Ethena's dollar earns yield by taking the other side of leveraged longs $USDe holds spot crypto and shorts the same amount in perpetual futures. Price moves on the two sides cancel out, so the token holds a dollar without holding dollars. Perpetual futures carry a funding payment between the two sides. When more money is betting on prices rising, longs pay shorts, and Ethena collects it. Staking rewards on the collateral add to the total. That flips when the market leans short, and Ethena pays instead. A reserve fund covers the gap, and @ethena shifts more of the backing into stablecoins, which pay a small, steady return closer to what short-term US government debt yields. Stakers never take a negative return. They also collect nothing while that lasts, and the reserve fund covering it is finite, per Ethena's documentation.