DEX Terminal Finance, incubated by Ethena, surpasses $280 million in TVL before launch

Original source: Terminal Finance

Terminal Finance is a spot decentralized exchange (DEX) built specifically for trading yield-bearing stablecoins and institutional assets. Today, it announced that its pre-launch total value locked (TVL) has surpassed $280 million. This figure reflects the total capacity of three pre-deposit vaults: 225 million USDe, 10,000 WETH, and 100 WBTC, all of which have reached their caps.

The DEX is expected to officially launch by the end of the year, with the token generation event (TGE) taking place around the same time. The TVL during the pre-deposit phase can be publicly verified via DeFiLlama, which tracks Terminal’s vault activities and growth.

As the de facto DEX of the Ethena ecosystem, Terminal operates independently but was incubated by Ethena. Upon launch, the platform will use USDe, sUSDe, and USDtb (backed by BlackRock’s BUIDL) as core trading assets, supporting trades with mainstream assets such as ETH and BTC. Yield-bearing stablecoins form the foundation of this DEX, providing composability for the entire DeFi ecosystem.

Terminal co-founder and CEO Sam Benyakoub stated: “At Terminal, we are building the deepest liquidity pools to enable trading of Ethena’s synthetic dollar USDe with any asset, from cryptocurrencies to tokenized real-world assets. Designing a DEX around yield-bearing dollars gives Terminal a superior default economic model. This not only enhances the efficiency of liquidity bootstrapping for token issuers but also sets a new standard for capital productivity in DeFi.”

Terminal’s “Yield Skimming” mechanism is a key differentiator from traditional DEXs. This mechanism captures the yield generated by yield-bearing assets such as sUSDe and reinjects it into the DEX’s economic system. This design improves the efficiency and economics of on-chain markets, benefiting liquidity providers, traders, and token holders.

More than 10,000 wallets participated in Terminal’s pre-deposit phase, and early participants will receive airdrop rewards during the TGE. According to public information on Ethena’s official website, up to 10% of Terminal’s governance token supply will be allocated to sENA holders based on Terminal’s points system. Points tracking began on June 28, and final eligibility, allocation, and timing will be confirmed as TGE approaches.

Ethena Head of Strategy Nick Chong stated: “Ethena’s assets have become the engine of DeFi rewards, powering the billion-dollar scale of most Ethereum applications today. The Terminal team has built a spot DEX centered on sUSDe, bringing more value to users. We are proud to have the Terminal team as a core member of the Ethena ecosystem.”

Looking ahead, Terminal plans to expand to a multi-chain ecosystem alongside Ethena’s USDe growth strategy, aiming to become the preferred liquidity hub for yield-bearing stablecoins in DeFi.

About Terminal Finance

Terminal Finance is a spot decentralized trading platform incubated by Ethena Labs, designed specifically for trading yield-bearing stablecoins and institutional assets. By integrating Ethena’s synthetic dollar USDe and its yield-bearing version sUSDe, Terminal has a superior default economic model.

During the pre-deposit phase, Terminal attracted over $280 million in deposits and achieved integrations with leading DeFi protocols such as Pendle, EtherFi, and Morpho. As the liquidity hub of the Ethena ecosystem, Terminal connects yield, liquidity, and token issuance across multiple chains, laying a solid foundation for the next generation of on-chain markets.