Wednesday, September 02, 2026- Ethena Foundation has proposed using most of certain protocol revenue to buy ENA tokens while restructuring early investor holdings and changing how economic value generated by the Ethena ecosystem is distributed.
The foundation announced four changes involving investor token holdings, vesting schedules, ownership of protocol assets and ENA token economics.
Ethena supports USDe, a synthetic dollar protocol that uses crypto collateral and derivatives strategies rather than conventional bank deposits to maintain its dollar-linked value.
The changes are aimed partly at addressing concerns over future token supply and whether value generated by the protocol ultimately benefits ENA holders and the wider ecosystem.
Ethena Foundation said it purchased all remaining locked tokens from certain large seed investors who had sold ENA during the previous nine months.
The transactions were completed over the counter during the past two weeks.
The review covered investors originally allocated more than 0.25% of ENA’s total supply.
Ethena divided those investors into two groups: those who had sold at least one ENA token since the market peak on Oct. 10, 2025, and those who had not sold during that period.
Investors who had not sold were offered the opportunity to sell their locked tokens back at their original purchase price.
None accepted the offer, according to Ethena.
The foundation said it acquired all unvested tokens belonging to qualifying investors who had sold during the period, except for one wallet whose holder declined.
Ethena did not identify the investors involved or disclose how many tokens were acquired or the total value of the transactions.
Ethena Foundation and lead investors also agreed to change how remaining investor tokens enter circulation.
Rather than continuing monthly unlocks, all remaining tokens allocated to original investors are expected to become available beginning Oct. 5.
The move effectively removes the recurring monthly investor-unlock schedule that can create uncertainty over future token selling.
Team allocations will not receive the same treatment.
Those tokens will remain subject to their existing vesting schedules.
Ethena said about 12% of ENA’s total supply will remain locked and unvested after the restructuring.
Those holdings will consist of team, ecosystem and foundation allocations.
StablecoinX, one of ENA’s largest holders with roughly 20% of total supply, will remain under a separate lockup arrangement contained in its publicly filed token purchase agreement.
Token unlocks are closely watched in cryptocurrency markets because they can increase the amount of an asset available for trading.
Large investor allocations entering circulation gradually can create what traders describe as a supply overhang.
The possibility of future selling can weigh on sentiment even when investors do not immediately dispose of unlocked tokens.
Ethena’s restructuring attempts to remove some of that uncertainty.
Buying locked tokens from investors who had already sold ENA reduces the amount of future unvested supply controlled by those holders.
Ending recurring investor unlocks also makes the remaining investor supply event more visible rather than spreading it across monthly releases.
That does not eliminate market risk.
Tokens becoming available at once can still affect supply conditions, depending on what holders subsequently decide to do.
Ethena Foundation and Ethena Labs have also reached an agreement in principle on a broader framework governing ownership of protocol intellectual property and the value generated by the business.
Under the proposed Master Framework Agreement, substantially all important Ethena protocol intellectual property would be assigned or exclusively licensed to Ethena Foundation and the ecosystem.
Economic benefits generated by the protocol would also flow primarily toward the foundation and ecosystem rather than Ethena Labs equity holders, according to the foundation.
That includes proceeds from any future sale of the underlying business.
Ethena said the agreement would formalize arrangements that have largely existed since the foundation was established.
The full framework is expected to be published in October.
The most direct change for ENA holders is a proposed revenue-based buyback mechanism.
Ethena Foundation has opened a governance vote on activating what the project calls a fee switch.
The mechanism would direct an increasing portion of protocol revenue toward purchasing ENA as USDe supply reaches specified milestones.
At the first threshold, 95% of net revenue paid to Ethena Foundation from three core business lines would be used to buy ENA.
The remaining 5% would be directed toward growth initiatives.
The businesses covered by the proposal include USDe savings products, Ethena’s white-label stablecoin operations and a planned business referred to as Ethena X.
Ethena X is scheduled to launch next week, according to the foundation.
The proposed buyback mechanism addresses a recurring issue in decentralized finance.
A protocol can generate substantial revenue without automatically creating economic value for holders of its governance token.
That disconnect has led investors to question whether some tokens represent meaningful economic claims or primarily voting rights.
Buybacks provide one method of connecting protocol performance with token demand.
If revenue is used to purchase ENA on the market, stronger protocol earnings could result in greater buyback activity.
The mechanism would not guarantee that ENA rises in value.
Token prices remain affected by supply, market conditions, investor demand and the performance of the broader Ethena ecosystem.
The proposal still requires governance approval.
ENA holders and governance participants will determine whether the fee switch is implemented under the proposed structure.
Details such as revenue thresholds and the timing of buybacks will therefore remain important as the vote proceeds.
The proposal also introduces a potential trade-off.
Directing 95% of applicable net revenue toward token purchases would leave only a small portion available for growth from those revenue streams.
Supporters may view that as stronger alignment with token holders.
Others could argue that a growing protocol should retain more capital for product development, liquidity incentives or expansion.
Taken together, Ethena’s four changes represent an attempt to reshape the relationship between investors, the foundation and ENA holders.
The investor buyouts reduce some future token supply controlled by early backers who had already sold.
The revised unlock schedule removes recurring monthly investor releases.
The proposed framework agreement places protocol intellectual property and economic benefits more directly under the foundation and ecosystem.
The fee switch would then connect some of those economics to ENA through market purchases.
The result is a more explicit effort to tie the token to activity generated by Ethena’s underlying businesses.
Whether that changes ENA’s market performance will depend on governance approval, USDe growth and the revenue generated by the protocol.
But the proposal addresses one of the central questions facing many crypto projects: who ultimately benefits when the protocol itself becomes economically successful?
