Ethena is preparing to launch a new cryptocurrency-based product aimed at attracting traditional finance (TradFi) institutions.
The blockchain platform plans to launch its new iUSDe product in February. According to Ethena’s 2025 roadmap released on January 3, iUSDe, which is based on sUSDe, a synthetic dollar, introduces a “simple wrapper contract” that adds transfer restrictions at the token level.
According to the roadmap, Ethena’s main goal in the first quarter of 2025 is to work with TradFi distribution partners to make iUSDe accessible to customers. Ethena plans to announce these partners by the end of January.
“Our sole focus for the first quarter of 2025 will be working with our traditional financial distribution partners to make iUSDe accessible to our customers.”
Key target customers for this product include asset managers, private credit funds, publicly traded products, private investment trusts and prime brokers.
USDe supply and price. Source: Ethena
Ethena’s sUSDe offers a 10% Annual Percentage Yield (APY) to over 368,000 investors with over $5.85 billion invested in synthetic dollars, Ethena data shows.
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Synthetic Dollars Could Disrupt TraFi Markets
Considering the $190 trillion size of the bond market, which is the world’s largest liquid investment class, high-yielding synthetic dollars could attract significant interest from TradFi participants.
Ethena’s roadmap adds that the wealth-preservation potential of yield-generating dollar products could create demand “several times larger than the entire cryptocurrency market, including Bitcoin, combined.”
“And that’s why the next logical step for these companies following ETFs is a dollar savings product. Futures basis is the only large cryptocurrency market that can handle the level of demand in dollar form.”
Guy Young, founder of Ethena Labs, said in an exclusive interview that Ethena’s synthetic dollar generates revenue through staking revenue and the selling of Ether (ETH) perpetual futures contracts.
Ethena Labs, Guy Young, exclusive to Cointelegraph. Source: YouTube
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Ethena is the second fastest protocol to reach $100 million in revenue.
Ethena is the second fastest protocol in cryptocurrency history to reach $100 million in revenue.
It took Ethena 251 days to generate its first $100 million in revenue, compared to second-place Memecoin launchpad Pump.fun, which surpassed the milestone in just 217 days.
The fastest protocol to reach $100 million in revenue. Source: Ethena/Mirror
Demonstrating Ethena’s rapid adoption, USDe has become the third-largest US dollar-backed product in the cryptocurrency industry in just 10 months, behind Circle’s USDC (USDC) and market leader Tether’s USDt (USDT) stablecoin.
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