Ethena Labs Gears Up for Major USDe Reserve Boost

posted  14 Oct 2024
The Ethena Labs community has proposed using Solana (SOL) as collateral for the synthetic stablecoin USDe, which is backed by hedged trades and reserves. This initiative is now under review by the independent Ethena Risk Management Committee, which has seven days to evaluate the proposal.  

If the proposal is approved, SOL will be gradually integrated into the existing system, with an estimated investment of between $100 and $200 million. The goal is to achieve 5-10% of SOL's open interest, similar to the company’s current stake in ETH’s global open interest.

Proposal Text. Source: Ethena Foundation Official Forum

Proposal Text. Source: Ethena Foundation Official Forum

Along with hedged trades, the proposal discusses staking SOL with the option to receive liquid staking tokens such as BNSOL or bbSOL. A similar strategy is already in place for a portion of the ETH reserves, which are allocated across various projects.  

Recently, Ethena Labs invested around $46 million in tokenized assets, including BUIDL from BlackRock, as well as stablecoins USDM, USTB, and USDS, to diversify their reserves and generate additional profit. A portion of these profits is shared proportionally with all USDe holders.  

For users seeking to minimize risk, Ethena Labs also introduced a new stablecoin, UStb, which operates separately from USDe and is backed by BUIDL. This stablecoin is designed to safeguard reserves and generate returns during times of market volatility.