Arthur Hayes: The USDe Visionary and Fiat Skeptic

Arthur Hayes is the influencer’s influencer. At crypto conferences, his parties are the hottest ticket at the show, with mile-long lines. He’s also a trendsetter, and leads narratives on new segments of the crypto market like Bitcoin Ordinals.

Hayes’ family office, Maelstrom, has made dozens of high-profile investments <a href=”https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/04/07/former-bitmex-ceo-arthur-hayes-calls-his-maelstrom-capital-a-very-patient-fund” target=”_blank”>since opening its doors last year.</a> But this year, the investment that really caught the market’s attention was Ethena, also known by its ticker, USDe.

<a href=”https://www.coindesk.com/tv/unchained/ethenas-usde-grew-to-dollar2-billion-in-7-weeks-is-it-safe” target=”_blank”>USDe isn’t a stablecoin</a>. It’s different from USDC or USDT, the two leaders, as it <a href=”https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/04/11/ethena-labs-divides-opinion-as-high-yield-stirs-memories-of-terra” target=”_blank”>keeps its $1 value</a> by using staked Ether for backing and offsetting price changes with short positions on ETH, while earning yield from staking rewards and market fees.

This profile is part of CoinDesk’s Most Influential 2024 package. For all of this year’s nominees, click here.

And it’s been well-received by the market. <a href=”https://defillama.com/stablecoin/ethena-usde” target=”_blank”>DeFiLlama data</a> shows that USDe’s market cap started the year at just over $100 million, and now stands at more than $5.25 billion.

Hayes’ Take

USDe is also a near-perfect encapsulation of Hayes’ fiat-skeptic worldview — which he lays out on his often-viral <a href=”https://cryptohayes.medium.com/” target=”_blank”>Medium blog</a> — because it provides a synthetic dollar alternative that’s totally independent of the traditional banking system.

Hayes argues that decentralized finance, including digital assets such as USDe, is critical to resisting the perpetual erosion of value inherent in fiat systems. And Hayes boldly put his money where his mouth was in the <a href=”https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/10/28/arthur-hayes-maelstrom-hedges-us-election-uncertainty-with-staked-usde-holds-large-btc-eth-bullish-bets” target=”_blank”>days before the U.S. election</a> by doubling down on USDe. This conviction perhaps wasn’t necessary, as Donald Trump won the election and <a href=”https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/12/04/bitcoin-hits-major-milestone-of-100-k-nears-2-trillion-market-value” target=”_blank”>bitcoin rocketed to $100K.</a>

And so it goes for Hayes.