Ethena announces buyout, fee-switch proposal and token structure overhaul

Ethena announced four major ecosystem changes, including a buyout of locked tokens held by early investors, unification of its token and equity structure, the introduction of a revenue-based buyback mechanism, and the cancellation of monthly VC unlocks. The Ethena Foundation said it has completed a buyout of all locked tokens held by some large seed-round investors that had sold ENA over the past nine months. Separately, the foundation said it signed a master framework agreement with Ethena Labs, transferring the protocol’s intellectual property and all value it generates to the foundation. As a result, residual cash flows tied to the protocol’s growth will no longer go to equity investors in Ethena Labs and will instead be controlled through governance by ENA token holders. The foundation also said a "Fee Switch" governance proposal has been formally submitted to use net revenue generated across various business units under the Ethena brand for programmatic ENA buybacks. The proposal has passed approval by the risk committee. In addition, Ethena said it has fully removed concerns over persistent selling pressure from future monthly VC unlocks by releasing all unvested tokens at once. Tokens held by the core team will remain subject to the existing lockup and vesting schedule. The move is aimed at strengthening the link between the ENA token and the protocol’s value.