Staked USDe (sUSDe) is the yield-bearing version of Ethena's synthetic dollar, USDe. Rather than holding cash or Treasuries, its peg is maintained by a delta-neutral position: spot ETH and BTC collateral hedged with short perpetual futures, with staking and funding rates passed to holders. sUSDe scores 61/100 (Tier 4) on the RWTS Trust Score, our lowest stablecoin tier, because the backing is a market position rather than a hard claim. Yield has compressed from launch highs to single digits, and unstaking carries a seven-day cooldown.
- Issuer / protocol
- Ethena
- Backing
- ETH/BTC collateral + short perp positions (delta-neutral)
- Redemption / lock-up
- 7-day cooldown on unstaking
- Audit & proof of reserves
- Independently audited
- Availability
- Global
- Chain
- Ethereum
- Tier
- Tier 4 — Synthetic & Structured
- Contract
- 0x9D39…b2f4
Scored on the published RWTS methodology (v1.1), reviewed quarterly and on material events. Ratings are independent and never pay-influenced.
Calculations are indicative. Actual yields may vary.
Price data from CoinGecko. Not financial advice.
| Pool | DEX | Liquidity | 24h Vol |
|---|---|---|---|
| sUSDe / DOLA | curve | $65.5M | $145K |
| sUSDe / reUSD | curve | $2.3M | $1.5M |
| sUSDe / USDT | uniswap | $993K | $3.9M |
| sUSDe / frxUSD | curve | $830K | $454K |
| sUSDe / crvUSD | curve | $791K | $87K |
| sUSDe / USDT | uniswap | $598K | $566K |
Aggregated across public DEX pools holding more than $10K in liquidity. Daily snapshot, not a live feed. Source: DexScreener. Deep, distributed liquidity makes a token easier to enter and exit without slippage.
Current yield of 5.01% sits at 38% of the observed range. There may be room for rates to improve.
Projections assume constant APY of 5.01%. Actual returns may vary. Not financial advice.
Delta-neutral synthetic; Bybit/Binance perp dependency; high yield.
Methodology v1.0 · independent rating · published rubric · no issuer payments
Synthetic dollar mechanism: ETH/BTC collateral held by institutional custodians (Copper, Ceffu, Komainu) paired with short perpetual futures positions to maintain delta neutrality. Collateral mix has matured to include a higher allocation of T-bills for stability. Yield = ETH staking rewards + funding rate spread + T-bill yield. Structural fit for the rubric's synthetic/structured tier.
Monthly third-party attestations on collateral holdings; on-chain visibility into mint/redeem flows; institutional MPC custody with public addresses; combination of regular attestation + on-chain transparency.
sUSDe to USDe via 7-day cooldown unstaking mechanism; USDe redeems via Ethena's direct mint/redeem channel for whitelisted addresses, plus deep secondary market liquidity via Curve and major CEXs. 7-day cooldown is at the rubric short-queue boundary. Right 6/8, route 7/7: three or more routes the issuer cannot close.
Multiple smart contract audits (Spearbit, Trail of Bits, Pashov Audit Group, others); active Immunefi bug bounty; institutional custody operational security standards.
Ethena Labs registered (BVI); Ethena Foundation organisational structure; USDe not available to US persons by design; partially regulated framework with published terms.
Live since Q1 2024 (~26 months as of May 2026). No fund-loss or material incidents in operating history. APY has compressed from a 27% launch peak to ~3.5% current — this reflects market-cycle dynamics (funding rate normalization as crypto markets cooled from bull-phase extremes), supply dilution (large TVL growth shares yield across more participants), reduced leverage demand for shorts to capture, deliberate strategic diversification toward T-bills for yield stability, and protocol-side reserve retention for volatility management. Yield compression is the system working as designed under different market conditions, not a protocol failure.
YIELD_VARIABILITY_FUNDING_RATE_DEPENDENTYield mechanism depends on positive funding rates on perpetual futures plus ETH staking rewards plus T-bill returns. Yield has compressed from launch peak (~27%) to current (~3.5%) due to market-cycle funding rate normalization, TVL growth dilution, reduced leverage demand, and Ethena's strategic shift to higher T-bill allocation. Sustained negative funding rates can further compress yield. No fund-loss events in operating history.
COLLATERAL_CUSTODY_CENTRALIZEDCollateral assets held by regulated institutional MPC custodians (Copper, Ceffu, Komainu). Custody concentration risk is structural to the delta-neutral mechanism.
NON_US_PERSONS_ONLYUSDe and sUSDe are not available to US persons by design.
Caveats document operational realities that don't change the dimensional score but shape practical use.
Beyond sUSDe's own score, two structural questions matter: what is it built on, and what has broken before in this part of the market. A high score in isolation can still carry hidden, shared exposure.
BUIDL redemptions are T+0 to USDC only during US market hours. If that exit window jammed under stress, every product built on BUIDL inherits the same bottleneck at the same moment. A fund built on a top-rated fund still adds a layer of risk, which is exactly why OUSG scores below BUIDL on our methodology.
See the full chain →What this and similar assets are built on, and where contagion could spread.
The depegs, defaults, and exploits that inform the Track Record dimension.
Liquidity read: TVL of $1.23B indicates deep on-chain liquidity. Lock-up: 7-day cooldown on unstaking.
Is sUSDe safe?
sUSDe (Staked USDe) scores 61/100 on the independent RWTS Trust Score, which places it in Synthetic & Structured (Tier 4). Tier 4 is the highest-risk tier: synthetic or structured backing where the yield comes with genuine structural risk, not a hard claim. Backing: ETH/BTC collateral + short perp positions (delta-neutral). It is independently audited. The score reflects backing, verification, redeemability, audit, regulatory standing, and track record, not headline yield. We rate. You decide.
Exit routes
13/15 · right 6/8 · routes 7/7If the issuer stopped cooperating tomorrow, could you get out?
Yes, by more than one independent route
- independent
Ethena unstaking cooldown
sUSDe is unstaked into the USDeSilo contract and withdrawn once the cooldown elapses. The wait is enforced in contract, not by Ethena discretion, though Ethena sets its length.
- independent
Uniswap V4
40.8% of volume. $72.8m of standing pool liquidity across the DEX venues, the deepest on the stablecoin shelf.
- independent
Curve and 22 further venues
Curve 36.5%; 24 venues carry volume, so no concentration collapse applies.
Route 7. Right 6 rather than 8: the exit is a cooldown whose length the issuer sets, and USDe itself is redeemed for backing by approved counterparties rather than by any holder.
This is the redeemability component of the Trust Score above, which stands at 61/100 (C+). Until 1 September 2026 redeemability was a single figure measuring the right to redeem while ignoring how many routes existed to exercise it. Splitting it moved this asset’s score. How the score works
Assessed 2026-09-01. Route independence asks how many ways out the issuer cannot close, not how much the asset trades.
Compare sUSDe
Head to head on the Trust Score with similar assets.