Ethena Foundation Shakes Up Tokenomics with Buyouts, Governance Shift

The Ethena Foundation has implemented significant changes to its ENA tokenomics. The updates include buyouts of locked tokens from early investors, a new Master Framework Agreement that shifts governance rights to token holders, and the end of monthly VC token unlocks.

The buyout removes remaining locked allocations from future circulation risk and reduces potential sell pressure tied to early investors who sold their ENA holdings within nine months. This move also closes out positions for these investors, effectively removing them from future market influence.

The Master Framework Agreement assigns intellectual property and protocol value accrual to the Ethena Foundation, with token holders now governing this value exclusively. Equity investors in the Labs entity have lost any residual claim to future cash flows under the new structure.

A governance proposal to direct net revenue toward ENA buybacks has been approved by the Risk Committee. Voting on the proposal is currently open to token holders, who will determine whether to activate the fee switch and begin programmatic buybacks once implementation begins.