I have recently seen some bloggers promoting ena, and for this coin that I both love and hate, I don't think there are many bloggers with deeper insights than I do, so I decided to write an analysis.
First, let's talk about the love part.
What is ena? Ena is a stablecoin issuance protocol. Stablecoins are a delicious cake that most retail investors overlook, but all institutions or whales are envious of. The issuer of the most widely used stablecoin, USDT, is a company with just a few dozen people making tens of billions of dollars in profit each year. After scaling up, what users provide is real USD, and the issuer only needs to give you a string of numbers on the blockchain. They then take the USD to earn interest while you can't enjoy any of the profits.
However, ena proposes a stablecoin protocol and offers high annualized returns. Where does the money come from? It relies on arbitrage funding fees. Users can stake ETH to obtain USDE. After you stake ETH, the ena protocol simultaneously opens a long position and a short position based on the current price, allowing you to capture the funding fees. In a bull market, the funding fees can be quite substantial, which supports the high annualized returns.
Next, let's discuss how to play with ena. The logic of ena is not just about benefiting from the price increase of the coin. From the outset of its design, the underlying logic is extremely Ponzi-like. Ena is still in the airdrop phase; as long as you stake ena or USDE, ETH, etc., you can earn points that can be redeemed for airdrops later. Now, let's consider what might happen if this continues: If the bull market persists, the high funding fees can continue, buying ena (reducing circulation, increasing price), exchanging their issued stablecoin USDE (increasing the issuance scale of USDE), will lead to an ever-decreasing quantity of ena in the market. During the bull market, one can spiral upwards by stepping on both sides, with no new narratives or new tracks, just real profits. It’s a true conspiracy; it all depends on whether you dare to gamble that you won't be the last one buying at the peak.
Now, let's talk about the hate part.
That is, the operators of ena do not treat people fairly. First, there's the issue of the coin price, which has dropped so much without any intention of controlling it. Second, there are ethical concerns. Recently, the Ethena team was using 180 million ENA tokens (accounting for 25% of SENA's supply, used to earn Sats), which effectively diluted the rewards of other participants.