Ethena Labs

The genesis of Ethena Labs can be traced back to a compelling vision articulated by Arthur Hayes in his essay 'Dust on Crust', which imagined a truly decentralized, crypto-native stablecoin. This idea struck a chord with Guy Young, a professional with nearly a decade of experience in the upper echelons of traditional finance at firms like Cerberus Capital Management. Inspired by the potential to build a financial instrument free from the constraints of legacy banking infrastructure, Young founded Ethena Labs in 2023. The mission was clear and ambitious: to create the internet's own currency and a globally accessible savings vehicle, addressing what he saw as the most significant and immediate need within the crypto space.

Ethena emerged from stealth mode in July 2023, backed by a formidable $6 million seed round led by Dragonfly and supported by industry heavyweights like Arthur Hayes himself, alongside major exchanges such as Bybit, OKX, and Gemini. This initial funding was a powerful endorsement of their innovative approach. The company's core innovation is USDe, a 'synthetic dollar' that maintains its stability not by holding fiat currency in a bank, but through a sophisticated delta-hedging strategy. The protocol uses assets like staked Ethereum and Bitcoin as collateral while simultaneously holding short perpetual futures positions against them. This mechanism effectively neutralizes price volatility, creating a stable, scalable, and censorship-resistant digital dollar. Building on this foundation, Ethena introduced the 'Internet Bond' via sUSDe (staked USDe), which allows holders to earn a yield generated from the staked assets and the funding spread from the derivatives positions, creating a powerful, permissionless savings alternative for a global audience.