30s Summary
The Ethena Foundation is planning to share profits from its decentralized finance protocol with token holders, following a proposal from cryptocurrency market maker Wintermute. The proposal suggests part of the fees Ethena earns should be allocated to people who have staked ENA, Ethena’s native token. The move was aimed at giving value to another token called sENA. Ethena’s protocol has been successful, with its stablecoin USDe hitting a value of $3.2 billion since launch. Meanwhile, Wintermute has started accepting USDe as collateral for spot crypto exchanges and derivatives trades.
Full Article
The Ethena Foundation has approved a suggestion from Wintermute, a company that makes markets in cryptocurrency, to share some of the profits from its decentralized finance protocol with people who own its tokens. Wintermute proposed this change in November and suggested that some of the fees Ethena makes should go to people who have staked Ethena’s native token, ENA.
Those at the Ethena Foundation were happy with this proposal and are now figuring out the finer details, with plans to introduce it by the end of November.
In February, Ethena Labs released a new type of stablecoin called USDe that earns users interest. This can be minted using other tokens like Bitcoin, Ether, and other stablecoins. This means users can trade their tokens for USDe, which increases its demand and value. The value of USDe has skyrocketed to around $3.2 billion since it was launched.
Ethena’s ENA token was launched in April and can be staked to earn another token called sENA. Before Wintermute’s proposal, it was unclear how sENA would have value over time. Now, it seems that the performance of Ethena’s protocol will play a pivotal role.
Wintermute claims that Ethena’s protocol is generating a lot of real-world revenue, signaling a strong product-market fit for USDe. But, there isn’t a direct correlation between this revenue and sENA’s value. So they believe it’s time to fix this issue by making sure ENA token holders are rewarded as the protocol grows.
Wintermute started accepting USDe as a form of collateral for spot crypto exchanges and derivatives trades towards the end of October. Wintermute’s customers can now use USDe as collateral for options, forward, and spot trades. This makes USDe more versatile, reinforcing its place among Wintermute’s accepted collateral assets, which also include Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, and USD Coin.