DeFi Drama: Ethena Throws Hat in Hyperliquid’s USDH Bidding Ring 🎩💸

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Well, well, well, if it isn’t another day in the rollicking world of decentralized finance (DeFi), where stablecoins are the belle of the ball and protocols are tripping over themselves to outbid one another. Enter Ethena Labs, strutting onto the scene like a peacock at a pigeon party, as the sixth contender vying for control of Hyperliquid’s USDH stablecoin. In a blog post that practically screamed “pick me!” on Tuesday, they unveiled their plan to wrestle billions in liquidity and revenue away from the competition. Riveting stuff, eh? 😌

The brains behind USDe and USDtb have concocted a version of USDH backed entirely by USDtb-a stablecoin cozying up to BlackRock’s BUIDL fund and soon to be birthed through Anchorage Digital Bank. If chosen, Ethena has vowed-on its honor as a blockchain entity-to return 95% of reserve revenue to the Hyperliquid community. And because no DeFi story is complete without a touch of governance theater, they’ve proposed a “guardian network” of elected validators to keep everyone honest. Or at least pretending to be. 🦹‍♂️

But wait, there’s more! Ethena isn’t just stopping at percentages; oh no, they’re throwing cash around like confetti at a parade. They’ve pledged to cover the costs of migrating Hyperliquid’s markets from USDC to USDH and committed a cool $75 million in ecosystem incentives, with whispers that this figure could balloon to $150 million. One wonders if they’ve considered simply handing out Ferraris instead-it might be cheaper. 🚗💨

And let us not forget their pièce de résistance: partnerships galore! Ethena plans to team up with Securitize to bring tokenized funds and equities to HyperEVM while launching a shiny new synthetic dollar called hUSDe. Instant liquidity routes via their existing infrastructure? Check. A flair for melodrama? Double check. 🎭✨

Now, about those pesky security risks everyone pretends aren’t lurking in the shadows… Ethena suggests entrusting oversight of USDH to selected Hyperliquid validators-a so-called “guardian network”-rather than leaving it all in the hands of one issuer. Because nothing says “trustworthy” like spreading responsibility across multiple parties who may or may not know what they’re doing. 🤷‍♀️

Ethena joins a veritable smorgasbord of bidders, including Paxos, Frax Finance, Agora, Native Markets, and Sky (formerly MakerDAO). Each proposal seems determined to outdo the last in complexity and ambition, as though competing in some sort of financial Hunger Games. May the odds-and validator votes-be ever in their favor. 🏰⚔️

The Great USDH Bake-Off

Hyperliquid kicked off this circus last Friday by announcing a community process to crown the next USDH issuer. The first pitch came from Native Markets, founded by Hyperliquid advocate Max Fiege, involving Stripe’s Bridge payment processor. Alas, the crowd was less than enthused, responding with all the enthusiasm of a cat being offered a bath. 🐱💦

Sky, ever the showstopper, followed up with a Monday morning monologue courtesy of co-founder Rune Christensen, proposing a USDH backed by Sky’s resources and boasting a 4.85% yield. Meanwhile, Agora, backed by VanEck and MoonPay, chimed in with promises to return 100% of USDH reserve revenue to the Hyperliquid community. Talk about trying to buy affection! 💕💵

For Ethena, this bid arrives hot on the heels of claiming third place in the prestigious “World’s Largest Stablecoin Issuer” pageant, trailing only Tether and Circle. Their USDe token has skyrocketed past $10 billion in supply faster than you can say “crypto miracle,” reaching a market value north of $12.9 billion. Not too shabby for a newcomer, eh? 🚀📈

In their blog post, Ethena waxed poetic about Hyperliquid, dubbing it “one of the most impressive and important stories to emerge in the last 20 years.” Quite the compliment, considering the internet itself is barely older than that. They also promised to create multibillion-dollar value for the network regardless of whether they win, which feels suspiciously like buttering up the judges before the big vote. 🧈🗳️

Speaking of votes, the fate of these proposals rests in the hands of Hyperliquid’s validators, who will hold a formal election after the next network upgrade. Until then, speculators are having a field day, driving Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE to an all-time high of $55.04 today. Clearly, anticipation is running higher than a giraffe on stilts. 🦒🎩

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2025-09-09 23:07