Ethena competes for the issuance rights of Hyperliquid USDH, receiving strong support from BlackRock and Anchorage.

The decentralized exchange Hyperliquid (HYPE) is selecting an issuer for its native stablecoin USDH. Ethena Labs submitted a proposal on September 9 and has received support from BlackRock BUIDL Fund, Anchorage Digital, and Securitize. This competition will determine who can control the future of Hyperliquid's $5.5 billion settlement funds.

Hyperliquid Launches USDH Issuance Competition

Hyperliquid announced on September 5 that it will introduce the native stablecoin USDH in the next network upgrade and initiate a competitive selection process to replace USDC, which is currently the primary settlement currency (with a deposit scale of approximately 5.5 billion USD).

According to DefiLlama data, Hyperliquid's annual revenue is expected to approach 1.3 billion USD, and the monthly trading volume of perpetual contracts in August set a new high of 405.8 billion USD, making the issuance rights of USDH the focus of market attention.

Ethena Proposal Highlights: Revenue Sharing with the Community + Decentralized Custody

Ethena promises to return 95% of the net income generated from USDH reserves to the Hyperliquid community through HYPE tokens, and proposes to establish an "Election Guardian Network" composed of Hyperliquid validators to decentralize the security management authority of stablecoin operations and reduce the risks of a single issuer.

In addition, Ethena plans to launch hUSDe—the Hyperliquid native version of its synthetic dollar product, and has committed to providing $75 million in incentives to support the development of the HIP-3 market.

Institutional Collaboration and Technical Advantages

The proposal of Ethena has received the endorsement of USDtb assets supported by the BlackRock BUIDL Fund, and custody security is provided by Anchorage Digital.

At the same time, Ethena is collaborating with Securitize to plan the deployment of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) in the integration of HyperEVM and native USDtb, further expanding the application scenarios of USDH.

The company emphasizes that it has managed over 23 billion USD in tokenized dollar assets, possessing extensive experience in stablecoin operations and asset management.

Competitor Strategy: Diversified Route for Issuance Rights

Paxos: Supports USDH through NYDFS regulated accounts, and is audited monthly by KPMG.

Frax Finance: Collaborating with BerRock and Superstate to support frUSD.

Agora: Based on short-term U.S. Treasury bonds and reserve certificates, with risk management provided by Chaos Labs.

Sky: Utilizing the LayerZero interoperability framework to provide flexible collateral support.

The final issuer will be determined by governance voting from the Hyperliquid validator community and will obtain deployment rights through a gas auction.

Potential Market Impact: HYPE holders may welcome an additional $220 million in revenue

Dragonfly partner Omar Kanji estimates that this change in the issuer of USDH could create an additional annual income of $220 million for HYPE holders, while reducing the supply of Circle USDC on Hyperliquid by approximately 7%.

If Ethena wins, combining its RWA integration and decentralized custody model, USDH may become the core settlement asset of the Hyperliquid ecosystem, driving the platform to expand into new markets such as stock perpetual swaps.

Conclusion

The dispute over the issuance rights of Hyperliquid's USDH is not only a high-stakes bidding war in the stablecoin market but also a significant turning point in the flow of funds and governance models within the DEX ecosystem. Ethena's advantages in institutional endorsement, yield feedback, and technical architecture may become key factors for its emergence.