Ethena

On September 1, Ethena released the beta version of 'Ethena Pay,' a global payment app that leverages the synthetic dollar stablecoin USDe for everyday payments, savings, and cross-border remittances. The app is self-custodial, allowing users to hold USDe as dollar-denominated balances and earn daily rewards of up to 6% annually. Funds can be spent via a Visa card, with cashback of up to 5% in Avalanche (AVAX). Fiat currency deposits and withdrawals are also supported, with the payment and remittance infrastructure unified on Avalanche. However, the 6% figure includes the base interest rate, and there are caps on balances eligible for the preferential rate: the free Standard tier offers 5% annually on up to $5,000, while the top VIP tier offers 6% on up to $50,000. Users must make at least one card transaction per month to qualify. The rollout is gradual, with an initial early access quota of 400 people, and the beta is planned to conclude by the end of September. According to DefiLlama data, USDe's market capitalization is approximately $4.1 billion, making it the sixth-largest stablecoin. Among the 49 countries where it is available, Japan is included, but USDe does not qualify as 'electronic payment instruments' under the Financial Services Agency, and it is treated as a crypto asset domestically.

Crypto token buybacks reached a record $638 million this year, up from $545 million during the same period last year and just $366,000 in 2024, according to a report discussed by Scott Melker on Yahoo Finance's "The Daily Wolf." Hyperliquid and pump.fun account for 90% of that total, with Hyperliquid spending $370 million and pump.fun approximately $200 million. Hyperliquid directs almost all of its platform revenue towards buying its own token, while pump.fun allocates about 50%. This marks a shift from Bitcoin treasury companies that bought Bitcoin without planning for cash flow, and from past altcoins that lacked utility. Investors increasingly favor tokens with recognizable financial value accrual, as seen when Ethena announced a similar buyback and its token rose about 20%.

StablecoinX Inc. has completed its business combination with special purpose acquisition company TLGY Acquisition Corp. and will commence trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market on June 26, 2026, under the ticker USDE. The company, which describes itself as the first public stablecoin infrastructure firm focused on the Ethena ecosystem, holds approximately 3.029 billion ENA tokens valued at roughly $275 million at closing, representing about 20% of total ENA supply. StablecoinX’s operating model spans infrastructure services via a live Decentralized Verifier Node, a planned middleware software stack called Stablecoin Harness, and a distribution business aimed at institutional adoption of Ethena’s digital dollar products. The company had approximately 24 million publicly traded Class A shares outstanding at closing, with ENA assets of about $11.42 per fully diluted share based on the 30-day volume-weighted average price of ENA tokens ending two days prior to closing.