Ethena Proposes Aggressive Buyback Plan to Revive ENA Value

The proposed overhaul seeks to address long-standing friction regarding ENA’s utility and the recurring sell pressure from early venture backers. By tying programmatic buybacks to USDe growth, the foundation aims to create a direct link between protocol performance and token demand. To further clear the path, the foundation has already moved to acquire remaining locked tokens from select seed investors, effectively ending the monthly release schedule that previously unsettled markets.

Market response was swift, with ENA climbing roughly 23% to $0.17 following the announcement. This gain builds on a broader rally that has seen the token double in value over the past week. Beyond the buybacks, Ethena is restructuring its corporate architecture, with plans to shift the majority of its intellectual property and economic upside away from Ethena Labs shareholders and toward the foundation and ecosystem participants. This alignment comes as the protocol works to recover from a significant contraction in USDe supply, which sits well below its $15 billion peak from last October. To reduce its reliance on volatile crypto derivatives funding rates, Ethena has increasingly courted institutional partners, including recent credit facilities with FalconX and integrations with platforms like BlackRock’s Aladdin.