USDe Circumvents GENIUS Act Yield Ban: How Synthetic Dollars Became Crypto's Most Successful Gray Area?
USDe, the synthetic dollar from Ethena, circumvents the GENIUS Act's prohibition on paying interest to stablecoin holders. Unlike regulated payment stablecoins like USDC, which must hold cash/Treasury reserves, USDe is a delta-neutral synthetic asset backed by crypto collateral and hedged perpetual short positions. It generates yield from funding rates and staking rewards, not issuer-paid interest, placing it outside the Act's scope. Growing to over $14B at its peak, USDe represents a significant regulatory gap. While Germany's BaFin has restricted it, US institutional adoption is rising, as seen with Janus Henderson's partnership. The core debate is whether USDe is an innovative yield-bearing instrument or an unregulated security posing unique risks, highlighting the need for specific rules for synthetic dollars that current legislation does not address.
Foresight News06/16 10:09
