Intro
As of February 19th, Ethena’s Shard campaign will be live, marking USDe’s official launch to the public. Shards will represent and track how much a user has contributed to Ethena’s ecosystem over the course of the campaign.
We acknowledge general market sentiment has shifted with fatigue towards points based systems. For this reason, Ethena is focusing on a shard campaign instead of points.
“Aren’t shards just points with a different name?”
Yes, but these are shards, not points.
Big difference kiddo.
Shard Campaign Structure
The campaign will be split across multiple short duration seasons, or “Epochs”, each rewarding different activities involving USDe and different communities Ethena will be working closely with to integrate which will receive boosted shards during each epoch.
Duration:
We do not intend to run a long drawn-out shard campaign - we are committed to finalizing the duration of the shard campaign in 3 months time, or when USDe supply reaches $1bn US Dollars, whichever happens the soonest.
Incentives:
The first epoch will focus on liquidity for USDe Curve pools.
The remaining epochs will be centered on actions like mints with different stablecoins, using USDe on money markets, liquidity provision on other venues, bridging to yield focused L2s, holding certain governance tokens and more.
The Shards per Epoch will decay through time, or in other words, you will receive less rewards as the program takes place and being early will result in the highest number of Shards awarded.
By launching a shard program, we hope to encourage active participation in areas of the ecosystem which matter most to Ethena, as well as aligning with the users who will contribute to Ethena’s long-term success.
Notice:
Note that the shard campaign is explicitly geared towards long term participants and users of the system.
Do not participate in the campaign if your intention is to farm and dump a quick airdrop. You will be disappointed. This is not a psyops.
We suggest you do not take part if your time horizon and attention span is the length of a month and if you have no desire to use and participate in the ecosystem over a longer duration.
In addition, participation is unfortunately restricted for users in certain jurisdictions, including the United States. The relevant sections of the Ethena web application will be blocked to users in such jurisdictions including our dApp UI.
To Recap:
USDe = Ethena’s synthetic dollar that takes on forms of staked ETH and ETH as backing, combined with short ETH hedges on exchanges to achieve a delta neutral approximate dollar position. This token will be the focal point of liquidity provision in AMMs and CEX orderbooks.
sUSDe = the token representing staked USDe. sUSDe accrues value from the system’s underlying staked ETH which backs USDe, as well as the funding rate earned from the short ETH position, on a “total system” basis. Or in other words, some portion of the unstaked USDe value accrual may flow into the sUSDe token. USDe that is staked is not rehypothecated or otherwise utilized to independently generate the value accrual for sUSDe.
sUSDe is a reward-bearing token (like cbETH or sDAI, as opposed to, for example stETH, which is rebasing), which means that its price increases over time to reflect value accrual within the staking smart contract.
First Epoch: Curve LP
The first epoch will be focused on users providing liquidity into Curve’s USDe pools (USDe/USDC, USDe/crvUSD, USDe/DAI, USDe/ mkUSD, and USDe/Frax).
Users who provide liquidity to those pools can then lock their Curve LP token via Ethena’s frontend to accrue 20 shards per day, for each $ worth of LP token locked. Two-sided or single-sided liquidity can be deposited on Curve.
Once the caps for these pools are met, we will open a USDe lock outside of Curve where you can deposit USDe to earn 10 additional shards per USDe.
Users will be eligible for 5 additional shards per unlocked USDe or 1 additional shard per sUSDe that is held outside of these LP pools.
First Epoch Cap Limit
The first Epoch will end after two weeks, or as soon as a cap of $100m worth of LP tokens and an additional $100m of locked USDe are staked. Do not be concerned if the LP pool caps have been filled already, we will expand the limited to be able to lock USDe outside of the Curve pools to provide additional capacity for earning shards
The longer you participate in the epoch, the more shards you will receive. This cap may be revised.
Cooldowns When locking your tokens to receive shards the following cooldown will apply for each action. We intend to reduce these cooldown periods through time, but will not increase the cooldown period at any point in the shard campaign:Lock Curve LP: 21 daysLock USDe: 7 daysStake USDe for sUSDe: 7 daysHold USDe: no cooldown
Users will still earn shards during the cooldown periods.
Referrals
Users can also accumulate shards through referrals for the duration of the shard campaign. Any user who refers a friend will receive additional shards equal to 10% of the shards their referral accumulates.
Steps for Epoch 1:
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Go to Ethena’s landing page linked below (www.ethena.fi)
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Type in referral code
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Tweet out participation in Epoch 1 template
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Go to app.ethena.fi
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Connect wallet
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Go to ‘Buy’ tab and buy USDe
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Go to ‘Liquidity’ tab, select a pool to LP and proceed to Curve to do so
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Provide liquidity in Curve to receive LP token
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Bring LP token to Ethena ‘Liquidity’ page and lock LP token
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Receive shards
FAQ
General FAQ Link:
>100 answers to FAQ are contained in our Notion document link here:
What are the risks of USDe vs a fiat stablecoin?
Please note Ethena’s synthetic dollar is very different in both the risk and return profile compared to a normal fiat stablecoin. We encourage you to read about these risks before engaging with the protocol in our documentation: https://ethena-labs.gitbook.io/ethena-labs/solution-overview/risks
Do I sacrifice my sUSDe value accrual by providing liquidity to USDe pools?
Yes, as you need to provide USDe directly to Curve liquidity pools. Staking USDe alone to receive sUSDe will only earn 1 shard vs. 20 shard per USDe LP.
Users have the choice between staking USDe and receiving value accrual funded from the real yield generated by the protocol (stETH + short ETH funding), or accumulating 20x shards via a LP position in Curve to be eligible for the airdrop. LP positions on Curve will earn a yield via pool rewards determined by normal Curve protocol mechanics outside of the Ethena ecosystem’s control.
What pools will be eligible for shards?
Curve USDe/USDC: 0x02950460e2b9529d0e00284a5fa2d7bdf3fa4d72
Curve USDe-crvUSD: 0xf55b0f6f2da5ffddb104b58a60f2862745960442
Curve USDe-FRAX: 0x5dc1bf6f1e983c0b21efb003c105133736fa0743
Curve USDe-mkUSD: 0x1ab3d612ea7df26117554dddd379764ebce1a5ad
Curve USDe-DAI: 0xf36a4ba50c603204c3fc6d2da8b78a7b69cbc67d
Please always ensure you are using the correct contract addresses contained in our Gitbook: https://ethena-labs.gitbook.io/ethena-labs/solution-design/key-addresses
Can I track my shards accumulated?
Yes, you can track your accumulated shards via our dashboards app.ethena.fi
Do I need to stake my Curve LP token with Ethena?
Yes, you must stake your LP token with Ethena to be eligible for shards at app.ethena.fi
How do I generate a referral code?
You can generate referral codes at our referral page.
Is there a cooldown for unlocking LP tokens?
Yes, there is a 21 day cooldown for unstaking LP tokens
If I unlock my LP token, will I be eligible for shards?
You will earn shards during the cooldown period for unlocking LP tokens, but not when the cooldown period is over.
Where can I access the shard campaign?
What jurisdictions are restricted from participating in the shard program?
Abkhazia, Afghanistan, Angola, Belarus, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Cuba, Crimea, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Ivory Coast (Cote D’Ivoire), Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Burma (Myanmar), Nicaragua, North Korea, Northern Cyprus, Russia, Somalia, Somaliland, South Ossetia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine (Donetsk and Luhansk regions), United States, Venezuela, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.
Where can I see the Terms of Service applicable to the shard campaign?
See the Terms of Service located here.