RIADeFiPublished by Ketju Research
Not approved · Trading-strategy yield

Ketju memo: Ethena (USDe)

Not approvedPublished by Ketju Research

This memo sets out what the holder owns, who controls it, how holders could lose money, and whether a position can be sold. The advisor decides any client action and amount. Not investment, legal, tax, or compliance advice.

Summary

Ketju does not approve Ethena USDe: its dollar value depends on an actively managed reserve, centralized derivatives venues, off-exchange custodians and market makers who alone can redeem directly. Only market makers cleared through KYC can mint or redeem with Ethena. Everyone else sells on a market. USDe is a synthetic dollar. Its backing began as a long-spot, short-perpetual trade and now also includes stablecoins, lending positions, tokenized funds and other assets that the Risk Committee approves. sUSDe yield is protocol revenue from variable funding and basis, staking and reserve-asset returns. It is not a deposit rate, and it can fall or turn negative before the reserve fund covers the gap. Ethena processed $1.9B of redemptions on 2025-10-10 and 11 without using its reserve fund. During the same event USDe traded as low as 0.65 USDT on Binance, because liquidity on that venue and its oracle design failed. USDe is a basis-and-reserve strategy inside a transferable dollar token, and an adviser should not size it as cash.

Review triggers

  • Ketju will review USDe again only after twelve monthly reports in a row reconcile, at one timestamp, circulating USDe, each custodian balance, hedge notional by venue, unhedged delta, lending and tokenized-fund exposure, and reserve-fund assets, with no unexplained shortfall
  • Ketju will review USDe again only if no single custodian or derivatives venue holds more than 25% of backing or hedge notional, and every exposure has a tested replacement and unwind plan
  • Ketju will review USDe again only after every live owner, admin, minter, redeemer, gatekeeper, reserve-fund signer and Risk Committee vote is mapped to its address, threshold and enforceable delay, with no undocumented privileged role
  • Ketju will review USDe again only if the client holds an enforceable direct redemption right, or a proposed-size sale completes within one business day and 50 basis points in three stress tests. The sUSDe cooldown must also end within the published tier maximum
  • Any reserve shortfall, hedge delta above 2% of supply for more than one hour, direct-redemption suspension beyond one business day, or USDe discount above 100 basis points on secondary markets for more than one hour keeps USDe not approved

Facts

Verdict
Not approved
Type
Trading-strategy yield
Chains examined
Ethereum
Reviewed
Last confirmed

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