Stablecoins are one of the most profitable business models in human history. In the first quarter of 2024, Tether's net profit was $4.5 billion. At that time, the Tether team had only about 100 people, which meant an average quarterly profit of up to 45 million US dollars per person. As a comparison, Goldman Sachs requires 45000 employees to earn the same profit. What is the secret of Tether? It is a perfect 'shadow bank'. Utilize the extremely low distribution cost of blockchain to extract the global credit spread of the US dollar. However, this kind of profiteering business also has fatal risks. Asset side black box: rigid dependence on traditional banking system Profit limit: Profit highly linked to macro interest rates Regulatory squeeze: As a centralized entity, always within the regulatory range 1、 The paradigm evolution of stablecoins: from 1.0 to 3.0 As a result, the industry's exploration of the "trilemma of stablecoins" is constantly evolving. 1.0 Era: MakerDAO (based on asset collateral). 2.0 Experiment: Algorithmic stablecoin (based on confidence). 3.0 Era: Synthetic dollars represented by Ethena. Ethena's core lies in utilizing the hedging logic of financial derivatives to achieve credit expansion outside of the banking system. Delta neutral strategy based on "spot long+corresponding short position". USDe does not rely on external asset collateral, but assetizes the basis income of the cryptocurrency market. According to TVL data, USDe has jumped to fourth place among global stablecoins, only behind USDT, USDC, and USDS. 2、 Ethena's key layout: from revenue agreements to financial foundations Recently, Ethena has been making frequent moves, indicating that its grand vision is no longer limited to DeFi profits. Dynamic Unsteading Mechanism The staking cooldown period for USDe has been upgraded from a fixed 7-day period to a dynamic Cooldown system. When the market is stable and liquidity is sufficient, the cooling off period can be reduced to 1 day; When there is concentrated redemption pressure, the system will automatically extend to 7 days. Deeply cultivate the Perp trading scene As of now, Ethena has distributed over $2 million in incentives to @ etherealdex and @ hyenatrade. USDe is no longer an interest bearing asset in users' wallets, but has become a margin and settlement currency for contract trading. When it becomes the 'hard currency' of the on chain derivatives market, its moat will be built by real trading demand. Privy deep integration and WalletConnect Pay integration Privy deep integration: linking 120 million accounts and directly integrating interest earning functions into the front-end of various apps. WalletConnect Pay access: even direct QR code payment is possible! Realize a perfect closed loop of "making money on the chain and consuming offline". 3、 Summary From a historical perspective, stablecoins are the only application in the blockchain industry that truly possesses "external profits" and can cross cycles. If Tether verifies the commercial profits of digital dollar distribution, then Ethena is attempting to address the endogeneity issue of stablecoins.