Ethena Fee Switch Delayed Until USDe Circulating Supply Hits $7.5 Billion

The Ethena fee switch is close to approval, but it won't trigger any ENA buybacks yet. The reason for this delay is that the circulating supply of USDe needs to reach $7.5 billion first. Currently, it stands at around $4.07 billion, leaving a gap of over $3.4 billion.

The fee switch is a governance decision that redirects part of Ethena's revenue into ENA buybacks. The proposal comes from Ethena Labs Research and was published in the foundation's governance forum on August 27, 2026. It replaces an older framework that had three success criteria for implementing a fee switch.

The new framework ties the levy rate to USDe circulating supply, with four tiers: 5% at $7.5 billion, 10% at $10 billion, 15% at $15 billion, and 20% at $20 billion. Blockworks Advisory has calculated that at $7.5 billion, the annual gross revenue would be around $450 million, with $22.5 million going into the buyback pot.

The vote for the fee switch is ongoing in the Snapshot space until September 2, 2026, and it's expected to pass given the current support of over 17 million ENA tokens.