Athena USDe beat DAI to become the 3rd largest stable coin.
The decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol's stablecoin, USDe, has surpassed Sky's Dai (DAI) by total market capitalization to become the third largest stablecoin after Tether USDt (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC), according to data from Defillama.
With a market capitalization of less than $6 billion, USDe still underperforms USDt and USDC, which have market capitalizations of nearly $140 billion and $40 billion, respectively.
Meanwhile, the market capitalization of DAI – Sky's main stablecoin (the former maker) – will drop from $7 billion to $4.5 billion in 2022, according to Defillama. The total market cap of all stablecoins is over $200 billion.
Source: Defillama
Related: Wintermute to take Etena's USDe as trading margin
CeDeFi product
USDe, which launched in February, has raised double-digit APRs from Etena's CeDeFi strategy, which combines billions of dollars in revenue, which combines DeFi smart contracts and off-chain trading.
CeDeFi refers to any strategy that combines DeFi components and trades on centralized exchanges (CEXs).
“As of February 2024, sUSDe holders have earned an average APY of 17.5%, down from 55.9% (March 2024) and 4.3% (August 8, 2024),” said cryptocurrency researcher Messari. He said in a December 12 memo.
As of Dec. 12, the stock USDe, or sUSDe, is yielding roughly 24% annualized percentage returns, according to Defillama.
Etena allows users to trade USDe against tokens such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) and other stablecoins. Offchain is then married to the internal volatility of the portfolio using financial derivatives.
“Athena leverages the funding and base from captive assets (think Lido's stETH) and from the perpetual and futures markets, passing these benefits on to sUSDe holders,” Messari said.
But Aetna's Sedefy business strategy carries risks, including off-chain exchanges, custodians and settlement provider failures, Messari pointed out.
Source: Defillama
Fast adoption
Nevertheless, USDe has seen rapid adoption. In October, cryptocurrency trading desk Wintermute began accepting USDe as a trading currency.
In June, sUSDe merged with DeFi lending giant Aave. It's the fastest-growing property on the platform right now, Messari said.
Mesari added that By 2024, Etena will generate a payout of nearly $200 million. In the year On November 15, Etena Foundation agreed to share a portion of these revenues with token holders.
Etena's native token ESA (ESA) has gained roughly 5x since June, CoinGecko reports.
In August, Seri changed like the sky. It implemented changes to the die, including naming the decentralized stablecoin USDS. The update has drawn criticism, including cyber security concerns and asset freezes.
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