USDe is a synthetic dollar issued by the Ethena protocol, designed to maintain a value of approximately 1 USD without relying on traditional fiat reserves. Instead, the protocol uses crypto collateral — such as ETH, liquid staking tokens, and BTC — paired with equivalent short perpetual futures positions to create a delta-neutral backing structure that aims to preserve peg stability. Users can stake USDe to receive sUSDe, a reward-accruing token that generates yield from staking rewards, derivatives funding rates, and protocol revenue. USDe is fully backed on-chain and composable across DeFi and CeFi platforms, though its stability depends on derivatives market conditions, funding rates, and counterparty risk.