Ethena Foundation proposes fee switch for ENA token buybacks among other updates

Ethena Foundation, which supports the "synthetic dollar" protocol behind USDe, has announced four ecosystem changes aimed at addressing concerns over investor token unlocks and where the value generated by the protocol goes.

The updates include buying out certain early investors, ending monthly investor unlocks, assigning protocol value to Ethena Foundation, and proposing a fee switch for ENA token buybacks.

Ethena Foundation said it acquired all locked tokens from certain major seed investors who had sold (ENA) over the past nine months. The purchases were completed through over-the-counter transactions during the past two weeks.

The foundation considered investors who were originally allocated more than 0.25% of ENA's total supply. It divided them into those who had sold at least one token since the market peaked on Oct. 10, 2025, and those who had not sold any tokens during that period.

Investors who had not sold were offered the option to sell their locked tokens at their original purchase price without a discount, but none accepted, Ethena said. The foundation bought all unvested tokens from the investors who had sold, except for one wallet that declined the offer.

As a result, the investors who sold ENA during the period no longer hold unvested tokens that could be sold in the future, the foundation said. It did not disclose the investors, the number of tokens bought, or the value of the transactions.

Ethena's early investors include Dragonfly Capital, OKX Ventures, Arthur Hayes' Maelstrom, Nic Carter's Castle Island Ventures, Franklin Templeton, and Galaxy Digital, according to The Block Pro's Funding Dashboard.

Ending investor unlocks

Ethena Foundation and lead investors have also agreed to release all remaining original investor tokens at once, beginning Oct. 5, rather than continue with monthly unlocks.

Team tokens will remain locked under their original vesting schedules, Ethena said, adding that about 12% of ENA supply will remain locked and unvested after the changes. Those tokens will consist only of team, ecosystem, and foundation holdings.

StablecoinX, one of the two largest ENA holders with around 20% of total supply, will remain subject to a separate lockup schedule outlined in its publicly filed token purchase agreement, Ethena said.

Protocol value to go to foundation

Ethena Foundation and Ethena Labs have also reached an agreement in principle on a Master Framework Agreement covering ownership of the protocol and the value it generates.

Under the proposed framework, substantially all material Ethena protocol intellectual property would be assigned or exclusively licensed to Ethena Foundation and its ecosystem rather than Ethena Labs equity holders.

Economic benefits from the protocol, including proceeds from any future sale of the underlying business, would also go to the foundation and ecosystem rather than Ethena Labs equity holders, the foundation said.

Ethena said the framework formalizes arrangements that have been in place since the foundation was created. The framework agreement is expected to be published in October.

ENA buyback proposal

Ethena Foundation has also opened a governance vote on implementing a fee switch that would direct an increasing share of protocol revenue toward ENA token buybacks as (USDe) supply reaches certain milestones.

Once USDe supply reaches the first milestone, 95% of the net revenue paid to Ethena Foundation across its three core business lines would be used to buy back ENA. The remaining 5% would fund growth.

Those businesses include USDe savings, Ethena's white-label stablecoins, and "Ethena [X]," which is scheduled to launch next week.