On the morning of October 11, several major synthetic and staking-backed stable assets — USDe, BNSOL, and WBETH — sharply deviated from their target prices on Binance, triggering liquidations across derivatives markets.
According to TradingView data, USDe fell as low as $0.65, WBETH dropped to $430, and BNSOL slipped to $34.9 before partial recovery.
Binance and Ethena Launch Investigations
Binance confirmed the incident and stated that it had launched a comprehensive review to assess affected users, liquidation details, and potential compensation measures. The exchange emphasized that its investigation is ongoing, and users impacted by the depeg will be contacted individually.
The event immediately sparked volatility across multiple markets, with cascading liquidations in derivatives tied to the affected assets.
Expert Reactions: “A Structural Flaw, Not a Bug”
Nassim Eddekiouak, CEO of Bastion, commented that the USDe drop — down to $0.65 vs USDT and $0.62 vs USDC — highlights a systemic fragility in synthetic stablecoin design.
“Using such instruments as collateral or means of payment is inherently unstable,” he noted. “There’s no atomic connection between spot and short positions. Imagine executing a multibillion-dollar trade on an asset that can swing between 2% and 38% — that’s madness.”
Star Xu, co-founder of OKX, added that USDe shouldn’t even be classified as a traditional stablecoin.
“It’s more like a tokenized hedge fund than a dollar-pegged asset,” Xu said. “Calling it a ‘stablecoin’ is misleading — the peg concept simply doesn’t apply here.”
Ethena’s Response: “Redemptions Remain Fully Operational”
The Ethena Labs team, issuer of USDe, attributed the price fluctuations to market volatility and a surge in liquidation volume. They emphasized that the minting and redemption mechanisms remained fully functional during the event.
Ethena reassured users that USDe remains overcollateralized, adding that the ongoing divergence between spot and futures markets could even increase the collateral ratio.
The company promised to keep publishing updates as the market stabilizes, stressing that core protocol operations were unaffected.
Background
Earlier this year, Ethena Labs partnered with Jupiter to develop JupUSD, a USD-backed stablecoin built for the Solana ecosystem — signaling the firm’s growing ambitions in multi-chain stable asset design.
