybit 14.6% | Deribit 9.3% | OKX 8.8% | Coinbase International 4.0%
- Binance retained dominance through the redemption wave; the most notable shift was the OKX-to-Bybit rotation as part of the basis-book rebalance.
Ecosystem Expansion & Integrations
April Highlights
- USDe Backing Diversification Announced: Ethena announced a four-part diversification of USDe backing covering direct institutional lending (Anchorage Digital, Maple Institutional, Coinbase Asset Management), expanded RWA exposure beyond tokenized Treasuries, extension of the delta-neutral framework into equity and commodity perpetuals (see our Tokenized Gold proposal below), and prime lending to trading firms. Off-chain lending exposure will flow through the transparency dashboard and proof-of-reserves reporting. (See Key Takeaways and Governance Activity for proposal-level detail.)
- Aave on MegaETH (USDe Listed): USDe was listed on Aave’s MegaETH instance, extending Ethena’s footprint within the Aave ecosystem after March’s V4 Spokes launch.
- Kraken: First US Exchange Live with USDe Rewards: Kraken officially became the first US exchange to support Ethena rewards on USDe.
- BitGo Institutional Dollar Savings: BitGo integrated Ethena-powered dollar savings into its institutional offering, opening a regulated custody-grade savings rail for institutional clients.
- LI.FI Earn Partnership: Ethena partnered with LI.FI on LI.FI Earn, a new product enabling any wallet, app, or fintech to embed onchain savings for their users. This complements the March LiFi Composer integration (single-transaction vault access).
- Pendle Full-Range Pool Refresh: New Ethena pools launched on Pendle across the full range of Ethena assets.
- Origami Vault Launch: Origami launched a new vault built on Ethena assets.
- 3Jane Money Market: 3Jane added Ethena assets to its credit-based money market.
- $BASED Claiming Live for sENA Holders: Following BasedOneX’s March confirmation of an sENA allocation, the $BASED claim went live for all eligible sENA holders in April.
- @re Distributed $4M to reUSD / reUSDe Holders: @re passed $4M in cumulative rewards distributed to reUSD and reUSDe holders in under a year.
- Ethereal Predict (USDe-Native Prediction Market, Alpha): Ethereal began alpha testing Ethereal Predict, a USDe-native prediction market venue.
- rsETH Incident: Operated Without Disruption: On the operational side of the rsETH incident, Ethena paused the LayerZero OFT bridge for sUSDe and USDe on April 19–20 and restored it with the DVN configuration hardened from 2/2 to 4/4 while retaining the $10M/hour rate limit. Refreshed proofs-of-reserves with four independent verifiers (Chainlink, Chaos Labs, LlamaRisk, Harris & Trotter) were published in parallel. Ethena also contributed to the DeFi United coalition recovery effort alongside EtherFi and Lido (14,570 ETH collectively pledged). See Key Takeaways for the protocol-level resilience summary.
- Our Proposals: Whitelabel-in-Backing and Tokenized Gold: Full descriptions live in the Governance Activity section below. Headline: on April 14 we proposed routing USDtb-backed Whitelabel stablecoins (jupUSD, USDm) into USDe’s backing portfolio, and on April 16 we proposed adding PAXG and XAUT as basis-trade assets under a new Commodity OI Threshold Framework.
- LlamaRisk MLA Review Framework (April 14) and CBAM Review (April 15): LlamaRisk published its Master Loan Agreement review framework for institutional lending partners, organized around four pillars: (i) counterparty due diligence, (ii) collateral and custody mechanics, (iii) credit/default/enforcement, and (iv) operational reporting and governance. The follow-up legal review of the Coinbase US Bitcoin Yield Fund (CBAM) MLA endorsed Risk Committee approval, citing a tri-party custody structure where collateral is held by an OCC-chartered institution under an Account Control Agreement granting Ethena first-priority security interest. LlamaRisk characterised this as the strongest protective framework among the three institutional lending agreements evaluated.
- Ethena Labs Hiring: New roles opened at ethena.fi/careers across protocol, compliance, and enterprise integration.
March Highlights
- Kraken USDe Rewards (First US Exchange, Announcement Phase): Kraken announced support for USDe rewards in March, with the full live launch following in April (first US exchange to offer Ethena-powered savings).
- Dedicated Aave V4 Environment with Two Spokes: Ethena launched a dedicated ecosystem environment on Aave V4 with two Spokes, more than any other ecosystem on V4 at launch. Aave’s MegaETH instance listing followed in April.
- Privy Wallet Integration: Privy embedded Ethena-powered savings into its wallet infrastructure, making USDe accessible to 120m+ Privy-managed accounts.
- WalletConnect Pay: Ethena went live on WalletConnect Pay, enabling merchants to accept USDe at checkout.
- USDe-Native Perp DEX Growth: Ethereal crossed $120M in open interest backed by USDe, and HyENA crossed $3B in cumulative trading volume. Over $2M in USDe rewards were distributed to traders on Ethereal and HyENA combined during the month.
- Whitelabel Supply Crosses $150M (initial mark): Total Ethena Whitelabel stablecoin supply crossed $150M across the three native stablecoin partners.
- BasedOneX sENA Allocation Confirmed: BasedOneX confirmed that a portion of their token supply will go to sENA holders. ($BASED claiming went live for eligible sENA holders the following month.)
- sUSDe Unstaking Reduced from 7d → 1d: Ethena reduced the sUSDe unstaking cooldown from 7 days to 1 day, reflecting the current liquid-stables-dominated backing composition.
- Compound V3 Collateral: USDe was added as collateral on Compound V3.
- Lista DAO Fixed-Rate PT-sUSDe Borrowing: Lista DAO added fixed-rate borrowing for PT-sUSDe against USD1 and U.
- KappaLab / Wildcat Open-Term USDe Market: KappaLab listed an open-term USDe market on Wildcat with up to 1M USDe capacity at 10% APR.
- Hyperion and Goblin.fi Incentives: Ethena rolled out incentive programs on Hyperion and Goblin.fi.
- LiFi Composer Integration: Single-transaction access to Ethena vaults from any chain via LiFi Composer.
- HTX USDe Learn & Earn: Ethena launched a USDe Learn & Earn campaign on HTX Global.
- Strata Markets USDe Pool: Strata Markets’ USDe market reached $250M in TVL.
- DAS Presentation: Ethena presented at Blockworks DAS.
- Resolv USR Engineering Postmortem: Ethena published an engineering blog covering the Resolv USR incident and the architectural decisions in Ethena’s issuance mechanics that prevent similar outcomes.
Collateral & DeFi Footprint
Liquid Backing Distribution by Chain
According to Ethena’s transparency dashboard, end-of-month deployment of USDe’s liquid backing across chains was as follows:
| Chain | End-March | End-April | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethereum | $3.34B | $1.40B | −$1.94B |
| Plasma | $9.8M | $450.3M | +$440.5M |
| Mantle | $283.2M | $185.8M | −$97.4M |
| Base | $221.5M | $252.3M | +$30.8M |
| Ink | $50.0M | ~$0 | −$50.0M |
| MegaETH (new) | $0 | $300.0M | +$300.0M |
| Other chains / off-chain | $1.25B | $612.1M | −$641.4M |
The headline read-throughs: Ethereum-held backing absorbed the bulk of the rsETH redemption window; Plasma and MegaETH emerged as the new growth surfaces; Base remained resilient; and roughly half a billion of off-chain / “other” balance was rotated on-chain.
Liquid Backing Composition
| Component | End-March | End-April |
|---|---|---|
| Blue-chip stables (USDC/USDT/PYUSD) | $2.49B | $1.00B |
| DeFi lending positions (loans) | $914M | $1.38B |
| Ethena USDtb | $498M | $205M |
| Other / off-chain custody | $1.25B | $612M |
DeFi lending positions grew $466M in absolute terms while every other liquid-backing category contracted, reflecting the deliberate rotation toward yield-bearing on-chain credit (Aave / Morpho / Fluid) as funding rates compressed.
Aave (All Instances Combined)
Ethena-related TVL across all Aave markets (Core V3, V4 Spokes, and the MegaETH instance) contracted from $2.63B at end-March to $541.5M at end-April.
| Market | End-March TVL | End-April TVL | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| USDe | $1,178.3M | $199.1M | −$979M |
| sUSDe | $797.4M | $224.3M | −$573M |
| PT-sUSDe-7MAY2026 | $482.7M | $117.7M | −$365M |
| PT-srUSDe-2APR2026 | $172.1M | expired | −$172M |
| eUSDe / other PTs | $0.5M | $0.5M | flat |
| Total Aave Ethena-related TVL | $2,631M | $541.5M | −$2,089M |
The contraction reflects two compounding forces: (i) the April 2 expiry of the PT-srUSDe-2APR2026 maturity (≈$172M), and (ii) the post-rsETH leverage-loop unwinding which drove USDe and sUSDe direct supply down ~83% and ~72% respectively. Despite the supply contraction, USDe-related markets remained Aave’s largest stablecoin collateral category.
Morpho
Ethena-related TVL on Morpho was the most resilient venue, holding broadly flat at ~$225–235M across the period:
| Market | End-March TVL | End-April TVL |
|---|---|---|
| sUSDe (collateral) | $225.5M | $210.4M |
| PT-sUSDe-7MAY2026 (collateral) | $0.8M | $12.2M |
| PT-sUSDe-15JAN2026 (collateral) | $2.9M | $2.9M |
| PT-srUSDe-2APR2026 (collateral) | $3.8M | expired |
| jrUSDe / eUSDe / others | $0.7M | $0.4M |
| Total Morpho Ethena-related TVL | ~$234M | ~$226M |
Morpho’s resilience versus Aave’s contraction reflects different user bases: Morpho’s Ethena exposure is more dominated by passive vault depositors with longer holding horizons, while Aave’s was more leveraged-loop oriented and unwound faster under the rsETH redemption window.
Pendle
Ethena-related TVL across all Pendle markets contracted from $1.20B at end-March to $537.4M at end-April, a ~55% decline. The bulk of the drop reflects the April 9 expiry of the dominant Plasma-side sUSDe maturity (which had peaked at $657M end-March), with capital partially rotating into the newly-listed sUSDe 18 Jun 2026 maturity on Plasma.
| Market | Chain | End-March TVL | End-April TVL |
|---|---|---|---|
| sUSDe 09 Apr 2026 | Plasma | $657.1M | expired |
| sUSDe 06 May 2026 | Ethereum | $532.1M | $220.1M |
| sUSDe 18 Jun 2026 (new) | Plasma | not yet listed | $316.6M |
| sUSDe 05 Feb 2026 | Ethereum | $11.3M | expired |
| Other (srUSDe, tUSDe, USDe) | Ethereum | $1.7M | $0.7M |
| Total Ethena-related Pendle TVL | $1.20B | $537.4M |
According to the Pendle PT-yield series at end-April, implied PT yield on the new sUSDe 18 Jun 2026 (Plasma) market is approximately 4.2% APY, consistent with the broader compression in funding rates over the period.
Compound V3
USDe was onboarded as collateral on Compound V3 in March, broadening Ethena’s lending-market presence beyond Aave and Morpho. Compound-side deposits are not yet a material share of aggregate Ethena-related DeFi TVL relative to the Aave / Pendle / Morpho footprint, but the listing is a structural unlock for borrowers underwriting USDe-collateralized positions on a third major lending venue.
USDe-Native Perps
Ethereal (USDe TVL bridged in, margin capital):
| Metric | End-March | End-April | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total balance USD (USDe TVL) | $52.25M | $38.32M | −$13.9M |
USDe deposited as margin contracted ~27% over the month, broadly consistent with the wider deleveraging during the rsETH redemption window. The March recap had referenced Ethereal crossing $120M+ in open interest backed by USDe (a leveraged position-size metric distinct from bridge TVL). The April alpha launch of Ethereal Predict (a USDe-native prediction market venue) added a new product surface that is not yet reflected in TVL but extends the USDe-margin franchise.
HyENA (open interest & volume):
| Metric | End-March | End-April | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open interest (USD) | $52.5M | $53.0M | flat |
| Monthly trading volume | $1.01B | $514M | −49% |
| Cumulative volume (since inception) | $3.10B | $3.62B | +$520M |
HyENA’s OI was effectively flat across the period despite the broader basis-book contraction, a sign that USDe-margin demand on the venue remained sticky. Monthly volume halved versus March (consistent with industry-wide deleveraging during the rsETH redemption window), but cumulative volume crossed $3.62B by end-April, building on the $3B milestone celebrated in Ethena’s March recap. End-April OI composition skewed toward BTC ($38.9M, 73%) and ETH ($7.4M, 14%), with HYPE, ZEC, SOL, and others making up the remainder.
Governance Activity
The Risk Committee remained active across both months, with workstreams covering the dynamic cooldown, direct institutional lending partnerships, Whitelabel stables in backing, and the rsETH incident response.
- Dynamic sUSDe Cooldown Period (Activated March): Replaces the static 7-day unstaking with a dynamic 1/3/5/7-day model, anchored to a tiered liquidity framework: Tier 1 (USDC, USDT, PYUSD, mint/redeem balances) settling in 1 day; Tier 2 (sDAI, sUSDS, lending positions, most USDtb) in 2 days; Tier 3 (Morpho vaults) in 5 days. P99 historical redemption coverage benchmarks of 4.1% (1d), 9.2% (3d), and 12.0% (7d) are applied with a 1.5x safety multiplier. At activation, Tier 1 coverage was 7.72x and the recommended cooldown was 1 day. (Forum link)
- Maple and Anchorage Digital as Direct Lending Partners (Posted March): Establishes Maple Institutional (Protocol Pool Operations Alpha LLC, Delaware) and Anchorage Digital (A1, Ltd., Cayman; OCC-chartered) as direct lending venues for USDe-backing stablecoins. Coinbase Asset Management was added in the broader April announcement. Off-chain lending exposure is integrated into proof-of-reserves and the transparency dashboard, with future partners requiring separate Risk Committee proposals. (Forum link)
- Holding Whitelabel Stablecoin Assets in USDe Backing (Posted April 14, our proposal): Frames Whitelabel stables backed by USDtb as economically equivalent to direct USDtb holdings; routes the resulting USDtb yield to sUSDe holders; introduces concentration guardrails on Whitelabel allocations and attestation timeliness. (Forum link)
- Expand USDe Backing with Tokenized Gold (PAXG and XAUT, Posted April 16, our proposal): Argues that tokenized gold’s structural funding-rate dynamics (driven by central-bank purchases, ETF flows, and Tether’s monthly $1B gold purchases for reserves) justify inclusion as a backing asset with near-zero correlation to crypto carry. Establishes asset-specific approval (PAXG: immediate; XAUT: with monitoring) and a new Commodity OI Threshold Framework. (Forum link)
- LlamaRisk: MLA Review Criteria for Institutional Lending Partners (Posted April 14): Sets a four-pillar review framework (counterparty diligence; collateral & custody mechanics; credit/default/enforcement; operational reporting & governance) used by LlamaRisk to evaluate Master Loan Agreements with direct lending counterparties. (Forum link)
- LlamaRisk: Legal Review of CBAM MLA (Posted April 15): Endorses Risk Committee approval of the Coinbase US Bitcoin Yield Fund Master Loan Agreement; characterised as the strongest protective framework among the three reviewed institutional lending agreements, with no amendments recommended. (Forum link)
- Reserve Fund: March 2026 Update (Posted April 8): Joint LlamaRisk + Blockworks Advisory subcommittee analysis. Reduces the buffer recommendation in line with USDe TVL contraction and lower perp-futures exposure, and proposes redirecting accrued and future USDtb interest to sUSDe holders subject to a 2× safety floor. (See Risk & Resilience Metrics for the numbers.) (Forum link)
- rsETH Coalition Contribution: Ethena’s contribution to the DeFi United 14,570 ETH pledge (alongside EtherFi and Lido) was coordinated through the Risk Committee’s incident-response workflow rather than as a standalone proposal.
- Risk Committee Working Items: parameter work toward a protocol fee switch to ENA stakeholders, ongoing review of additional institutional lending partners, and follow-on analysis on the dynamic-cooldown framework after one full month of live operation.
Monthly Revenue
Monthly protocol revenue held steady through the period, and in fact ticked slightly higher in April despite the supply contraction.
| Month | USDtb interest income | USDe revenue | Total revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 2026 | $2.45M | $27.37M | $29.82M |
| February 2026 | $2.37M | $18.83M | $21.20M |
| March 2026 | $2.72M | $18.76M | $21.49M |
| April 2026 | $2.47M | $19.54M | $22.01M |
Annualized revenue run-rate (trailing 30-day basis) was $221M at end-March and $234M at end-April, a slight acceleration despite the late-April supply contraction. The implied yield on backing (revenue / backing) compressed less than supply because USDtb interest, DeFi lending yield, and partner-fee-share economics remained intact through the redemption window.
USDe Fee Allocation
| Allocation Bucket | March 2026 | April 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| sUSDe staking yield | $10.39M (55.4%) | $9.82M (50.3%) |
| Partner payout | $5.71M (30.4%) | $7.04M (36.0%) |
| Aave liquid leverage program | $2.59M (13.8%) | $2.35M (12.0%) |
| Mint fees | $0.08M (0.4%) | $0.33M (1.7%) |
| Reserve Fund | $0 | $0 |
| Total USDe fees | $18.77M | $19.54M |
Two notable shifts versus January/February:
- Partner payout share rose from 27.9% (Jan/Feb avg) to 36.0% in April, reflecting expanded distribution partnerships (Kraken, BitGo, LI.FI Earn, Whitelabel partners).
- No Reserve Fund accruals in either month, consistent with the April 8 subcommittee finding that the fund is ~9× overcapitalized; the upcoming proposal would redirect accrued USDtb interest to sUSDe holders rather than reserves.
Revenue composition: USDe operations continue to drive ~88% of total revenue, with USDtb interest contributing ~12% on a steady ~$2.5M/month basis. Mint fees remain a small but rising share (0.4% → 1.7%) as April’s $84M+ daily mint volume during the recovery window generated modest fee income.
Looking Ahead
Three workstreams will shape the May governance cycle: (i) Risk Committee evaluation of our two backing proposals (Whitelabel-in-backing, tokenized gold), with implementation parameters to be finalized; (ii) the Reserve Fund subcommittee’s recommendation to redirect accrued USDtb interest (~$42M) to sUSDe holders, which would meaningfully alter the fee allocation profile going forward; and (iii) the operational scaling of the direct-lending program, with initial deployments under the Anchorage / Maple / Coinbase Asset Management agreements set to inform the framework for additional institutional counterparties.
Methodology & Data Sources
| Domain | Source |
|---|---|
| USDe supply, solvency, Reserve Fund attestations | Chaos Labs Proof-of-Reserves API (signed weekly attestations) |
| sUSDe APY, protocol yield, 30d/90d averages | Ethena yield API |
| sUSDe supply, on-chain token balances | Dune Analytics (ERC-20 transfer aggregations) |
| System backing composition, venue mix, liquid cash breakdown, mint/redeem buffer, DEX liquidity | Ethena transparency dashboard (Blockworks Research) |
| DeFi footprint (Aave, Morpho, Pendle), monthly revenue and fee allocation, Ethereal TVL, HyENA OI/volume | Ethena transparency dashboard (Blockworks Research) |
| Governance proposals and Risk Committee outputs | Ethena Foundation governance forum (gov.ethenafoundation.com) |