The Aave community has pushed back against the proposal, questioning whether it addresses the core risks.
A new proposal on Aave suggests hardcoding the price of Ethenaโs USDe to match Tetherโs USDt in Aaveโs pricing feeds.
The proposal, co-authored by Chaos Labs and LlamaRisk, was submitted on Jan. 3 and seeks to protect Aave users from exposure to secondary market fluctuations. Notably, LlamaRisk is part of Ethenaโs risk committee. The proposal reads:
โBy linking USDeโs value directly to USDt, we align the sUSDe oracle with USDt pricing, ensuring seamless integration and avoiding disruptions caused by transient price fluctuations in USDe."
AAVE is the largest decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol, with $37 billion in total value locked, allowing users to borrow and lend cryptocurrencies without intermediaries. Users can deposit assets into Aaveโs liquidity pools and earn interest or borrow using crypto as collateral.
USDE, created by Ethena, is a synthetic dollar stablecoin backed by onchain assets and derivatives, unlike USDT, which relies on fiat reserves. USDE now ranks as the third-largest stablecoin, with a $5.85 billion market cap, trailing USDT and USD Coin USDC, according to CoinGecko.
Related: Ethenaโs USDe beats DAI to become 3rd-largest stablecoin
Why peg USDE to USDT?
Aave currently uses Chainlinkโs USDe/US dollar price feed to value staked USDe (sUSDe), a staked version of USDE.
According to the proposal, a 5% drop in USDEโs price could put over $300 million worth of USDE-backed loans on Aave at risk of liquidation. This could trigger collateral sell-offs to repay outstanding debt.
โTo mitigate the risk associated with a USDe depeg event, we propose hardcoding USDeโs price to USDT,โ the authors stated.
Community backlash:
The proposal has drawn skepticism from Aave users, who question whether the approach addresses fundamental risks.
A snippet of community feedback on Aaveโs proposal to hardcode USDEโs price to USDT. Source: Aave Governance Forum.
Hardcoding the USDe price to USDT price sounds a bit risky given USDe isnโt really intended to be a stablecoin,โ user Hazbobo pointed out. โWhatโre the edge case risks involved? Whatโs the worst case scenario?โ
Another community member, ElliotNess, criticized the proposal for failing to address underlying risk factors:
โThis is a disappointingly low-quality ARFC from two service providers without digging into any potential conflictsโฆ Frankly, this can be said of every non-hardcoded asset listed on the Aave protocol,โ they noted.
ElliotNess questioned the rationale behind pegging USDE to USDT, suggesting that if Aave plans to hardcode USDeโs price, it might as well peg it directly to $1.00 to avoid secondary market price deviations entirely.
The proposal is in its early discussion stage, with no formal vote scheduled yet.
At the time of publication, AAVE was trading at $340, up 7% in the past 24 hours and 230% over the past year.
Aaveโs growth in 2024 has been driven by expansion into new markets, including BNB Chain, Scroll, ZKsync Era, and Ether.fi. The protocol is also eyeing further integrations in 2025, with potential additions like Sonic, Mantle, Ethereum layer 2 Linea, Bitcoin layer 2 BOB, Spider Chain and Aptos, pending community approval.
Ethenaโs 2025 roadmap:
Ethena surged 17% following the release of its 2025 roadmap, detailing plans to integrate with Telegram and launch a new dollar savings product.
The Jan. 3 roadmap introduced iUSDe, a wrapped version of sUSDe, which currently offers a 10% yield. Ethena announced plans to integrate sUSDe into Telegram, leveraging its 900 million users. The integration will introduce a payment and savings app based on sUSDe, aiming to deliver a โneobank experienceโ within the messaging platform.
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