Ethena rockets to $290 million in revenue, seeks SEC clarity on USDe

Ethena Labs reached $290.2 million in total protocol revenue on July 9, trailing only Tether, Circle, and Sky among stablecoin issuers. 

Token Terminal data show that the stablecoin issuer reached $100 million in cumulative revenue 251 days after its launch, making it the second-fastest protocol to cross this threshold.

Daily fees averaged $3.1 million during the past month as traders continued to mint and hedge the synthetic-dollar token USDe. Ethena’s path to nine-figure revenue took 251 days, faster than Uniswap’s 980-day sprint in 2020 but slower than memecoin launchpad Pump.fun, which hit the mark in 217 days late last year. 

Core income is generated by carrying long spot and short perpetual futures positions across multiple exchanges, a delta-neutral strategy that converts funding-rate spreads into protocol earnings credited to stakers of the yield token sUSDe.

Back-end Treasury data shows that 94% of backing assets remain on centralized venues, where Ethena’s automated execution system balances collateral and hedges in real time. The remaining collateral is held in liquid-staking tokens to capture staking rewards while maintaining a neutral net exposure. 

The protocol redirects 20% of gross fees to buy ENA on the open market, a mechanism that has burned 58 million tokens since February, according to on-chain trackers.

SEC dialogue on payment stablecoin status

Ethena’s General Counsel, Zach Rosenberg, and attorneys from Morrison Cohen met with the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Crypto Task Force on July 1 to request clarity on “synthetic dollars,” such as USDe. 

A meeting memorandum released by the SEC shows that the team argued that USDe functions as a payment instrument rather than a security because holders do not rely on the issuer’s efforts for profit and because redemption rights track underlying reserves, not the issuer’s balance-sheet performance. 

The submission cites two pending bills, the GENIUS Act and the STABLE Act, that would carve out a federal licensing lane for payment stablecoin issuers. Ethena told staff that USDe falls outside both drafts because the token can fluctuate slightly around $1 and carries no legal promise of par redemption, leaving it in regulatory limbo.

Company representatives urged the commission to treat synthetic dollars as a separate class and to coordinate with bank regulators if Congress finalizes a payment stablecoin framework. 

Ethena remains barred from US retail distribution pending formal guidance, so new dollar inflows primarily come from offshore funds and market-making desks that hedge their exposure on centralized exchanges. 

The protocol’s revenue pace slowed in May when average perpetual funding spreads compressed below an 8% annualized rate. Still, fee intake rebounded to $3.8 million per day in early July as renewed long-bias returned the basis to double-digit territory.

Ethena’s request for formal SEC feedback remains under review, according to the meeting log.

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