Stablecoin Drama: The GENIUS Act Accidentally Makes Everyone Richer (Oops)

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Well, in truly American fashion, lawmakers tried to play “fun police” in July by passing the GENIUS stablecoin bill – and predictably, chaos followed. Quick recap for anyone too busy watching true crime documentaries: the bill banned yield offerings from stablecoin issuers. So, of course, the supply of yield-bearing stablecoins… immediately went way, way up. 🎉

Let’s give a round of applause to the real MVPs of this financial sitcom: Ethena USDe (USDe) and Sky’s USDS (USDS). Somehow, while the U.S. said “absolutely no yield,” these tokens sort of winked and said “Okay, sure, but what if we just call it something else and make people stake their coins?” Classic loophole energy.

Since July 18, USDe’s supply has ballooned by a positively Kardashian-esque 70% (now at 9.49 billion, with a “B”), scoring the bronze medal in the stablecoin Olympics. Meanwhile, USDS is up 23%, now awkwardly waving from fourth place. They should probably get a participation trophy. Data per DefiLlama – who I assume is a very attractive spreadsheet with aviators.

USDe got so big, even Ethena’s ENA token, which actually has governance powers (and yes, that is a thing now – thank you, crypto), moonwalked up by 60% since mid-July. Currently trading at $0.58 and absolutely living its best life, at least according to CoinGecko.

Why Is Everyone Yield Farming Like It’s 1999?

“Whoops, looks like all these killjoy regulations just made yield-bearing stablecoins even more popular!” – Anthony Yim, Artemis co-founder and straight shooter on X, pointed out.

Julio Moreno from CryptoQuant is basically describing a mass crypto migration, with investors stampeding toward juicy yields from protocols that can outfox Washington D.C.

Moreno explains (I’m paraphrasing): “Your law bans direct yield? Cool story. We’ll just hide it behind ‘staking’ inside our protocol. Problem solved. 👏”

“That’s why USDe and USDS are stacking up supply like it’s Black Friday at Walmart. They’re paying yield in ways that are cleverer than everyone’s Uncles at Thanksgiving.”

Stablecoins: The Fast & The Furious, Market Cap Edition

Big number alert: the world’s stablecoin supply bloomed from $205 billion to $268 billion this year (up 23.5%). According to DefiLlama, again, because everyone else was busy looking for yield with a metal detector.

Moreno predicts a $300 billion stablecoin supply by year-end – that’s so much money, even your grandma’s bridge group is probably launching a DAO as we speak.

But hold the confetti. Temujin Louie at Wanchain sees a plot twist: traditional finance nerds are tokenizing stuff now, which could choke off stablecoin growth because suddenly treasury bonds look sexy and stable. (Yes, 2024 is this weird.)

Oh, and the Ethereum network? It’s turning into a Panera at lunchtime – everyone and their brother wants a piece, especially now that decentralized finance is the new hotness post-GENIUS Act.

Here’s Your (Inflation-Adjusted) Cake – And You Can Eat It

Stablecoins can make you money by staking, lending, or throwing some U.S. Treasurys into a pot and hoping for the best. That “real rate of return” is basically how much pocket change you get after the government pretends inflation is only 2.7% (sure, Janet!).

Numbers time: Staked USDe pays an eye-watering 10.86% APY, and staked USDS 4.75%. Subtract headline inflation and you still get an “actually can afford Starbucks” return of 8.16% and 2.05%. Not bad for something Congress tried to make illegal two months ago. 🎯

The government tried to stomp out stablecoin yields, and – shocker! – made them more popular than ever. Somewhere, Satoshi Nakamoto is cackling.

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2025-08-05 10:04