The rapid rise of Ethena-USDe and its impact on the Decentralized Finance ecosystem

Recently, the total issuance of USDe has shown a significant rise, soaring from 2.4 billion USD to 3.8 billion USD within a month, with a monthly growth rate exceeding 58%. This growth momentum is closely related to Bitcoin's price hitting new highs. The overall bullish sentiment in the market has pushed up the funding rates, which in turn has increased the staking yield of USDe. Although there has been a slight pullback recently, the annualized yield of USDe remains at a quite considerable level.

Against this backdrop, MakerDAO unexpectedly became one of the biggest beneficiaries. Its daily income has risen by more than 200% compared to a month ago, setting a new historical high. This is closely related to the development of Ethena. The high staking yield of USDe has stimulated the lending demand for sUSDe and PT assets, and the scale of borrowing DAI using these assets as collateral on the Morpho platform has reached 570 million USD, with a borrowing utilization rate exceeding 80%.

MakerDAO has provided nearly $2 billion in DAI loans to Morpho and Spark through its D3M module, accounting for nearly 40% of its assets. These two channels alone generate $203 million in revenue for MakerDAO annually, equivalent to $550,000 per day, representing 54% of total annual revenue.

Ethena has become a core force driving the revival of Decentralized Finance. Its rise model is clearly visible: new highs in Bitcoin drive bullish sentiment, pushing up funding rates, which in turn enhances the staking returns of USDe. MakerDAO, with its complete capital flow chain and the "central bank attribute" of the D3M module, has become an important support for the growth of USDe. Morpho has played a key intermediary role in this process.

The sustainability of this growth model mainly depends on whether the interest rate spread between USDe and DAI can be maintained. Influencing factors include the continuity of bullish market sentiment, the optimization of the Ethena economic model, and changes in the competitive landscape of the market.

However, the expansion of the D3M module has also raised some concerns. Although D3M does not directly threaten the stability of DAI, it does increase some potential risks, such as making DAI a "shadow stablecoin" again, and the various risks of Ethena and intermediaries may be transmitted to the DAI system.

Overall, the rapid rise of Ethena-USDe has not only driven its own development but has also brought new opportunities and challenges to the entire Decentralized Finance ecosystem. Market participants need to closely monitor the development of this trend and weigh the potential gains and risks.