Ethena has introduced a package of changes designed to reduce investor selling pressure on ENA and to clarify how protocol revenue may support the token. According to the Ethena Foundation's official announcement, the Foundation repurchased locked ENA tokens from several seed investors and accelerated the remaining investor unlock schedule.

The changes also cover protocol ownership, future cash flows, and a proposed expansion of the ENA fee switch. Ethena said the new structure directs more economic value toward the Foundation, the ecosystem, and token holders as the circulating supply of its USDe stablecoin grows. Ethena is the issuer of USDe, a synthetic dollar that serves as the protocol's core product, and the announcement comes amid wider industry attention on how large scheduled token unlocks affect circulating supply.

Investor Unlocks Restructured Through OTC Buybacks

The Foundation said it purchased locked ENA through over-the-counter deals during the past two weeks. The transactions involved seed investors who originally received more than 0.25% of ENA's total supply.

Ethena divided those investors into two groups based on whether they had sold ENA after October 10. For investors who had sold, the protocol bought all of their remaining unvested tokens, apart from one wallet that refused the offer. Investors who had not sold ENA received an offer to sell their locked tokens back at full value; none accepted. Negotiated OTC repurchases of locked allocations have been used across the crypto sector as a way to address unlock-driven supply before it reaches the open market.

Under the revised structure, Ethena said monthly investor unlocks should no longer affect the market. Team tokens will continue under the original vesting rules. Following the transactions, about 12% of locked and unvested ENA remains, tied to team, ecosystem, and Foundation allocations.

Master Framework Agreement Redirects Protocol Economics

The Foundation and Ethena Labs also signed a Master Framework Agreement. Under the agreement, Ethena Labs will exclusively license key protocol intellectual property to the Ethena Foundation and its ecosystem.

Ethena said residual profit, economic upside, and proceeds from any future sale of the business would go to the Foundation and the ecosystem. Equity holders in Ethena Labs would not receive residual protocol cash flow or profit. The agreement addresses a structural question that has surfaced elsewhere in crypto, where protocols built by development companies must define how value accrues between equity holders and token holders.

Fee Switch Proposal Links Buybacks to USDe Supply Growth

Ethena has additionally released a governance proposal to expand the ENA fee switch. The plan uses USDe supply milestones to determine how much protocol revenue is directed toward ENA buybacks. Fee switches, which route protocol revenue toward token holders, have been a long-running topic in DeFi governance, as many protocols have historically retained revenue rather than sharing it with tokens.

Once the first milestone is reached, 95% of net revenue from Ethena's three core business lines would fund ENA buybacks. The remaining 5% would support growth as Ethena targets more than $100 billion in USDe supply within five years.

The implementation vote is now live, and governance will determine whether the proposal proceeds. The timing and scale of any buybacks will depend on the outcome of that vote and on USDe supply reaching the milestones set out in the plan.