Ethena buys out early investors as ENA nears 100% monthly rally

The Ethena Foundation bought out early investors who sold after the October 2025 peak. ENA gained 11% and neared a 100% monthly rally. The Foundation said it bought locked tokens directly from early backers during the previous two weeks. Each backer was originally allocated more than 0.25% of ENA supply. Only one wallet declined the buyout. Investors who never sold received full-price offers, and none accepted. The Foundation said the investors who sold during the relevant period now hold no unvested ENA that could enter the market later. All remaining investor tokens unlock on October 5, 2026. Team tokens remain locked under their original schedules. About 12% of ENA supply remains locked in team, ecosystem, and Foundation holdings. Ethena released 171.88 million tokens in early August. Arthur Hayes bought 9.05 million ENA days before that release. StablecoinX still holds about 20% of supply under a separate lockup disclosed in SEC filings. A Snapshot governance vote remains open through September 2. The vote would direct protocol revenue into ENA purchases. Ethena's Risk Committee approved the design. Buybacks would begin only after USDe circulating supply reaches $7.5 billion. The buyback allocation would start at 5% of protocol revenue. The allocation would rise to 20% if USDe supply reaches $20 billion. USDe is near $4.6 billion, down from a 2025 peak of about $15 billion. The Foundation said it wants USDe above $100 billion within five years. After the first threshold is reached, 95% of net revenue paid to the Foundation would fund the purchases. Ethena would track each purchase on a public dashboard. A Master Framework Agreement due in October would give protocol intellectual property and residual value to tokenholders. Ethena Labs equity investors would receive neither. The Foundation said Labs equity has never received protocol revenue. ENA trades near $0.155 after gaining 11% in 24 hours. ENA is up 56.5% in a week and 84.6% over the past 30 days. Its market capitalization is near $1.52 billion. The Snapshot vote still requires quorum. Buybacks remain inactive until USDe supply reaches the first threshold, and StablecoinX's 20% stake remains outside the deal.