More than half of Ethena’s USDe backing is allocated to lending

Ethena’s USDe, a synthetic dollar targeting $1, has 51.2% of its backing allocated to DeFi and institutional lending, according to risk assessor LlamaRisk’s October 12 assessment. The allocation figure does not measure actual borrower drawdowns or cash available for immediate withdrawal. For holders, usable reserve assets and access to an exit near the peg are separate tests.Eligible counterparties can redeem USDe directly with Ethena, subject to its conditions. Other holders rely on secondary markets for an exit. Withdrawing USDe from sUSDe, its staking vault share, requires a separate unstaking process. A lending position can have excess collateral while supplied stablecoins remain borrowed. Recovering those assets depends on available pool liquidity or the applicable loan agreement’s recall and redelivery provisions.The global snapshot reports $4.76 billion of backing against 4.76 billion USDe outstanding. Its lending allocations are 36.9% DeFi and 14.3% institutional, alongside 24.9% liquid stablecoins, 17.6% crypto basis and 6.0% real-world assets.LlamaRisk discloses partial Aave DAO funding and its independent Ethena proof-of-reserves attestation role. It says it received no ...