OIP-188: Addition of USDe and sUSDE as Olympus Reserve Assets

Summary:

This [OIP] recommends expanding Olympus’ recognized reserve assets to include USDe and sUSDe with the long term goal of using sUSDe for Cooler Loans, Treasury Reserves and float.

At current rates:

• sUSDS yields 4.75% (~$2.4m annualized, or ~$0.16 per OHM per year).
• sUSDE yields roughly 7.8% (~$3.9m annualized, or ~$0.26 per OHM per year).

This pivot represents a 64% increase in stablecoin interest income. On a $50m stable reserve base, the shift raises annualized reserve growth by ~$1.5m total, or an additional $0.10 per OHM per year.

Motivation:

Olympus’ treasury strategy prioritizes:

• Security - Ethena’s USDe has proven itself as a best-in-class stablecoin, growing to ~$14.4B market cap, compared to ~$4.4B for Sky.
• Backing Growth - Olympus leverages elastic supply and a balance sheet of productive assets to ensure OHM supply is consistently backed with liquid reserves.
• Yield Efficiency - Optimizing stablecoin returns while minimizing risk.
• Capital Efficiency - Maximizing the impact of each dollar earned, whether through OHM buybacks or direct reserve accumulation.

Recharacterizing reserves into sUSDE directly improves yield efficiency while maintaining a robust risk posture. On today’s supply (15m OHM), this pivot increases per-token annual backing growth from ~$0.16 to ~$0.26, a 64% improvement.

This enhances Olympus’ competitiveness versus peers and increases the predictability of long-term backing growth, an increasingly important factor for new investors conducting diligence.

Specification:
Reserve Asset Definition:
Define Reserve/Stable Assets as: USDe, sUSDe, USDS, sUSDS, USDC
Define USDS Cap as: Cooler Loans Outstanding + $1m Float with a max of $160m (Cooler LTV)
Defines sUSDe as: Minimum of Liquid Treasury Backing - $160m with no max cap.

Cooler Loans / Solvency Safeguards:
Demand for USDS-denominated Cooler Loans has tapered, growing only 11% in the past two years. Nevertheless, protecting the program’s solvency remains a priority.

As such, we will leverage the new OlympusHeart Task System to maintain a buffer of sUSDS liquidity for use in Cooler Loans but maintain protocol reserves in sUSDe. Upon each beat() call, if the buffer has been reduced below a defined threshold, the protocol will exchange sUSDe for sUSDS to top up capacity.

Looking Forward:

This RFC scopes near-term recommendations. Over time, as Olympus’ per-token backing grows from ~$0.26/year of stable yield alone, additional opportunities can be layered on top. Examples include (but are not limited to):

• USDe-denominated CD Markets (RFC #5098)
• USDe-denominated Cooler Loans
• sUSDE lending markets (Morpho)

These future initiatives would further strengthen Olympus’ role as a leading internet-native reserve currency, with stable yield growth improving the backing value of every OHM and every OHM holder.