Ethena-Backed DEX Terminal Finance Hits $280M in Pre-Launch Deposits
October 27, 2025 — Terminal Finance, a new decentralized exchange (DEX) supported by the team behind Ethena Labs, has officially surpassed $280 million in pre-launch deposits, signaling powerful market anticipation ahead of its mainnet rollout scheduled later this quarter.
The milestone underscores investor enthusiasm for next-generation trading infrastructure that combines on-chain liquidity, synthetic dollar yield models, and cross-chain execution — a vision that Ethena and its ecosystem partners have helped popularize across decentralized finance (DeFi).
Massive Pre-Launch Demand
Terminal Finance opened its pre-launch deposit window earlier this month, allowing early users and liquidity providers to lock in assets for the upcoming platform incentives.
In just under three weeks, total value locked (TVL) climbed to $280 million, with deposits primarily in ETH, USDe, and stETH, according to on-chain data.
“We’re seeing an unprecedented level of trust and engagement from both institutional and DeFi-native participants,” a Terminal Finance spokesperson said. “The combination of Ethena’s stability layer and our native trading design has clearly resonated.”
How Terminal Finance Works
Built on Ethereum and integrated with Layer-2 scaling solutions, Terminal Finance aims to provide deep liquidity with minimal slippage, leveraging Ethena’s synthetic dollar (USDe) as a core settlement asset.
The protocol enables traders to take delta-neutral leveraged positions, while liquidity providers earn yield through cross-margin funding and arbitrage spreads.
The DEX also integrates with Ethena’s yield engine, allowing users to access on-chain stable returns in a non-custodial manner — effectively merging DeFi’s flexibility with CeFi-grade efficiency.
Ethena’s Expanding Ecosystem
Ethena Labs, best known for its synthetic dollar product USDe, has rapidly evolved into a central pillar of the DeFi liquidity ecosystem.
By backing Terminal Finance, Ethena is extending its reach beyond synthetic assets into core trading infrastructure — a strategic step toward an interconnected on-chain capital market.
The partnership also aligns with Ethena’s mission to expand USDe adoption across derivatives markets, providing real-yield, non-inflationary alternatives to traditional stablecoins.
Market Impact and Next Steps
Analysts say the early success of Terminal Finance’s pre-launch signals growing confidence in modular DeFi primitives, particularly those that fuse stable synthetic yield with high-performance DEX functionality.
“This level of pre-launch capital commitment is reminiscent of early Uniswap and dYdX traction,” said Tom Heller, a DeFi strategist at HashKey Capital. “It reflects how Ethena-aligned protocols are now shaping the next liquidity wave.”
Terminal Finance’s mainnet launch is expected to take place in mid-November, with trading incentives, governance token distribution, and USDe-based perpetual markets to follow soon after.
Outlook: DeFi’s Next Big Move
If momentum continues, Terminal Finance could emerge as a major DeFi liquidity hub by year-end, linking on-chain derivatives, synthetic yield, and cross-margin trading under one ecosystem.
The DEX’s close alignment with Ethena also positions it to attract institutional liquidity providers seeking a regulated-compliant yet decentralized trading environment.
As the DeFi sector matures, Terminal Finance’s $280 million pre-launch milestone may mark the beginning of a new phase — where synthetic assets, stable yields, and DEX innovation converge into a full-fledged, institutional-grade market.
