Ethena Overhauls Tokenomics with Buyouts, Governance Shift

The Ethena Foundation has made significant changes to its tokenomics in an effort to centralize protocol value and reduce potential sell pressure. The foundation bought out locked tokens from certain major seed investors who sold their ENA holdings within the past nine months.

This move removes any remaining locked allocations from future circulation risk, closing positions tied to investors who exited early. A new Master Framework Agreement assigns intellectual property and protocol value accrual fully to token holders, giving them exclusive governance rights over this value.

The foundation also signed a deal with Ethena Labs, which transfers equity investor claims to future cash flows to the foundation. Unvested tokens tied to these investors will be released immediately instead of monthly, removing any potential token overhang.