USDe: Ethena's Dollar, Backing Assets, and the Reserve Fund

What USDe is

USDe is a dollar token. The Ethena protocol issues it. Its transparency model is a monthly report. Named custodians confirm the assets they hold for the protocol. The latest report of record is dated 26 August 2026. The index re-check on 11 September confirmed no newer report yet ^[1].

The token’s documentation carries a standing scope rule. This page adopts it as its own caveat. A custodian attestation is not a full audit. That sentence rides every USDe figure on this site. Permanently ^[1].

The August 2026 figures

The report counts $4.052 billion of backing assets. Against them, 4.046 billion tokens of supply ^[2]. With the Reserve Fund included, the issuer states a ratio of 101.60 percent. The basis is the issuer’s own. Backing plus fund, over supply ^[2]. The ratio is quoted as the issuer states it. The components are rounded in public. The issuer’s unrounded internals govern.

The custodian list is the report’s spine. Coinbase held $2.264 billion. Anchorage held $0.664 billion. Copper held $0.552 billion. Ceffu held $0.381 billion. A FalconX SPV held $0.098 billion. Kraken held $41,483 ^[2]. A MintRedeem contract held $93.180 million. The named legs sum to the stated total within rounding. The report itself is the arithmetic of record.

The prior month’s snapshot carries the same structure. Slightly different values. Banked from the July report. On 23 July 2026 the custodian legs read Coinbase at $2.842 billion. Anchorage at $0.668 billion. Copper at $0.352 billion. Ceffu at $25.528 million. Kraken at $41,055. The MintRedeem contract at $93.144 million. Total: $3.981 billion, plus a $62.000 million reserve fund. The same 101.60 percent stated basis. Continuity, not change, is what the two months together show. The names move small amounts between legs. The structure does not move.

How the reports are structured

The transparency model is a monthly custodian-confirmation report. Not a financial statement examination ^[1]. Each named custodian confirms the assets it holds for the protocol. As of the report date. The report aggregates the confirmations. It states the supply. It publishes the ratio on the issuer’s stated basis. No issuer surface read by the research asserts a full-scope financial audit of the protocol. This page asserts none either.

Reading one is a three-step habit. Find the report date. Find the named custodians and their figures. Check whether the components sum to the stated total, within rounding. The August report passes the third step on its own published numbers. That is a floor, not a ceiling. Summing published components verifies arithmetic. It does not verify custody.

The Reserve Fund

The protocol maintains a reserve fund. Its documentation states the mechanics. The fund is paid from protocol revenue in high-revenue periods. It is designed to absorb negative-revenue periods rather than impair core reserves. It can be deployed to backing shortfalls from documented risk scenarios. Its size is published on the transparency surface ^[3].

One number in that documentation deserves its own sentence. The current revenue allocation to the fund is zero percent. All of it goes to incentive rewards and promotional distributions ^[3]. That is the issuer’s stated allocation on the date read. It is stated here as exactly that. A reader comparing this token’s stated ratio with another token’s should note the reserve fund’s place. It is part of this issuer’s stated basis. That is one more reason ratios are quoted with their basis. Never compared bare.

The staked layer, on the documentation

The staked form, sUSDe, accrues the protocol’s incentive distributions. Its documentation states the design plainly. The USDe-denominated value of a staked position increases as rewards accrue. Rewards are positive or flat by design. During periods of negative protocol revenue the Reserve Fund absorbs the negative. Discretionary incentive rewards are suspended ^[3]. The documentation publishes no static annual percentage number for the rate. The rate is calculated weekly by the Ethena Foundation. It is annualized with weekly compounding. It is distributed the week after the week it relates to.

That structure is why this page quotes no sUSDe yield figure. A weekly-calculated variable rate with no published static number is not a fact a page can date and state. The mechanism is stated. The mechanism is sourced. The number is left where it lives. In the issuer’s application.

The provider cross, labeled

A market tracker read $4.602 billion for the token on 11 September 2026 ^[4]. That is 13.7 percent above the August report total. The provider’s as-of differs from the report’s. Its metric differs too. Both figures stand on this page with their labels. Nothing is reconciled. The two numbers do not measure the same moment.

How to read the reports

The attestations page places the custodian attestation in the tier taxonomy. One rung among several. With its own scope. Reading this token’s reports is a two-question habit. Which custodians are named this month. What does each hold. The answers move monthly. The report is the only place they live ^[2].

Where this page sits

The stablecoins hub frames the pillar. The USDT and USDC pages carry the issued-and-attested majors. The Sky dollar page carries the no-attestation on-chain contrast. This page carries the custodian-confirmation model between them.