How Does Ethena Work? Internet Bond!
Ethena Finance is a revolutionary platform that seeks to create value by leveraging “delta neutral” strategies. What does this mean? It means that essentially they are not exposed to market volatility but generate profit in another way. I will illustrate in a simplified way how the platform works and I will also tell you about the "shards" (points system) which can guarantee you will probably receive the airdrop of their token.
HOW DOES ETHENA WORK?
The functioning of the platform is based on Usd.e or as they call it "Internet Bond" (it is an asset collateralized by other stablecoins). It is wrong to consider it a stablecoin in the strict sense, even if theoretically it is intended to be one. How is the value kept constant and where does the profit that the platform generates come from? They essentially use delta neutral strategies, going "long" and "short" at the same time on Eth. This is what they do:
1) They deposit ETH in the Lido pool: obtaining stETH (spot/long position + staking APR)
2) On exchanges they open "short" positions on ETH perp (short + funding)
Long + Short=Delta Neutral
Regardless of ETH's market movements, they are not exposed to ETH. If ETH rises in price, they make money with the stETH + funding position (where the "longs" pay the "shorts"). However, if ETH drops in price, they profit from shorting the perpetual + funding/staking APR. Through this mechanism, Usd.e should maintain the peg. Clearly the system works as long as funding remains negative (longs paying shorts).
HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE AIRDROP
If you participate in the ecosystem, you receive shards which should be converted into their own token in May. Yeah, it's an airdrop. The first thing you should know is that Ethena is active on the Ethereum mainnet so you will have to pay around $15 in fees to buy Usd.e. How to get shards?
1) Withdraw Usdc (or Usdt) via Ethereum Mainnet to your Metamask
2) Go to Ethenaand in the "buy" section use your Usdc (or Usdt) to buy Usd.e. Well, you are earning shards (5X on your deposit. If you buy $500 of Usd.e you will earn 500x5=2500 shards per day). This is the "buy and hold" strategy (no lockout time)
3) You can decide to block your Usd.e, receiving 10X on the shards (unblocking time? 7 days)
4) If you decide to stake Usd.e by obtaining sUsd.e (synthetic of the internet bond) you will receive 1X in shards on your deposit ($500 guarantees you 500 shards per day)
5) Finally you can use Curve Finance pools to get 20X shards. However, due to very high demand, they are sold out today
WHAT ARE THE RISKS?
You should know that the following have invested in Ethena: Binance Labs, Dragonfly, Arthur Hayes (former CEO of Bitmex), Deribit (largest Options platform), Okx, Bybit and several other large exchanges. It is quite certain that they will launch their own token and there will be an airdrop for liquidity providers. However you should understand the risks:
-smart contract (we know that a DeFi platform can be hacked)
-Usd.e works well when funding remains negative (which is what usually happens but there is no 100% guarantee that it will always be like this)
Personally I have allocated a small % of my portfolio because I don't want to miss the opportunity of a big airdrop. As of today, there are few users (26k) and it could be a huge airdrop. However you should understand the risks because it is a "lifechanger" project but experimental so you should still do your research (DYOR).
