Ethena USDe
USDE#23USDe is Ethena's synthetic dollar, kept near $1 through crypto hedging, lending and credit funds.
- Market cap
- $4.9B
- Volume 24h
- $20.99M
- All-time high
- $1.03
- −3.30% from ATH
- Circulating supply
- 4.95B
Fails our Shariah screening. Needs caution: nature of the asset, gambling (maysir), excessive uncertainty (gharar), usage, and benefit and harm (maslahah). Fails: interest (riba) and business model.
- 1 pass
- 5 caution
- 2 fail
Verdict history
- Not halalCurrent
First publication
Fundamentals, market picture and news will appear here.
Halal analysis
Can a Muslim hold Ethena USDe?8 Shariah criteria
1 pass · 5 caution · 2 failUSDe is built to pass interest to its holders: protocol revenue, now mostly from lending and credit funds, is paid out as rewards to holders who stake USDe as sUSDe.
Riba means interest or any guaranteed increase on a loan. Plain USDe pays nothing, and its terms say it is not designed to create returns. But holders in permitted jurisdictions (not the EU) can stake it as sUSDe, and Ethena's docs say that 0% of current protocol revenue goes to the Reserve Fund and 100% to incentive rewards and distributions, which include those rewards; sUSDe can only gain or stay flat.
The revenue now comes mostly from interest: at the end of June 2026 about 46% of the backing was supplied to DeFi lending markets, 6.9% lent to institutions and 11.2% held in tokenised CLO credit funds, together about 64%, well above the 30% limit for interest-bearing assets when the income reaches holders. Stablecoin holdings (35%) earn rewards whose source varies, and the delta-neutral futures hedge that once funded the yield was 1%. A quarter to more than half of USDe has been staked in 2026. Because the token's reward system exists to pay this income to holders, the criterion fails; the score sits at the top of the band because plain holding pays nothing.
USDe is backed by real assets worth slightly more than its supply, but only approved firms can redeem it, and official bodies disagree on whether crypto is property (mal).
Mal is property that Islamic law recognises as having value and that can be owned and traded. USDe is not an empty record: its backing ratio was 101.6% at the end of June 2026, and Ethena BVI commits to redeem it for the pro rata value of the reserves, up to $1 per token. That right, however, belongs only to registered Mint Users who pass identity checks; ordinary holders, and anyone in the United States, depend on the market price. The backing is mostly loans, credit funds and other stablecoins rather than a plain cash reserve.
Official bodies also disagree about crypto in general: Malaysia's Securities Commission Shariah Advisory Council (2020) treats digital currency as tradable on registered exchanges, while Egypt's Dar al-Ifta (2017), Turkey's Diyanet (2017), the UAE General Authority of Islamic Affairs (2018) and Indonesia's MUI (2021) prohibit dealing in it. None of them names USDe.
USDe is not a gambling token, but its model was built on futures hedges, it is widely used for leveraged yield strategies, and a new hedge using equity perpetual futures is being introduced.
Maysir is gambling: winning or losing by chance rather than through productive exchange. USDe is meant to stay at $1, so it is not a vehicle for betting on price, and on 27 September 2026 it traded between $0.9999 and $1.0001 on Binance. The concern is around it. USDe was designed around perpetual futures, contracts that never settle by delivery; that hedge shrank to 1% of backing by June 2026, but in August 2026 Ethena's Risk Committee received a framework for a new hedge that shorts equity perpetual futures against tokenised stocks.
USDe and sUSDe are also widely used as collateral for borrowing and repeated re-borrowing to amplify yield. The status is caution because the token itself has a real function as an on-chain dollar.
Most of the protocol's income now comes from interest on loans and credit funds, far above the 5% limit for impermissible income.
This criterion asks how the issuer or protocol earns. Ethena's docs list four revenue streams: funding and basis from hedged futures positions, interest on overcollateralised loans to DeFi markets and institutions, yield on tokenised real-world assets such as government debt and credit, and rewards on stablecoin holdings. At the end of June 2026 lending and credit funds made up about 64% of the backing, with reported yields of 3.1% on DeFi lending, 4–7% on institutional loans and 5% on the CLO funds, while the futures hedge (1%) earned slightly below zero.
Interest is therefore the main source of income, well above the 5% threshold. Futures funding, the original source, is itself a disputed derivatives income. The exact revenue split by source was not published in the documents read.
Backing is reported monthly and attested by custodians, but its mix changes quickly, it depends on exchanges, lenders and custodians, and the loss buffer is small.
Gharar is excessive uncertainty or hidden information in a deal. Ethena publishes a transparency dashboard, monthly custodian attestations and detailed governance updates, and USDe can only be minted against deposited assets. Several uncertainties remain. The backing has been rebuilt within a year, from futures hedges to loans, credit funds and now stock hedges, so holders cannot know in advance what backs their token.
It relies on custodians, exchanges and borrowers, and at the end of June 2026 the Reserve Fund of about $62 million covered only about 1.4% of the $4.46 billion supply, with no new revenue flowing into it. Only approved firms can redeem. In the October 2025 crash USDe fell to $0.65 on Binance while lending protocols such as Aave still valued it at a fixed $1, showing how the price a holder gets depends on the venue.
USDe is used as an on-chain dollar, but a large share is staked for interest-based rewards or supplied as collateral in lending markets.
This criterion looks at what the asset is actually used for. USDe serves as a dollar unit for trading, settlement and liquidity pools, which are acceptable uses. A large share, however, is used to earn protocol revenue: about 59% of USDe was staked as sUSDe in March 2026 and roughly a quarter on 27 September 2026, and Ethena presents it as a reward-bearing dollar. USDe and sUSDe are also common collateral on lending markets. How much of the unstaked supply is used for lending or leveraged strategies was not measured, so the status is caution at the bottom of the band rather than fail.
Fully paid spot USDe is available on exchanges and decentralised pools and can be held in one's own wallet.
This criterion asks whether the asset can be owned in a permissible way. USDe trades spot, with full payment and delivery, on centralised exchanges such as Binance and on decentralised pools, and it is an ordinary token that can be withdrawn to a self-custody wallet. Direct minting and redemption are limited to approved firms, US residents cannot become Mint Users, and Germany's BaFin states that trading USDe on the secondary market is no longer permissible in the EU, so the score is at the lower end of the band.
USDe offers an on-chain dollar outside the banking system, but it spreads interest-based yield and leverage and lost holders' confidence after the October 2025 crash.
Maslahah weighs public benefit against harm. USDe gives users a dollar-denominated token that runs on public blockchains and is not held in a bank. The harms are the spread of leveraged yield strategies built on USDe and sUSDe, and the risk passed to holders when markets break: in October 2025 USDe fell to $0.65 on Binance, and its market value fell from nearly $14.7 billion to about $6.4 billion within about two months. Ethena kept minting and redemption running and said USDe stayed overcollateralised. Interest itself is counted under riba and business model, not again here.
How you can use it
Tap a card for the ruling and sourcesBuying USDe with full payment and immediate delivery is widely available, but spot is acceptable only for a HALAL or DOUBTFUL asset. USDe is rated HARAM because its system passes interest-based revenue to holders, and a fully paid purchase does not change that.
No exchange-traded fund holding USDe was found. Any such fund would carry the HARAM rating of the token and would also need checking for staking or lending of its holdings.
USDe can be used to settle payments on-chain, but tier-1 bodies such as Indonesia's MUI rule that using cryptocurrency as currency is not permissible.
Staking USDe as sUSDe is not validation work. Rewards are protocol revenue passed on to stakers, now mostly interest from lending markets, institutional loans and credit funds, plus hedge income and stablecoin rewards. This is riba.
Margin trading with USDe, including its use as collateral for leveraged exchange positions, is never acceptable: it is a deferred exchange with borrowed money and leverage (AAOIFI SS 20).
Futures, perpetuals and options always fail under AAOIFI SS 20: deferred exchange without delivery, usually with leverage. This also applies to the perpetual futures Ethena uses in its own hedges.
Supplying USDe or sUSDe to lending markets or exchange lending programmes pays interest from borrowers. This is riba.
USDe yield products, including sUSDe, fixed-yield tokens built on it and exchange reward programmes, are funded by lending interest, credit funds or futures funding, so they fail.
Scholars quotes
Penggunaan cryptocurrency sebagai mata uang hukumnya haram, karena mengandung gharar (ketidakjelasan), dharar (bahaya) dan bertentangan dengan Undang-Undang nomor 7 tahun 2011 tentang Mata Uang dan Peraturan Bank Indonesia nomor 17 tahun 2015 tentang Kewajiban Penggunaan Rupiah di Wilayah Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia.Sebagaimana mata wang yang lain, mata wang digital hendaklah tidak digunakan sebagai bayaran kepada barangan, perkhidmatan dan aktiviti tidak patuh Syariah seperti pembelian dadah, pelacuran, perjudian dan pendanaan aktiviti keganasan serta penggubahan wang haram.The SAC has also resolved that investment and trading of Digital Assets that fulfil the above requirements and which are traded on Digital Asset Exchange (DAX) registered with SC are permissible.Third: In light of the above and given the significant risks associated with this type of currencies and the instability of their transactions, the Council of the Academy recommends pursuing research and studies on issues affecting its ruling.Bitcoin is a digital currency that does not meet the legal and Sharia criteria that make it a currency subject to the rulings of dealing with official legal currencies recognized internationally.بناءً على ذلك: فلا يجوز شرعًا تداول عملة "البتكوين" والتعامل من خلالها بالبيعِ والشراءِ والإجارةِ وغيرها، بل يُمنع من الاشتراكِ فيها؛ لعدمِ اعتبارِها كوسيطٍ مقبولٍ للتبادلِ من الجهاتِ المخُتصَّةِ، ولِمَا تشتمل عليه من الضررِ الناشئ عن الغررِ والجهالةِ والغشِّ في مَصْرِفها ومِعْيارها وقِيمتها، فضلًا عما تؤدي إليه ممارستُها من مخاطرَ عاليةٍ على الأفراد والدول.Holding the Asset: Simply buying and holding USDe or ENA is considered Haram because the protocol's underlying stability mechanism and core revenue generation rely heavily on prohibited derivatives and interest-bearing activities.According to research and opinion of experts so far, cryptocurrency is not considered ‘ maal ’ (wealth) in Sharia.Muhammadiyah memandang transaksi dan investasi kripto pada dasarnya mubah (boleh) tetapi dengan syarat tertentu.The opinion on this is the same as doing the same with any halal assets such as shares – 1) is permissible, 2) is more debatable and there are differing opinions on short-term trading.It is considered grey as it is backed by a mix of instruments, namely stablecoins (USDT and USDC), which appear to have no Shariah issues, and also by non-existent assets through perpetual trading.Our current position is 'tawaquf'; we can't say it is halal or haram, but we say it is better not to engage in itAs I mentioned at the beginning of this article it is not necessary to substantiate the permissibility of something as long as there are no prohibited factors involved in it or surrounding it.AI-assisted analysis checked against sources. Not a fatwa or investment advice.
Where it trades
8 exchanges from our coverage · no referral links
KrakenCentralized · USDE/USDCVolume 24h$58.87KReliability7.4Halal productNo halal product- BBybitCentralized · USDE/USDTVolume 24h$3.9MReliability7.1Halal productIslamic account
BinanceCentralized · USDE/USDTVolume 24h$2.64MReliability6.7Halal productShariah-compliant earn
UpbitCentralized · USDE/KRWVolume 24h$88KReliability6.5Halal productNo halal product
GateCentralized · USDE/USDTVolume 24h$16.99KReliability5.9Halal productNo halal product
KuCoinCentralized · USDE/USDTVolume 24h$599.66Reliability5.6Halal productNo halal product
BitgetCentralized · USDE/USDTVolume 24h$85.79KReliability5.0Halal productNo halal product
MEXCCentralized · USDE/USDTVolume 24h$781.21KReliability4.7Halal productNo halal product
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Listings as of Sep 17, 2026
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