Ethena unveils fee switch for ENA buybacks and reworks VC unlocks

Ethena’s foundation wants to funnel most of its protocol revenue into ENA token buybacks. It also reworked the investor unlock schedule. The governance proposal, framed as a move to cut selling pressure, would redirect cash to ENA holders as the project tries to restart USDe stablecoin growth.

The Ethena Foundation put the fee switch up for a governance vote on Aug. 27, 2026. Under the plan, an increasing share of net revenue paid to the foundation across three business lines would fund buybacks as USDe supply crosses milestones. Hit the first milestone and 95% of that net revenue goes to buybacks, 5% to growth. The three lines: USDe savings, white-label stablecoins, and a new product called Ethena X, scheduled to launch next week.

The proposal summary does not specify a vote closing date.

The second update reshaped how venture investor tokens vest. Over the prior two weeks, the foundation bought all locked tokens from seed investors who were originally allocated more than 0.25% of ENA’s total supply. The deals were over-the-counter.

Investors fell into two groups. Those who sold at least one token since the market peaked on Oct. 10, 2025, and those who did not. Non-sellers got an exit offer at their original purchase price. No discount. None took it.

The foundation then acquired unvested tokens from the investors who had sold. One wallet declined the buyback. Lead investors agreed to release all remaining original-investor tokens in a single batch starting Oct. 5, 2026, replacing the previous monthly unlock schedule. Team tokens stay locked under their original vesting.

The upshot: roughly 12% of ENA supply remains locked or unvested across team, ecosystem, and foundation allocations after the overhaul. StablecoinX holds about 20% of total ENA supply. It is not covered by the new schedule and stays under its own publicly filed token purchase agreement.

The foundation also outlined a broader structural change. It reached an agreement in principle on a Master Framework Agreement with Ethena Labs. Under the deal, substantially all material intellectual property would be assigned or exclusively licensed to the Ethena Foundation and the broader ecosystem, not to Ethena Labs equity. Economic benefits, including proceeds from any future sale of the business, would flow to the foundation and ecosystem. The framework is expected to be published in October.

Early backers disclosed in The Block’s funding dashboard include Dragonfly Capital, OKX Ventures, Maelstrom (Arthur Hayes), Castle Island Ventures (Nic Carter), Franklin Templeton, and Galaxy Digital.

The announcement bundles four updates in total: the buyback fee switch, the VC unlock overhaul, the IP and economic-value restructuring, and the governance vote itself.

What’s missing is a price tag. The Block’s report references a surge in ENA but carries no spot price or 24-hour move. The CoinDesk page that would typically carry market data was not retrievable. Ethena’s USDe, a yield-bearing stablecoin built on delta-neutral positions, has seen its supply contract from earlier highs as the protocol worked through a series of redemption and collateral events. The foundation has framed the buyback and unlock changes as part of an effort to revive that growth.

What remains unconfirmed: the value of tokens acquired in the OTC buybacks, the identities of the selling investors, the specific USDe supply threshold that would trigger the 95/5 split, and the closing date for the governance vote.