The Rapid Rise of Ethena-USDe and the Recovery of the DeFi Ecosystem

Recently, the stablecoin USDe of the Ethena protocol has shown an astonishing rise momentum. In just one month, the total issuance of USDe surged from 2.4 billion USD to 3.8 billion USD, with a monthly increase of over 58%. This rise is mainly attributed to the bullish market sentiment following Bitcoin's new all-time high, which in turn raised the funding rate and improved the staking yield of USDe. Although there has been a slight decline recently, the annualized yield of USDe still maintains a respectable level of around 25%.

At the same time, MakerDAO, as an important participant in the DeFi ecosystem, has also benefited greatly from this wave of growth. Currently, MakerDAO's daily income has risen by over 200% compared to a month ago, setting a new historical high. This growth is closely related to the development of Ethena. On one hand, the high staking yield of USDe has stimulated the demand for borrowing sUSDe and PT assets. Data shows that the total scale of borrowing DAI with sUSDe and PT as collateral on the Morpho platform has reached $570 million, with a borrowing utilization rate exceeding 80%, and an annualized deposit yield of 12%. In the past month, MakerDAO has seen an incremental loan of over $300 million on Morpho through its D3M module.

On the other hand, the borrowing demand for sUSDe and PT has also indirectly pushed up the DAI usage rate in other channels. For example, the deposit interest rate for DAI on the Sparkfi platform has reached 8.5%. MakerDAO's balance sheet shows that the total amount of DAI loans issued to Morpho and Spark through the D3M module is close to $2 billion, accounting for nearly 40% of its asset side. These two businesses alone have generated an annualized income of $203 million for MakerDAO, equivalent to a daily income of $550,000, accounting for 54% of the total annualized income.

In this rise cycle, Ethena, MakerDAO, and Morpho form the core driving forces. Meanwhile, DeFi protocols like AAVE, Curve, and Pendle have also benefited to varying degrees from the growth of USDe. For example, the borrowing utilization rate of DAI on the AAVE platform exceeds 50%, and the total deposits of USDS are close to 400 million USD. The USDe/ENA related trading pairs rank second, fourth, and fifth in trading volume on Curve, and occupy the first and fifth positions in liquidity rankings on Pendle.

Whether this growth model can be sustained mainly depends on whether the interest rate spread between USDe and DAI will exist in the long term. Influencing factors include: the sustainability of bullish market sentiment, whether Ethena can improve APY distribution efficiency through economic model enhancements and increased market share, and competitive pressure from other platforms (such as interest-bearing stablecoin strategies launched by certain exchanges).

However, accompanying the rise is concern over the security of DAI, especially with the use of the D3M module. Although D3M does not directly cause DAI to become an under-collateralized stablecoin, it does increase certain risks:

1. A high proportion of the D3M module may cause DAI to become a "shadow stablecoin" again.
2. The operational risks, contract risks, and custody risks of Ethena may be transmitted to DAI.
3. Intermediate links (such as Morpho) may further increase risk accumulation.
4. May reduce the overall collateralization rate of DAI.

Overall, the rapid rise of Ethena-USDe not only drives its own development but also injects new vitality into the entire Decentralized Finance ecosystem. However, participants need to be aware of potential risks to ensure the sustainability of this growth model and the long-term healthy development of the ecosystem.