Ethena’s ENA Spikes 20% as USDe Inflows Top $750M Amid Surge in Crypto Yields
July 21, 2025 — Ethena’s governance token ENA jumped over 20% on Sunday, breaking above the $0.50 mark for the first time since February, as the DeFi protocol attracted more than $750 million in inflows driven by sharply rising crypto funding rates.
The surge comes as demand for Ethena’s synthetic dollar, USDe, accelerates. Designed to maintain a $1 peg, USDe is backed by blue-chip crypto assets — including BTC, ETH, and SOL — paired with equal-value short perpetual futures. When funding rates on these positions turn positive, Ethena earns yield and redistributes a portion to users.
Crypto funding rates, which remained flat for much of the past month, have climbed significantly over recent days, according to CoinGlass. Ethena’s yield offering has now reached nearly 10% annualized — far outpacing traditional money market funds and reigniting interest in yield-generating DeFi protocols.
As a result, USDe supply has swelled to $6.09 billion, inching closer to its all-time high of $6.1 billion set earlier this year, per the project’s dashboard and DeFiLlama.
ENA, which governs protocol decisions, has rallied alongside this growth. The token’s price move reflects renewed investor confidence in Ethena’s economic model, which has positioned itself at the intersection of stablecoin innovation and derivatives-based yield.
With risk appetite returning to crypto markets and funding conditions improving, Ethena is emerging as one of the key beneficiaries of the current DeFi rotation.
