A Principled Shutdown Before Launch

Terminal Finance, a spot decentralized exchange (DEX) incubated by Ethena Labs, has canceled its launch plans. The decision came after the Converge blockchain, the ecosystem Terminal was designed to support, failed to go live as scheduled. The project announced the move on social media, marking a rare case of a well-funded DeFi protocol voluntarily winding down before its official debut while guaranteeing the full return of user deposits.

Before the shutdown, Terminal’s pre-deposit vaults had attracted significant capital, reaching a total value locked of approximately $280 million. According to data from DefiLlama, this included 225 million USDe, 10,000 ether, and 100 bitcoin from over 10,000 participating wallets. In its announcement, the team stated that “launching a project just to launch a project goes against our principles,” emphasizing that preserving integrity was paramount.

The Unseen Converge Network

Converge was an Ethereum-compatible blockchain developed by Ethena Labs and Securitize. It was intended to serve as a settlement layer merging traditional finance with DeFi, with Ethena’s USDe and USDtb stablecoins at its core. The network was set to use technology from Arbitrum and Celestia and was originally slated for a second-quarter 2025 launch.

However, Terminal’s announcement revealed that the Converge launch “doesn’t appear to be planned for the near future.” The Terminal team noted that they explored several alternative paths but found none compelling. “Each option came with material blockers: limited support, low asset-onboarding potential, weak long-term perspective among others,” the team wrote.

The Converge project’s X account has been inactive since August, and neither Converge nor Ethena Labs have publicly addressed the delay. Ethena Labs did not immediately respond to a request for more information.

User Funds and Open-Source Future

Terminal Finance has stressed that all user funds are secure. The team confirmed that all principal deposits are backed 1:1 and are available for immediate withdrawal. Furthermore, users holding Pendle positions through Terminal will continue to receive their Ethena Sats rewards, sUSDe yield, and EtherFi points as entitled.

In a move to contribute to the broader ecosystem, Terminal also committed to open-sourcing its fully audited protocol codebase. This will allow other developers to potentially build upon its technology, which was designed as a “MetaDEX” with a novel mechanism to address yield-derived impermanent loss. The Ethena Foundation had previously announced in February that it raised $100 million in a private ENA token sale to support the development of its new chain and institutional products, with backing from investors like Franklin Templeton, Polychain, and Pantera.