Ethena’s native token (ENA) surged more than 10% after the Ethena Foundation unveiled four ecosystem changes, headlined by a governance vote on a fee-switch proposal that would redirect 95% of net protocol revenue toward buying ENA on the open market.
Fee-switch vote now live
The Ethena Foundation opened voting on the fee-switch proposal on Thursday, outlining that 95% of net revenue flowing to the foundation from Ethena’s core business lines would be deployed to purchase ENA once the circulating supply of USDe hits the first milestone of $7.5 billion. At press time, 65 votes representing approximately 14.4 million ENA in voting power had been cast, all in favour of the proposal, according to Snapshot. Tokenholders have until September 2 to submit their votes.
Two things are worth noting about that. Sixty-five votes is a small turnout for a decision on where nearly all protocol revenue goes, and a unanimous tally this early reflects who has voted so far rather than a settled result.
More importantly, the buybacks do not begin at any point soon. USDe’s circulating supply currently stands at $4 billion, so the $7.5 billion trigger requires the protocol to grow by roughly 87% before the first ENA is purchased.
Early investor buyout and vesting overhaul
Alongside the fee-switch vote, the Ethena Foundation confirmed it had already purchased locked ENA held by certain major seed investors who sold portions of their allocations over the prior nine months. Separately, the foundation agreed with lead investors to release all remaining unvested investor allocations on October 5, replacing the existing monthly unlock schedule. Team tokens will continue to vest on their original timeline.
The change accelerates remaining investor unlocks rather than cancelling the tokens outright. In practice that means a supply of previously locked ENA that would have reached the market in monthly instalments will instead become available on a single day.
Price reaction
ENA gained 10.7% over the 24-hour period and climbed 27% over the preceding week, trading above $0.17 as of 8:11 am UTC on Friday, according to CoinGecko data.
Protocol context
Ethena’s synthetic dollar, USDe, ranks as the sixth-largest stablecoin by market capitalisation with a $4 billion cap, according to DefiLlama. In September 2025, M2 Capital, the investment arm of UAE-based M2 Holdings, invested $20 million in ENA as a strategic holding, following earlier investment by the conglomerate in the Sui Foundation.
