Author：Colorful Smoke and Clouds

Terminal Finance, a spot decentralized exchange incubated by Ethena Labs, has scrapped its launch plans after the Converge blockchain—the ecosystem Terminal was built to serve—failed to launch as scheduled, the project announced on social media.

The announcement marks a rare instance of a well-funded DeFi project voluntarily winding down before launch while ensuring all depositors can withdraw their principal in full. Terminal's pre-deposit vaults had reached capacity with 225 million USDe, 10,000 ether, and 100 bitcoin, representing approximately $280 million in total value locked across more than 10,000 participating wallets, according to DefiLlama data.

"Launching a project just to launch a project goes against our principles," the Terminal team wrote in its announcement on X. "Preserving integrity is paramount."

Converge, the Ethereum-compatible blockchain built by Ethena Labs and Securitize, was expected to launch in the second quarter of 2025 as a settlement layer designed to merge traditional finance with DeFi, centered on Ethena's USDe and USDtb stablecoins. Ethena and Securitize had tapped Arbitrum and Celestia technologies for the Converge network, The Block previously reported. 

However, Converge's launch, which was originally scheduled for the second quarter of 2025, "doesn’t appear to be planned for the near future," according to Terminal's announcement. "We explored multiple pivots but none were compelling enough," Terminal wrote. "Each option came with material blockers: limited support, low asset-onboarding potential, weak long-term perspective among others."

The Converge X account last posted in August, writing, "Global finance, unified onchain." Converge or Ethena Labs apparently have not addressed the delay in launching the blockchain network. Ethena Labs did not immediately respond to a request from The Block for more information on Converge's delay. 

Terminal emphasized that user funds remain unaffected. All principal deposits are backed 1:1 and available for immediate withdrawal, the team said. Holders of Pendle positions through Terminal will continue to receive their entitled Ethena Sats rewards, associated sUSDe yield, and EtherFi points. 

Terminal also committed to open-sourcing its fully audited protocol codebase, potentially allowing other developers or community projects to build on the technology. The protocol was designed as a "MetaDEX" with a novel mechanism intended to address yield-derived impermanent loss and reinject yield into bribe markets. Terminal did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from The Block. 

The Ethena Foundation announced in February it had raised $100 million via a private sale of ENA tokens from investors including Franklin Templeton, Polychain, Pantera, Dragonfly, and Fidelity's F-Prime, with funds earmarked for building out its new chain and supporting institutional products.