Ethena Adds Kraken, Anchorage, and Zodia as Custodians for $5B Stablecoin Holdings

TLDR:

• Ethena backing shifted from 80% perpetual futures early 2025 to 65% stablecoins currently.
• New custodians must meet 50-criteria framework with minimum 7.5/10 score and 99.9% uptime guarantee.
• Protocol’s custody structure prevented losses during February 2025 Bybit hack affecting $30M positions.
• October attestation revealed $5.2B in stablecoins held across various custody solutions and wallets.

Ethena is advancing its custody framework through a governance proposal to onboard Kraken, Anchorage Digital, and Zodia as custodians.

The protocol has evolved from pure perpetual futures positions to holding over $5 billion in stablecoins and DeFi assets. 

This shift requires institutional-grade custody solutions that meet strict operational and security standards. The expansion reflects broader changes in Ethena’s backing composition throughout 2025.

Custody Framework Addresses Institutional Requirements

The three proposed custodians will focus on holding stablecoins including USDT, USDC, PYUSD, USDtb, and Aave yield-bearing tokens. 

Unlike existing partners Copper and Ceffu, they will not handle off-exchange settlement for perpetual positions. 

The Risk Committee developed a 50-criteria evaluation process with weighted scoring that requires a minimum of 7.5 out of 10.

Security and custody operations carry 40% weight with an 8 out of 10 floor requirements. Operational capability accounts for 30% with a 7 out of 10 minimum. 

Protocol requirements make up the remaining 30% and demand an 8 out of 10 baselines. Hard exclusions eliminate any provider with client fund loss history or uptime below 99.9%.

The framework also requires verifiable attestations and bankruptcy-remote structures from all custodians. 

Carolina from GoldDefi noted that “the custody standards have had to match” as backing shifted from purely perp positions to billions in stablecoins and DeFi assets. October attestation data showed $5.2 billion in stablecoins across various custody solutions. 

She added that “the current proposal to add three new custody partners matters more than it might seem.”

Protocol Demonstrates Resilience During Exchange Compromise

Ethena’s custody infrastructure proved effective during the February 2025 Bybit compromise. Approximately $30 million of unrealized profit and loss sat on the exchange at the time. 

However, the protocol’s off-exchange settlement structure meant collateral remained with Copper rather than on Bybit directly.

Response time dropped to zero within hours, and users experienced no impact from the incident. According to Carolina, “it took only a few hours to reduce response time to zero and there was no impact on users.” 

The separation between custody and trading proved functional when the exchange faced security issues. Only unsettled profit and loss required unwinding since actual assets never resided on the compromised platform.

The protocol’s backing composition changed substantially over 2025. Early year allocations showed 80% in perpetual futures positions. This dropped to 28% mid-year as funding rates turned negative. 

Current positioning maintains balance with roughly 65% in stablecoins and yield-bearing assets. The custodian expansion aligns with this evolution toward treasury assets that need regulated custody rather than off-exchange settlement infrastructure.

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