Crypto X

Today, we are proud to announce Multicoin Capital liquid fund’s investment in ENA, the native token for Ethena Protocol, the issuer of USDe, the leading synthetic dollar. Synthetic Dollars aim to generate yield and create stability by executing fully-collateralized delta-neutral trading strategies in financial markets. Ethena generates yield by monetizing the market’s demand for leverage via basis trade. The most exciting thing about Ethena for us is that it sits at the intersection of three powerful trends reshaping modern finance: stablecoins, perpification, and tokenization. 1. Stablecoins a) Ethena is the only synthetic dollar to have achieved meaningful distribution and liquidity outside of USDC and USDT. b) The true test of a synthetic dollar’s adoption is its acceptance as collateral on major exchanges. Ethena has succeeded in integrating USDe as a core form of collateral on major centralized exchanges like Binance and Bybit. c) Another unique aspect of Ethena's strategy is its mild negative correlation with Fed Funds rates. As rates fall demand for leverage in crypto generally increases leading to higher funding rates. We have seen a version of this playout in 2021 when the spread between funding rates and treasury rates widened beyond 10%. (chart below) d) Since inception, the protocol has generated close to $600 million in revenue — with over $450 million of that produced in just the past twelve months. 2. Perpification of Tokenized Equities & Fintechs distributing them to masses a) Perps are a big market in crypto. In a roughly $4 trillion asset class that is crypto, perpetual contracts trade more than $100 billion per day with an open interest of more than $100B across CEX and DEX. b) The global equity market is worth around $100 trillion — nearly 25 times larger than the entire crypto market. The US equity market alone is worth around $60 trillion. c) Just like in crypto, there is strong demand for leverage among equity market participants. This is evident in the explosive growth of 0DTE (zero-day-to-expiry) options, which are mostly traded by retail investors and account for over 50% of SPX options volume. d) Perpetuals are much easier for most investors to understand than options. We don’t expect perpetuals to replace the 0DTE options market, but they could capture significant market share. e) As crypto regulations turn more favorable, fintechs around the world should increasingly embrace crypto. Today, most non-crypto-native users can only access a limited set of crypto assets, and only in spot form. We believe this group represents significant untapped demand for leverage. f) We believe, as fintechs adopt crypto perpetuals, they will create a new distribution channel for these products, driving higher trading volumes and open interest, which in turn will expand the capacity and scalability of the basis trade that supports Ethena. 3. Tokenization a) Today, access to hedge funds that have the infrastructure to do basis trades at scale is reserved for accredited investors and qualified institutional purchasers. Crypto is rebuilding the financial system from the ground up, making such opportunities accessible to everyone through tokenization. b) In traditional finance, the closest parallel to tokenization is the ETF. Today, there are more ETFs than publicly listed single stocks in the U.S. ETFs package complex strategies into a single, tradable ticker that investors can easily buy, sell, or hold — without worrying about execution or rebalancing. c) Ethena is starting by tokenizing the basis trade — but there’s nothing stopping Ethena from diversifying its yield sources over time. Separately, the team has shown strong execution and risk management culture, and there is a line of sight to value capture for the ENA token. Team, Risk Management and Value Capture a) In our experience, Guy has proven to be one of the sharpest and most strategic thinkers in DeFi. The following quote stands out about his conviction in what he is building. “I quit my job to build Ethena a few days after Luna collapsed and hired the team a couple of months post-FTX.” – Guy Young, the founder of Ethena. b) They have survived the largest hack, Bybit $1.4B and the largest deleveraging event, October 10 crash, in the same year, and did not lose a single dollar. That is a testament to their risk management ethos, which in my opinion are probably the most important factor in running basis trade. c) There is a line of sight between now and fee switch activation and we believe that would be viewed favorably by the market. Conclusion To conclude, we believe that the opportunity for synthetic dollars is massive. Ethena sits at the intersection of the three largest forces shaping the financial markets: stablecoins, perpification and tokenization, each of which is a source of compounding for Ethena. They have demonstrated competence in risk management and there is a line of sight to value capture. We are excited to be in for the ride.

Vì sao Fed dừng QT vào 1/12? Nguyên nhân chính: - Thanh khoản trong hệ thống tài chính đang cạn kiệt. - Reverse Repo Facility (RRP) – nơi chứa “tiền dư thừa” của ngân hàng – đã giảm từ hàng nghìn tỷ xuống còn 20 tỷ USD. - Các money market fund (quỹ thị trường tiền tệ) bắt đầu căng thanh khoản. --> Fed lo sợ nếu tiếp tục hút tiền, sẽ làm hệ thống ngân hàng gặp vấn đề. Kết thúc QT = “cứu thanh khoản”, không phải “kích thích kinh tế”.

does not exist without unstoppable private money