Ethena, the issuer of the $USDe synthetic dollar, has generated more than $1 billion in cumulative fees, according to DefiLlama data highlighted by @BSCNews. The tracker puts the total at $1.061 billion since the protocol began generating fees.

The milestone came quickly. DefiLlama's quarterly income statement shows Ethena recorded just $84,309 in fees in the fourth quarter of 2023, before climbing to $24.28 million in the first quarter of 2024. That puts the $1 billion mark less than three years after fee generation began.

What drives Ethena's fees

$USDe is a synthetic dollar rather than a conventional stablecoin. According to Upshift, it aims to hold $1 through a mix of liquid stablecoins and crypto such as $BTC and $ETH paired with short futures positions of the same size, so price moves cancel out. Ethena launched USDe on Ethereum on February 19, 2024, per Eco's explainer citing Ethena's docs.

DefiLlama's methodology counts staking rewards, yield distribution, mint fees and extra fees as fees. Most of that flows through to holders of staked USDe (sUSDe) rather than to the protocol. DefiLlama data shows Ethena generated about $17.93 million in fees over a recent 30-day period, of which only $20,551 was protocol revenue.

Supply has fallen from its peak

The cumulative figure sits alongside a smaller USDe supply. Upshift, citing DefiLlama, reports about $4.9 billion in circulation on September 23, 2026, down from a peak of $14.8 billion in October 2025. Fees depend on supply and on funding rates in perpetual futures markets, so they tend to track market conditions.

The supply level also matters for the $ENA token. Coincub reports that a governance-approved fee switch only starts routing revenue into $ENA buybacks once USDe supply reaches $7.5 billion.

Sources

DefiLlama: Ethena fees and income statement
Upshift: What is Ethena USDe
Coincub: Ethena (ENA) price prediction and fee switch