Ethena Foundation Announces Investor Token Buyouts and Fee Switch Proposal

Ethena Foundation Repurchases Investor Tokens

The Ethena Foundation has announced four major updates to its ecosystem. These changes focus on how tokens are distributed and who receives the money generated by the protocol. A synthetic dollar, like USDe, is a cryptocurrency designed to stay stable by being backed by other assets.

Key highlights include the foundation buying back locked tokens from early investors and ending the practice of releasing these tokens one by one each month. The foundation also plans to assign the intellectual property and economic value of the protocol to itself rather than to the company that builds the software. Finally, a proposal has been opened to use most of the protocol's earnings to buy back ENA tokens.

Repurchasing Locked Tokens

The foundation recently completed over-the-counter transactions to buy all locked tokens from certain major seed investors. These purchases happened over the past two weeks. Seed investors are early backers who buy tokens at a low price before they are available to the public.

The foundation targeted investors who were originally given more than 0.25% of the total ENA supply. It split them into two groups: those who had sold any tokens since the market peak in October 2025, and those who had not. Investors who had not sold any tokens were offered their original purchase price, but none accepted the offer.

The foundation bought the remaining unvested tokens from investors who did sell, with one exception where a wallet declined the offer. As a result, these investors no longer hold tokens that could be sold in the future. The foundation did not disclose the specific investors, the number of tokens bought, or the total value of the deal. Reported early investors include Dragonfly Capital, OKX Ventures, and Galaxy Digital.

Ending Monthly Unlocks

In a separate move, the Ethena Foundation and lead investors agreed to release all remaining original investor tokens at once on October 5. This ends the previous schedule of monthly unlocks.

Tokens held by the team will remain locked under their original schedules. About 12% of the total ENA supply will remain locked after these changes, consisting only of team, ecosystem, and foundation holdings. One large holder, StablecoinX, will remain subject to its own separate lockup schedule.

Assigning Protocol Value

The foundation and Ethena Labs have reached an agreement on a new framework. Under this plan, most of the intellectual property for the Ethena protocol will be assigned to the foundation and its ecosystem. This applies instead of giving these rights to the equity holders of Ethena Labs.

Economic benefits from the protocol, including money from any future sale of the business, will also go to the foundation. The foundation stated this formalizes arrangements that have been in place since it was created, and the full agreement is expected in October.

Proposing a Fee Switch for Buybacks

The foundation has also launched a governance vote on a fee switch. This switch would direct an increasing share of protocol revenue toward buying back ENA tokens once the supply of the synthetic dollar USDe reaches certain milestones.

Once the first milestone is reached, 95% of the net revenue paid to the foundation would be used for ENA buybacks. The remaining 5% would fund growth. These revenues come from three main areas: USDe savings, white-label stablecoins, and a new product called Ethena X, which is scheduled to launch next week.

What Is Confirmed

The Ethena Foundation has completed token buybacks from certain seed investors who sold tokens. Monthly investor unlocks will end on October 5 with a one-time release. A master framework agreement assigns protocol value to the foundation. A governance vote is open for a fee switch to buy back ENA tokens using protocol revenue.

What Is Still Unclear

The identities of the investors who sold their tokens and the total value of the transactions have not been disclosed. The specific milestones for USDe supply that would trigger the fee switch are not detailed in the source material.