Ethena: Hyperscaling a Synthetic Dollar Protocol

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Episode Summary

In this episode, Seraphim, Head of Growth at Ethena Labs, joins us to discuss the rapid ascent of the Ethena Protocol. In our conversation, we explore the mechanism design choices used to build the protocol, its unique features such as its delta-neutral synthetic dollar and use of CeFi infrastructure, and discuss the partnerships and collaborations that have fueled Ethena's rapid growth.

Time Stamps
  • 00:00 Intro

  • 02:14 Seraphim's Journey

  • 04:20 Why Seraphim Joined Ethena

  • 5:25 What Ethena is

  • 09:00 The Effectiveness of the Ethena Points System

  • 11:29 Ethena's Integrations and Partnerships Across DeFi

  • 14:14 Partnership with MakerDAO

  • 15:35 How USDe is Different from other dollar-denominated assets

  • 18:34 Ethena's Role in the DeFi Lego

  • 20:48 The Protocol's Decentralization Plans

  • 23:50 Challenges the Team Has Faces

  • 25:32 What Aspects of the Protocol are Decentralized

  • 27:04 How far can Ethena scale?

  • 28:46 Growing Decentralized Onchain Perps

  • 30:24 Criticism: Ethena has Grown Too Quickly

  • 32:29 Stress Testing

  • 34:59 What Ethena is Doing to Further Secure Itself and Provide Transparency

  • 36:33 Covering Shorts and Saving the Market

  • 38:17 Comparing Growth and BD at Lido, Euler, and Ethena

  • 41:04 Criticism: Ethena's Custodians can be Censored

  • 43:20 Criticism: DeFi Shouldn't Touch CeFi

  • 44:40 Decentralized Protocol UX

  • 46:38 DeFi Risk Management and Self-Regulation

  • 48:29 DAO Governance is Cool - Seraphim

  • 50:20 Ethena's Future Plans

  • 51:22 Outro

Transcript
Transcript