The Ethena Foundation has proposed a vote to allocate nearly all net revenue from its ecosystem to a programmatic buyback of the governance token ENA.
We are excited to announce four updates regarding the Ethena ecosystem, further details on each point are provided in the blog linked below:
1. Buyout of early investors:
The Ethena Foundation executed a buyout of all locked tokens from certain major seed investors that sold any…— Ethena Foundation (@EthenaFndtn) August 27, 2026
Simultaneously, the project is altering the ownership structure of protocol value and reducing future emission pressure from investors.
All Revenue for ENA
If approved by the community, all net revenue from Ethena-related products and businesses will be used to purchase ENA on the market. The proposal has been approved by the Risk Committee and is now live on the Snapshot platform.
This essentially involves a “fee switch”: instead of distributing income across various ecosystem areas, it will be directed towards token buyback. Previously, for example, revenue from the stablecoin USDe was distributed among rewards for sUSDe holders and partnership programs.
However, Ethena has not disclosed the voting timeline and does not guarantee the new model will be adopted.
Foundation Takes Protocol Value
In parallel, Ethena Labs and the Ethena Foundation have signed a Master Framework Agreement, transferring the protocol’s intellectual property and the right to created value exclusively to the organization.
These assets are to be managed by ENA holders through community governance mechanisms. Ethena Labs investors will not retain residual rights to the protocol’s cash flows under the agreement.
Future Unlocks Removed for Investors
Another update concerns ENA tokenomics. The Foundation and major venture investors have agreed to cancel future monthly unlocks of tokens allocated to them.
This category was allocated 25% of the fixed ENA supply—3.75 billion tokens. The unfreezing procedure included a one-year cliff period followed by a three-year monthly vesting. Now, unvested tokens from investors who agreed to the new scheme will be released from the schedule. Team assets will continue to be released according to the original schedule.
Additionally, the Foundation announced it has repurchased remaining locked ENA from several major initial investors who have been selling tokens over the past nine months. Details of the deal were not disclosed.
Thus, Ethena is attempting to address two issues with ENA: creating sustainable demand through buybacks and reducing potential pressure from future unlocks.
Amid the proposed changes in tokenomics, the price of ENA surged nearly 12% in a day. The asset is trading at $0.16—back in April 2024, it peaked at $1.5.
The market capitalization of ENA is $1.54 billion, with a total locked value on Ethena of $4.5 billion, of which approximately $4 billion is attributed to USDe.
In August 2025, the project’s stablecoin entered the top three largest assets in the “stablecoin” segment. However, within three months, its supply dropped by more than 50% due to declining yields.
