Yield / Synthetic Dollar · ENA · $5.3B TVL. Screen grades as of November 12, 2026: Solvency A, Legitimacy BBB, Growth BB. Funding-rate dependent revenue; strong earnings in bull, reflexive in drawdowns; USDe peg is the core risk.
| Input / Grade | July 27, 2026 | November 12, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| TVL | $5.5B | $5.3B |
| 12-month TVL change | -50% | -39% |
| Worst 90-day drawdown | 50% | 9% |
| Drawdown scored | 50% (90-day only, v1.0) | 39% (worse of 90-day and 12-month, v1.1) |
| Solvency (credit grade) | BBB · 64 | A · 70.3 |
| Growth | BB · 56.3 | BB · 56.3 |
TVL figures: DefiLlama, parent-level listing. The July 27, 2026 TVL was an analyst estimate and may have used a narrower definition, so part of the TVL difference can be definitional. Only these three inputs were refreshed in the re-screen; sustainability, unlocks, risk, audits, team, delivery, governance, category share and momentum were left as the July 27, 2026 estimates.
Solvency screens at A (70.3 / 100), previously BBB in the July 27, 2026 screen. The worst 90-day TVL drawdown is 9% and 12-month TVL change is -39%. TVL stability is scored on the 12-month decline of 39%, because it is worse than the latest 90 days. Sustainability ratio (5x), unlock pressure (15%) and risk quality (6 / 10) are carried over from July 27, 2026.
Legitimacy screens at BBB (65.5 / 100). No Legitimacy input was refreshed in the November 12, 2026 re-screen, so the grade is unchanged from July 27, 2026.
Growth screens at BB (56.3 / 100), unchanged from the July 27, 2026 screen. TVL is $5.3B, -39% over twelve months (it was -50% at the previous screen). Category share (60%) and momentum (5 / 10) are carried over from July 27, 2026.
The credit grade is Solvency A. Legitimacy is BBB and the Growth outlook is BB; the weakest axis is Growth. These grades use TVL data as of November 12, 2026 and qualitative inputs from July 27, 2026.
The credit grade answers one question: can Ethena survive stress and pay its users back. Legitimacy (BBB) and the Growth outlook (BB) are published beside it and are never averaged into it. Weakest axis: Growth.
Ethena's USDe is the largest synthetic dollar in DeFi, generating yield from the basis trade — staked-ETH collateral hedged with short perpetual futures. The design earns spectacularly when funding is positive and is the clearest example in the screen of a protocol whose revenue and risk are the same variable.
Solvency screens at BBB with unusual internal spread. The ~5x sustainability ratio is among the best in the universe — in good conditions Ethena simply prints fee revenue. But the 50% drawdown and ~15% unlock schedule pull hard the other way, and the risk score carries the structural point: negative funding regimes invert the engine, and the reserve fund, not the yield, is what defends the USDe peg in stress. The screen scores what exists today; a full rating would stress the peg explicitly.
Legitimacy screens at BBB. Audits are adequate and the team ships fast and communicates clearly. Governance is the weakest input (4/10) — key economic parameters remain team-controlled, appropriate for the product's speed but a real centralization of discretion.
Growth screens at BB: 60% category share is commanding, but twelve-month TVL halved as funding compressed, demonstrating the reflexivity the design implies. Momentum is fair — integrations keep landing — but flows follow the funding rate.
Composite BB. Screen verdict: a genuinely innovative cash-flow machine whose tail risk is concentrated in one place, the USDe peg under sustained negative funding. It is the single protocol in the universe where the stressed grade would likely diverge most from the base grade.
