Unchained How the Competition Will Play Out in the Great Stablecoin Race - Ep. 936
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Nov 1, 2025 
Rob Hadick, General Partner at Dragonfly, and Sam MacPherson, Co-founder and CEO of Phoenix Labs, bring their insights into the competitive landscape of stablecoins. They delve into Ethena's market cap drop and the challenges of liquidity and regulatory hurdles. The duo discusses emerging trends like stablecoin-as-a-service and the race involving traditional financial giants like Visa. Additionally, they explore the implications of Tether's new USAT launch and how strategic partnerships could influence stability and adoption in the space.
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Why Ethena’s Market Cap Dropped
- Ethena's USDe fell because its crypto-backed yield (basis trade) collapsed after a major leverage washout and lower funding demand.
- Rob Hadick says Ethena hedges risk by adding treasury-backed products and white-label issuance to diversify use cases.
Spark’s Early Role And Exit From USDe
- Spark deposited early and helped bootstrap USDe, gaining large exposure before yields compressed.
- Sam MacPherson says Spark exited when the basis trade scaled limits and other yield channels crowded the market.
Challenges For Protocol-Native Stablecoins
- Many chains want protocol-native stablecoins, but aligning incentives and bootstrapping liquidity is hard.
- Rob predicts white-label growth will be slower than expected for purely on-chain ecosystems.