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.
