Guy Young (Ethena) on a New Model for a Crypto-Backed Stablecoin (EP.459)

Guy Young, the founder and CEO of Ethena, joins the show to talk crypto-backed stablecoins. 

How Ethena began with an Arthur Hayes blog post The origins of synthetic stablecoins on Bitmex The difference between Hayes’ Nakadollar and the Ethena design Why synthetic stablecoins have failed in the past and how Ethena addresses this How staked ETH as the underlying collateral opens up a new design space How Ethena mitigates their exposure to exchanges with off-exchange custody Guy’s backstory and entrance into crypto Why the circumstances are favorable for the success of a synthetic stable today Why the short leg of the Ethena position has to rely on CeFi for now Where the yield from ETH positive funding ultimately comes from Limits to scale on Ethena on the short leg of the trade and ETH staking Guy’s explanation for where the yield from being long ETH comes from Correlation dynamics between the ETH yield and the funding rate Why it’s important that crypto yields are somewhat negatively correlated with tradfi yields What protects the system when funding flips negative? How the system can react to constraints in ETH funding and ETH staking The possibility of adding Bitcoin as a collateral type Why Ethena distinguished the stablecoin and the yield-bearing component Rebasing versus accruing yield tokens How they think about different stETH derivatives Ethena versus stETH-backed overcollat stablecoins Why the supply of stablecoins is shrinking Will major stablecoin issuers become interest bearing? Ethena’s regulatory strategy The BUSD security analysis from the SEC and how interest bearing affects that Why end users deserve yield in exchange for taking on the counterparty risk of holding a stable Why Guy is excited by Paypal USD Guy’s prediction for stablecoin interest-bearing market cap

Further reading:

Arthur Hayes, Dust on Crust