Ethena Labs: Building the Monetary Infrastructure of the Internet

Ethena is not just building a better stablecoin, it is building the monetary infrastructure of the Internet

Author: Tindorr , Crypto KOL

Compiled by: Felix, PANews

It used to be thought that Ethena was just a stablecoin protocol - a synthetic dollar (USDe) that provided a stable yield and some nice integrations.

When Ethena Labs founder G announced Ethena’s “convergence” roadmap in January this year, he did not realize what was about to happen.

But as my research progressed, I gradually realized that my thinking was too narrow.

Ethena is not just building a better stablecoin, it is building the monetary infrastructure of the Internet: a system that combines the capital efficiency of cryptocurrency with the regulatory trust layer of traditional finance.

$ENA is becoming the face of this shift.

Rather than chasing a single narrative, Ethena now touches nearly every major macro vertical:

It’s about the confluence of multi-billion dollar trends — stablecoin monetization, RWA tokenization, and the rise of on-chain financial infrastructure.

Here’s a breakdown of why Ethena may be the protocol best positioned to capture it all, from the release of the roadmap and the progress made since.

1. Ethena’s Stablecoin: The Liquidity Engine That Drives Everything

While most protocols only issue one stablecoin, Ethena has built an integrated stablecoin system - each asset plays a different role depending on market conditions or user characteristics, but all are driven by the same underlying engine.

USDe: The third largest stablecoin (market cap $4.81 billion)

USDe is the synthetic dollar that starts it all.

USDe is the base layer of DeFi liquidity. With a supply of over $4.8 billion, it thrives in risk-on markets - leveraging the perpetual funding premium to generate sustainable on-chain returns.

This is not just passive capital, this is efficient liquidity, plugged into every major DeFi stack.

USDtb: 8th largest stablecoin (market cap $1.44 billion)

USDtb comes into play when yields fall or volatility spikes.

USDtb is backed by tokenized U.S. Treasuries backed by BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, providing a safe-haven and yielding alternative for traditional finance (TradFi) users.

It enhances the resilience of the Ethena system and balances the dynamic returns of USDe and the stability of Treasury levels.

Today, both assets are ranked among the top ten stablecoins, and Ethena has secured its place at the heart of crypto liquidity.

2. sUSDe: The engine driving Ethena’s expansion

By staking USDe, you can get sUSDe, the yield version of Ethena's synthetic dollar. Supported by protocol revenue, sUSDe has become the core driver of Ethena's integration and liquidity growth.

As the market warms up, the annualized yield has rebounded to around 8%, and sUSDe has once again become one of the most combinatorial and reliable on-chain sources of income in DeFi.

Here’s how it works:

1. Pendle and Aave: Maximizing returns and capital efficiency

In Pendle and Aave, USDe/sUSDe has gradually become the preferred stablecoin for fixed income, lending, and leverage cycles:

In the image above, Aave and Pendle users can efficiently borrow USDe at 0% interest and convert it to sUSDe to maximize returns. This is a core use case that drives sUSDe's integration and liquidity.

2. Hyperliquid x HyperEVM: New territory for USDe

Ethena’s move into Hyperliquid Exchange and HyperEVM kicks off significant distribution:

In short: Ethena is embedding into Hyperliquid’s native liquidity layer, the fastest growing ecosystem.

3. TON + Telegram: Internet Currency for One Billion Users

The biggest unlock?

Providing savings accounts to Telegram’s 1 billion+ users through the integration of Ethena x TON.

Ethena is more than just a DeFi application, it is becoming the native savings layer for emerging markets and mobile-first users around the world.

sUSDe is a scalable yield layer

From efficient DeFi strategies (Pendle, Aave) to the trading volume of centralized exchanges (Hyperliquid) and the scale of Web2 (TON), sUSDe is driving Ethena's transformation from the protocol layer to the currency layer.

Clearly, Ethena has become a savings engine for millions of users.

4. Ethereal: Native perpetual and spot DEX built on Ethena

Ethereal is the first mainstream application launched on the Ethena network. It is a next-generation spot and perpetual DEX with deep liquidity and institutional-grade execution.

It is fully powered by Ethena's ecosystem:

Progress is currently good: more than