[Ethena Labs adds Solana as collateral for “synthetic USD”]
Ethena Labs, the U.S. digital dollar (USDe) issuer, has now included Solana (SOL) as collateral for “synthetic USD”. Previously, users could only deposit Bitcoin, Ethereum, stETH or USDT into the protocol to issue stablecoins. The team stated that this integration with the Solana blockchain will expand the reach of USDe, allowing users to buy and sell this asset on the network. Developers note that since using Bitcoin as collateral, the market value of "synthetic dollars" has grown to more than $1 billion.
These collateral assets are used to open short positions of equal value on the perpetual contract. Since long holders are rewarded in the form of funding rates, Ethena Labs is able to provide an attractive yield of 12.3% per year on USDe. The architecture of stablecoins is based on delta-neutral trading and portfolio management strategies popular in traditional finance and is considered relatively safe under favorable conditions.
According to the issuer, as of May 24, the collateral level of USDe was 101.74%, which means that the asset can be redeemed if every user decides to liquidate. On August 5, amid volatile market conditions, Ethena Labs issued more than $100 million in “synthetic U.S. dollar” buybacks. The founder said that each stress test, including other stress tests experienced this year, provides additional guarantees for the stability of the system.
