Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author｜Azuma (@azuma_eth)
Ethena (ENA) may be one of the most outstanding tokens in recent times.
According to Bitget, since hitting a low of 0.194 USDT in early September, ENA surged to 1.33 USDT yesterday, achieving nearly 600% growth over the past two months.
There are various reasons for this. For instance, in a bull market, the funding rates for contracts rise, leading to a significant increase in Ethena's protocol income, and USDe's supply also grows noticeably; additionally, the support from the Trump family's project World Liberty for ENA; and the expectation for the ENA fee switch promoted by Wintermute; coupled with direct cooperation with BlackRock BUIDL to launch a new stablecoin product USDtb... Moreover, the expectation of airdrops for holding and staking ENA is also seen as a key reason for the token's continued rise.
Previously, two major projects closely related to USDe, Ethereal and Derive (formerly Lyra), officially announced that they would airdrop tokens to sENA holders (i.e., ENA stakers), with Ethereal planning to airdrop 15% of its token supply and Derive planning to airdrop 5% of its token supply. Currently, users holding sENA on-chain can directly view the 'mining' status of these two projects on the Ethena homepage.
Last week, Ethereal officials held a community conference call, outlining the roadmap, functions, advantages, and airdrop details of Ethereal. Notably, Ethereal's developers clearly took notice of the recent impressive performance of another strong project, Hyperliquid, and mentioned that Ethereal hopes to build a 'one-stop trading service' similar to Hyperliquid.
Ethereal: The first airdrop project of the Ethena ecosystem
Ethereal made its debut on September 30 this year.
At that time, Ethereal founder Fells initiated a related proposal around USDe, suggesting the construction of an on-chain trading venue that supports spot and derivative trading. On one hand, Ethena could profit from the utility expansion of USDe, while on the other hand, Ethereal could seize the ecological hub position early in USDe's growth.
From an architectural perspective, Ethereal will serve as a Layer 3 based on the Ethena network; from a business perspective, Ethereal will not only be equipped with a complete trading system but also support the deployment of other applications related to USDe (such as lending).
To gain support from the Ethena community and deepen binding relationships, Ethereal stated in its initial proposal that it would allocate 15% of its tokens as airdrops to ENA stakers.
Latest updates: Learning from Hyperliquid
In the latest community conference call, Ethereal team members emphasized Hyperliquid and believed that the key to the project's success lies in 'providing a complete trading service,' addressing the hidden pain points of users needing to switch between different applications when performing different operations, thereby aiding user and fund retention.
In response, Ethereal founder Fells also redefined Ethereal's positioning - 'a one-stop product supporting all DeFi operations.' Users can engage in spot or contract trading, fee arbitrage, lending, options, and even prediction operations, while also obtaining stable income through sUSDe (staked USDe).
Fells also added that he hopes to shape Ethereal into a platform similar to CEX in terms of user experience, but Ethereal will maintain complete non-custodial and decentralized characteristics. For example, Ethereal will abstract away the payment of gas fees through specific designs, so users do not have to sign each transaction or pay gas fees.
Timeline: Mainnet launch in Q1
According to the timeline mentioned during the conference call, Ethereal's expected development pace is as follows:
Testnet release: expected next month;
Testnet suspension;
Mainnet launch: expected in the first quarter of 2025;
Falls also mentioned that the concrete functions of Ethereal will be released in phases, starting with USDe perpetual contract trading, followed by combined margin models, lending, and spot trading. Related services are likely to be gradually launched in the first half of 2025. Additionally, Ethereal will initially support trading of only a few blue-chip tokens, and after accumulating users and liquidity, new trading pairs will be launched weekly.
Ethena's ecological expansion
The ecological landscape of Ethena is rapidly expanding. In addition to Ethereal mentioned in this article, the derivatives project Derive, which originated from the options protocol Lyra, will also issue tokens in the first quarter of next year and will airdrop 5% of tokens to sENA holders.
Benefiting from the positive sentiment of the bull market, the funding rates in the contract market remain high, driving the yields of the Ethena protocol itself and sUSDe upwards. As of the publication, the supply of USDe has approached the 6 billion dollar mark, with a real-time yield of 27%.
Meanwhile, the new stablecoin product USDtb launched in collaboration with BlackRock BUIDL has also filled the biggest gap for Ethena - during negative fee periods, the protocol itself and sUSDe would temporarily show negative returns. The structure of USDtb is similar to traditional RWA-type stablecoins, with its stability supported by reserve assets, and returns coming from treasury bond rates. Once the supply of this stablecoin increases, Ethena will have a reliable hedging window during negative fee periods or when fee yields fall below treasury bond yields, thus addressing the hidden risks of the protocol being susceptible to negative fees.
Arthur Hayes, the well-known 'King of Milk' and founder of BitMEX, predicted earlier this year that 'USDe would surpass USDT to become the largest dollar stablecoin.' Although there is still a significant gap in supply between the two, given Ethena's current sustainable high yield and ecological expansion speed, this is not entirely impossible. If this expectation can indeed be realized, early projects like Ethereal that occupy ecological hub positions will inevitably benefit, further creating value feedback for ENA.
