Ethena Labs Hits $290.2 Million Revenue, Second-Fastest Protocol to $100 Million

Ethena Labs has achieved a significant milestone, reaching $290.2 million in total protocol revenue as of July 9. This places Ethena among the top stablecoin issuers, trailing only Tether, Circle, and Sky. The company's rapid growth is evident, as it reached $100 million in cumulative revenue just 251 days after its launch, making it the second-fastest protocol to cross this threshold.

Ethena's daily fees averaged $3.1 million over the past month, driven by the continued minting and hedging of the synthetic-dollar token USDe. The protocol's revenue growth trajectory is notable, taking 251 days to reach nine figures, which is faster than Uniswap's 980-day journey in 2020 but slower than memecoin launchpad Pump.fun, which achieved this mark in 217 days late last year.

Ethena generates core income through a delta-neutral strategy involving long spot and short perpetual futures positions across multiple exchanges. This strategy converts funding-rate spreads into protocol earnings, which are credited to stakers of the yield token sUSDe. Back-end Treasury data indicates that 94% of backing assets remain on centralized venues, where Ethena’s automated execution system balances collateral and hedges in real time. The remaining collateral is held in liquid-staking tokens to capture staking rewards while maintaining a neutral net exposure.

The protocol redirects 20% of gross fees to buy ENA on the open market, a mechanism that has burned 58 million tokens since February, according to on-chain trackers.

On July 1, Ethena’s General Counsel, Zach Rosenberg, and attorneys from Morrison Cohen met with the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Crypto Task Force to seek clarity on “synthetic dollars,” such as USDe. The meeting memorandum released by the SEC shows that the team argued that USDe functions as a payment instrument rather than a security. This is because holders do not rely on the issuer’s efforts for profit and because redemption rights track underlying reserves, not the issuer’s balance-sheet performance.

The submission cites two pending bills, the GENIUS Act and the STABLE Act, that would carve out a federal licensing lane for payment stablecoin issuers. Ethena told staff that USDe falls outside both drafts because the token can fluctuate slightly around $1 and carries no legal promise of par redemption, leaving it in regulatory limbo. Company representatives urged the commission to treat synthetic dollars as a separate class and to coordinate with bank regulators if Congress finalizes a payment stablecoin framework.

Ethena remains barred from US retail distribution pending formal guidance, so new dollar inflows primarily come from offshore funds and market-making desks that hedge their exposure on centralized exchanges. The protocol’s revenue pace slowed in May when average perpetual funding spreads compressed below an 8% annualized rate. Still, fee intake rebounded to $3.8 million per day in early July as renewed long-bias returned the basis to double-digit territory.

Ethena’s request for formal SEC feedback remains under review, according to the meeting log.