According to a post by Seraphim Czecker, head of growth at Ethena Labs, Ethena has become the top-earning decentralized application (DApp) by surpassing $6.8 million in daily cumulative revenue over the past week. Tron and Ethereum were the only blockchains that exceeded Ethena’s revenue, with $38.6 million and $182.5 million in daily cumulative revenue respectively over the past seven days.
Ethena currently provides a 67.2% yield on its USDe synthetic dollar to more than 350,000 users, as stated on its homepage. The market cap of Ethena’s USDe has increased by 43% in the past week and 409% in the past month, reaching $840 million according to DefiLlama data.
On Feb. 19, Ethena Labs launched its USDe synthetic dollar on the public mainnet. The launch caused significant concern among investors due to the synthetic dollar’s initial annual percentage yield (APY) of 27.6%. This yield is considerably higher than the 20% yield previously offered by Anchor Protocol on the TerraUSD (UST) algorithmic stablecoin before its collapse in May 2022.
Guy Young, the founder of Ethena Labs, stated in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph on Feb. 22 that the initial concerns surrounding USDe’s yield indicate a maturing industry recovering from the collapse of the Terra ecosystem. Unlike the failed Anchor protocol, USDe’s yield is publicly verifiable as it is generated through staking returns and shorting Ether perpetual future contracts, according to Young.
Ethena Labs disclosed that it raised $14 million in funding for its synthetic dollar on Feb. 16. The round of funding was supported by venture capital firm Dragonfly. In 2023, the startup raised $6 million in a previous investment round with participation from Binance Labs, Gemini, Bybit, Mirana Ventures, OKX Ventures, and Deribit.
Related: According to a report, Pantera has launched a fundraise to purchase $250 million worth of SOL from the FTX estate.