ENA price drops as Ethena exits Hyperliquid’s USDH stablecoin race

The price of Ethena (ENA) cryptocurrency has dropped by nearly 3% today following news of Ethena Labs withdrawing from Hyperliquid’s USDH contest.

At the time of writing, ENA traded at $0.766, marking a 2.9% fall in the last 24 hours.

Interestingly, in the 48 hours leading up to the validator vote on USDH, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has accumulated nearly $1 million worth of ENA tokens.

Ethena Labs pulls out of Hyperliquid’s USDH stablecoin race

On September 11, Ethena Labs, through its founder Guy Young, confirmed its withdrawal from the USDH stablecoin race, only two days after entering the contest.

Guy Young said the decision was influenced by feedback from Hyperliquid validators and community members who questioned Ethena’s role in the ecosystem.

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The last few days have been incredible to witness. I’ve never seen a community rally around and engage with passion like this before. Following direct discussions with individuals in the community and validators we have taken onboard some of the concerns, namely: -Ethena is not

7:22 PM · Sep 11, 2025

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Concerns were raised that Ethena was not a native Hyperliquid team, that it operated multiple products outside the scope of USDH, and that its ambitions extended far beyond one exchange partnership.

Rather than push back against these arguments, Young said Ethena chose to step aside and clear the path for other competitors.

Young congratulated Native Markets, which had quickly gained momentum in the race, while emphasising that the move was consistent with Hyperliquid’s community-driven ethos.

The high stakes of the USDH contest

Hyperliquid’s USDH stablecoin is being designed as a native, ecosystem-first digital dollar. Multiple heavyweight teams have entered the race to secure the right to issue it.

Native Markets, Agora, Sky (formerly MakerDAO), Frax Finance, and Paxos are among the strongest contenders.

Each has pitched a unique mix of institutional backing, compliance with the GENIUS Act, and mechanisms to return revenue directly to Hyperliquid’s community.

Ethena’s proposal had initially been seen as one of the strongest. It promised to fully back USDH with USDtb, a token linked to BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, custodied by Anchorage Digital Bank.

The Ethena team had also committed to return no less than 95% of reserve earnings to Hyperliquid, cover migration costs from USDC, and inject at least $75 million in incentives.

These features, combined with Ethena’s history of issuing over $23 billion in tokenised assets without security failures, positioned the bid as a serious challenger.

Ethena’s plans beyond USDH

Although it is no longer pursuing USDH, Ethena is not retreating from Hyperliquid altogether.

Ethena’s founder has outlined that the team will focus on building other products, including its synthetic dollar (hUSDe), USDe-powered savings and card products, and hedging flows tailored for Hyperliquid markets.

Ethena also plans to explore new opportunities under HIP-3, such as reward-bearing collateral, modular prime broking, and perpetual equity swaps.

In the statement shared on X, Young emphasised that Ethena remains committed to competing on product innovation.

“We will do what we have always done since day one: outcompete everyone else on product regardless,” he said.

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