Quick verdict: Ethena is the most visible attempt at a crypto-native dollar that pays yield, with a long list of audits and a clear app. The trade-offs are exposure to funding rates and centralized exchanges, a depeg scare in October 2025, and a yield that depends on market conditions.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Best for | Users who want dollar exposure with variable yield and accept synthetic-dollar risk |
| Fees | No account fee, network gas, and a cooldown when unstaking |
| Custody | Non-custodial app, but the backing involves offchain exchange venues |
| Audits | Multiple firms including Zellic, Quantstamp, Spearbit, Pashov, Code4rena and Cyfrin |
| Editorial score | 3.9 / 5 |
What I tested, and what I did not
I opened the Ethena app on desktop (1440px), tablet (1024px) and phone (430px), viewed the swap and Earn pages and the ethena.fi home page, then connected a throwaway MetaMask wallet that holds no funds. I did not mint USDe, stake or unstake anything, so statements about slippage, real gas and the unstaking experience come from the app’s own text and community reports. A dashboards page I tried returned a 404 and is not used.
What Ethena actually is
USDe aims to hold one dollar by pairing crypto collateral with short futures positions, so price moves cancel out. The yield on sUSDe comes largely from funding rates and staking rewards on that position. When funding turns negative, the yield falls or reverses, which is the core risk.
The ethena.fi home page showed an average sUSDe APY of 10.2%, $812,243,089 in total rewards and a $5.4B total supply. Those are the project’s own figures.
Using Ethena on desktop, tablet and phone
The swap page is simple: pick an asset, pick the amount, receive USDe. It is one of the easier DeFi interfaces to follow.
Best for: quick checks of the current APY and supply on any device.
Connecting a wallet
The connect modal is a Reown-style window with WalletConnect, MetaMask, email and social logins such as Google.
I chose MetaMask and approved the standard connection request.
The header then showed my shortened address.
Staking and the cooldown
The Earn page showed sUSDe at 5.2% APY and an estimated gas cost of $0.02 at capture. The app states that USDe will be available to withdraw one day after unstaking, and the app is Ethereum only.
The cooldown matters in a stress event, because you cannot exit sUSDe instantly through the protocol, although you may sell it on a market.
Fees and costs
I did not find an account fee. You pay network gas, and there is the one-day unstaking delay. The yield is variable, so the real cost is the chance it falls below what you expected.
Risks: the October 2025 depeg and others
On 10 and 11 October 2025, Bloomberg reported USDe fell to about $0.65 on Binance. CoinDesk described it as not a global depegging event; I could not load the full CoinDesk article, so I am relying on the snippet. LlamaRisk published a case study on how pricing broke on that venue.
A site called stablecoininsider says supply fell to $4.53B from a $14.8B peak. I could not verify that and the Ethena site showed $5.4B, so I flag the mismatch rather than pick one. Another source puts the reserve fund near $62M; that came from a search snippet and is unverified.
An r/defi autopsy of USDe and sUSDe lists the risks: negative funding, reserve fund adequacy, exchange and custody exposure, leverage unwinds, governance and the sUSDe cooldown. The author says they did not independently verify specific figures. An older r/CryptoCurrency thread asking if Ethena is legit shows the same mix of curiosity and doubt. I used both for sentiment only.
Security and audits
The audits page describes a multi-phase program: Zellic on v1, Quantstamp and Spearbit on 18 October 2023, Pashov from 22 October 2023 with later reviews of ENA staking, V2, sENA and USDTB, Code4rena on 13 November 2023, a Chaos Labs economic audit, and Cyfrin and Quantstamp on USDTB in October 2024. Ethena states that the v1 audits found no critical or high issues. The home page also claims a SOC 2 Type II audit with zero exceptions, plus proof of reserves and attestations. Those are the project’s claims. Audits cover code, not the exchange and custody exposure that sits behind the peg.
Who should use Ethena
Good fit:
- Users who understand funding-rate yield and accept it can drop
- People who want a dollar-like asset to use across DeFi
- Readers who will check reserves and attestations themselves
Think twice:
- Anyone who treats USDe as a bank deposit
- Users who need instant exit from sUSDe
- Beginners who only look at the headline APY
FAQ
Is Ethena safe?
It is audited, but the peg depends on derivatives positions and exchange exposure, and USDe traded far below a dollar on one venue in October 2025. Size your position accordingly.
What is the difference between USDe and sUSDe?
USDe is the synthetic dollar. sUSDe is the staked version that earns yield and carries the unstaking delay.
How long does unstaking take?
The app said USDe becomes available to withdraw one day after unstaking.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making decisions.
