Synthetic tokens see a comeback as stablecoins market cap climbs

Synthetic stablecoins are returning to the spotlight this year — this time with renewed confidence in financial engineering designed to neutralize volatility through delta-hedged strategies.

On Wednesday, SUI Group, a publicly traded company providing exposure to the Sui blockchain, announced plans to launch suiUSDe and USDi, described as the first native stablecoins of the Sui ecosystem. The initiative is being developed in partnership with Ethena Labs and the Sui Foundation.

The two stablecoins take distinct approaches to maintaining a dollar peg. USDi will be fully backed by tokenized shares of BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), a regulated money market fund holding short-term US Treasurys and cash equivalents.

By contrast, suiUSDe will be a synthetic dollar that uses a delta-neutral hedging strategy, combining crypto collateral with short futures positions, to stabilize its value.

The partnership with Ethena is notable. Ethena’s flagship product, USDe, is currently the largest synthetic dollar in the market. It maintains its peg through collateralized positions hedged with perpetual futures contracts — a design that has helped it gain traction as a capital-efficient alternative to fiat-backed stablecoins.

According to CoinMarketCap, USDe is now the third-largest stablecoin globally, with a market capitalization of $14.8 billion, more than doubling since July.

The Ethena USDe market cap has more than doubled in recent months. Source: CoinMarketCap

Ethena’s ecosystem is at the center of a recent $2 billion shelf registration by Mega Matrix, a publicly listed holding company that has been accumulating Ethena’s governance token (ENA). Holding ENA could expose Mega Matrix to revenue generated through the USDe synthetic dollar protocol.

The introduction of native stablecoins could mark an important step for Sui, which has emerged as one of the fastest-growing layer 1 blockchains. Developed by Mysten Labs, Sui emphasizes parallel transaction processing to boost scalability and efficiency.

As of this week, Sui ranks as the 15th-largest blockchain by market capitalization, valued at just over $13 billion.

Stablecoin market tops $300 billion

The global stablecoin market has surpassed a new milestone, crossing $300 billion in total circulating value, according to CoinMarketCap data.

While synthetic stablecoins are expanding rapidly, they still represent only a small share of the overall market, which remains dominated by traditional, fully collateralized tokens.

The sector’s recent growth has been supported in part by regulatory progress in the United States. The passage of the GENIUS Act — legislation establishing reserve and reporting standards for fully collateralized dollar-backed stablecoins — has been viewed as a positive step for industry clarity and institutional adoption.

Despite rising competition, Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC) continue to lead the market. USDt recorded $19.6 billion in net inflows during the third quarter, followed by USDC with $12.3 billion and Ethena’s USDe with $9 billion, according to industry data.

Stablecoin inflows over the past 90 days. Source: RWA.xyz

Sui is entering a crowded stablecoin network arena, with Ethereum still dominating the landscape — hosting more than half of all stablecoins in circulation.

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