USDe

Overview

USDe is not a cash-backed stablecoin. Ethena Labs calls it a synthetic dollar.

How the dollar value is produced

Ethena's documentation describes a "delta-neutral backing" design: the protocol holds a portfolio of backing assets and hedges the price-change risk of the volatile ones. Volatile holdings, listed as spot crypto, tokenized equities and tokenized commodities, are paired with short futures positions of approximately the same notional size. Stable holdings, listed as liquid stablecoins and short-duration real-world assets, carry no hedge. The dollar value comes from the hedge offsetting the collateral. There is no bank balance behind it. The explainer sets out how that differs from a reserve-backed USD token.

Who can mint

Minting is permissioned. Ethena states that a whitelisted user provides roughly $100 of USDT and receives roughly 100 newly minted USDe atomically, less execution costs, while the protocol opens the matching short perpetual position. Redemption reverses that, with slippage and execution fees applied. Retail holders acquire USDe on secondary markets.

DIA records USDe at about $3.99B circulating across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base and BSC.

Sources: Ethena docs: How USDe Works, Ethena official site, CoinGecko market page for Ethena USDe

Backing and reserves

The transparency dashboard

The dashboard shows the protocol backing ratio, total backing assets plus reserve fund, USDe total supply, secondary market price, and a category breakdown of backing assets. It presents monthly custodian attestations from four custodians: Copper, Ceffu, Anchorage Digital and Kraken. The documentation says these monthly attestations validate the existence, control and value of the backing assets, and states that none of the backing assets reside directly on any exchange partner.

The dashboard also names HT Digital, LlamaRisk and Chainlink's Proof of Reserves programme as independent third-party verification of the backing assets.

What the attestations do not cover

The individual attestation reports were not readable at the documentation layer, so the engagement standard, the signing firm on each report, and the exact perimeter of each attestation are not disclosed in the public documentation itself. A custodian attestation confirms assets sit with a custodian. It is not an audit opinion on the protocol, and it does not attest to the hedge positions that produce the dollar value.

The reserve fund

Ethena describes the reserve fund as a pool of protocol-held assets acting as an additional margin of safety, funded from revenue during high-revenue periods. Its documentation states that 0% of revenue is currently directed to the reserve fund, with 100% going to incentive rewards, promotional distributions and distribution incentives. No current balance is given in the documentation; it points to the dashboard.

Sources: Ethena transparency dashboard, Ethena docs: Custodian Attestations, Ethena docs: Reserve Fund

Regulation

USDe has been through a European enforcement action, and the record is public.

The BaFin sequence

Ethena GmbH applied to BaFin in July 2024 for authorisation to issue USDe. BaFin imposed supervisory measures on 21 March 2025 and cited serious deficiencies in the business organisation of Ethena GmbH plus infringements of MiCAR requirements. Ethena GmbH withdrew the application on 3 April 2025. BaFin issued a coercive fine of 600,000 euros on 4 April 2025 and ordered the winding-up of the authorisation-requiring business on 14 April 2025. Ethena GmbH lodged an objection on 22 April 2025.

On 25 June 2025 BaFin instructed Ethena GmbH to wind up business and opened a 42-day redemption window closing 6 August 2025, supervised by a BaFin-appointed special representative. From 7 August 2025 BaFin stated that USDe tokens exchange only for USDC, and that future claims transfer to Ethena (BVI) Limited.

There is no EU authorisation for USDe issuance.

Sources: BaFin: Ethena GmbH winding-up order, BaFin: Ethena GmbH redemption process

Risks

Ethena documents its own risk surface. Four items are specific to USDe.

• Funding risk. Revenue comes from short perpetual funding, futures basis and yield on holdings. Ethena states the reserve fund steps in when that combined revenue is negative, and that it shifts backing into liquid stables during low or negative funding periods. Its own figures put 8.84% of ETH days at negative combined returns.
• Reserve fund funding has stopped. The buffer that absorbs negative funding currently receives 0% of protocol revenue by Ethena's own documentation. The buffer exists; it is not being replenished from revenue.
• Custodial and exchange failure. Ethena lists three custodial risks: accessibility problems impairing mint and redeem, reliance on custodian cooperation to transfer unrealised profit or loss if an exchange fails, and custodian insolvency. Its mitigation is spreading assets across multiple off-exchange settlement providers.
• Permissioned redemption. Only whitelisted users mint and redeem at par. Everyone else exits through secondary markets, so a stressed market price is not automatically arbitraged away by the average holder.

The regulatory item sits alongside them: BaFin ordered the German issuing entity wound up, and claims moved to a BVI entity.

Sources: Ethena docs: Funding Risk, Ethena docs: Custodial Risk, Ethena docs: Reserve Fund

What this map tracks

The Global Stablecoin Map tracks USDe as a synthetic USD token issued by Ethena Labs, with backing classified as delta-neutral derivatives.

Covered: token supply and market price on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base and BSC, giving a circulating figure of about $3.99B, plus deviation of the secondary market price from the $1 reference.

Not covered: the hedge positions. USDe's dollar value depends on short futures and perpetual positions held on centralised derivatives venues and on collateral sitting with off-exchange custodians. None of that is readable from a chain. Any on-chain view of USDe measures the token, not the solvency of the structure behind it. For that, the custodian attestations and the transparency dashboard are the disclosure of record, and their limits are described above.

Sources: Ethena transparency dashboard, Ethena docs: How USDe Works

Common questions