Ethena's synthetic dollar USDe has grown to a $337 million presence on Coinbase's Base network in just 90 days, making it the second-largest stablecoin on the layer-2 chain. The surge comes as Base separately posted the largest single-day gain in tokenized US Treasury market cap among all tracked blockchains.
Three months ago, USDe on Base was a rounding error. Today it's a $337 million presence on Coinbase's layer-2 network. That is a 25,645% increase in 90 days, making USDe the fastest-growing stablecoin with at least $100 million in market cap.
USDe becomes Base's second-largest stablecoin
USDe now commands approximately 8.27% of its total global supply on Base alone. That is out of a global supply of around $4.08 billion spread across 21 chains. On Base, USDe has climbed to the second-largest stablecoin position, even though Base's total stablecoin supply is approximately $5 billion, with USDC holding roughly 85% of it. Over the last 30 days, USDe recorded net inflows of $67 million on Base, pointing to steady minting rather than a single large deposit.
A yield built on hedged futures, not bank reserves
Unlike USDC or USDT, USDe is not backed by dollar reserves. Ethena holds spot crypto assets, mainly Bitcoin and Ethereum, and simultaneously opens equal short positions in perpetual futures, keeping the position roughly dollar-neutral regardless of which way crypto prices move.
Funding rates paid by leveraged long traders flow to the short side, and Ethena passes that yield to holders through sUSDe, the token's staked version. Distribution has been helped by partnerships between Ethena Labs and Coinbase around custody, and by Morpho, a Base lending protocol where users can deposit USDe as collateral and borrow against it.
Base's broader institutional push
The USDe growth lands alongside a separate signal of institutional interest in Base: the network posted the largest single-day increase in tokenized US Treasury market cap among all tracked blockchains, adding $636,000 to its on-chain government debt holdings. Treasury-related real-world asset value locked on Base is approximately $37.95 million, most of it from Spiko, a tokenized treasury issuer using Base as a primary distribution rail. That is still a small slice of a tokenized Treasury market that sits between $13.6 billion and $16.2 billion across public blockchains, where Ethereum's mainnet and BNB Chain still dominate.
Starting from a small base makes USDe's percentage gain look extreme, and the token remains dwarfed by USDC's roughly $4.25 billion presence on the same chain. Ethena maintains a reserve fund to buffer periods of negative funding, but prolonged negative rates could still pressure yields and trigger outflows.
Sources: Crypto Briefing, Crypto Briefing
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