Structure and history
The company was founded in 2023 by Guy Young, previously in investment banking and at the hedge fund Cerberus Capital; he remains CEO. Its legal structure spans several entities: the operating company Ethena Labs, S.A. is registered in Portugal, since January 2025 token issuance runs through a separate entity, Ethena BVI Limited, in the British Virgin Islands, and protocol infrastructure sits with the nonprofit Ethena Foundation in the Cayman Islands, formally unaffiliated with Ethena Labs. USDe launched in February 2024; the token's own profile is covered in a separate article.
Funding
In July 2023, the company raised a seed round of about $6.5 million led by Dragonfly, with participation from Deribit, Bybit, OKX, Gemini, BlockTower, and others. In February 2024, a $14 million strategic round closed at a $300 million valuation, led by Dragonfly, Brevan Howard Digital, and Maelstrom (Arthur Hayes's fund), with Binance Labs participating as an incubation partner. In December 2024, a $100 million Series A round closed with participation from F-Prime Capital (a Fidelity-affiliated vehicle), Franklin Templeton, Dragonfly, Polychain, and Pantera.
Products
The core product is the synthetic dollar USDe, with a staked version, sUSDe (see the separate profile). The company also issues USDtb, a token backed by short-dated Treasury instruments through a partnership with BlackRock, which is also used as part of USDe's reserve fund.
Regulation
On March 21, 2025, BaFin found deficiencies in Ethena GmbH's MiCA compliance and ordered a halt to USDe issuance and a freeze on the German entity's reserve assets; on April 14–15, 2025, the regulator ordered the company to wind down its business and reverse token issuance, imposing a €600,000 fine. A fuller timeline is covered in the USDe article.