Ethena Foundation Buys Back Locked ENA, Proposes Buyback Fee Switch as Token Jumps

The Ethena Foundation said it bought out locked ENA tokens held by some early investors and proposed a fee switch to fund future buybacks, according to a blog post covered independently by CoinGape and The Block. ENA rose sharply after the announcement, with CoinGape describing it as one of the day’s largest gainers in the crypto market. Neither report specifies the size of the buyout, the price paid, or the exact percentage move in ENA, so those figures remain outside what has been verified across two independent sources.

What both sources confirm

Both outlets agree on the shape of the underlying event: the Foundation is addressing recurring monthly token unlocks tied to early investors, a known source of sell pressure on ENA. The Block’s summary states the Foundation is “buying locked ENA tokens and ending future monthly investor unlocks.” CoinGape frames the same move as a buyout designed to remove the “monthly unlock overhang” that has weighed on the token.

A third element appears in The Block’s headline only: a proposed fee switch that would direct protocol revenue toward ENA buybacks going forward. CoinGape’s available text does not independently corroborate the fee-switch detail, so it should be read as reported by one outlet rather than confirmed across both.

Where the record is thin

Neither source, as retrieved, supplies the hard numbers Cryptaur normally leads with: no dollar figure for the buyback, no token count, no timestamp for when unlocks would have hit the market, and no percentage for the ENA price reaction beyond a general description of a rally. This is not a case of conflicting data, it is a case of an aggregated snapshot with gaps. Readers should treat the scale of the buyout and the magnitude of the ENA move as unquantified until a primary source, such as the Foundation’s own blog post or on-chain transaction data, fills them in.

For traders watching ENA specifically, the mechanism matters more than the headline. A buyout that removes tokens from the monthly unlock schedule reduces predictable future supply, which is structurally different from a one-time market purchase. A fee switch, if adopted, would tie buyback volume to protocol revenue rather than to a fixed treasury allocation, making future purchases variable rather than guaranteed.

Why the unlock overhang mattered

Monthly investor unlocks are a recurring feature of many token launches, and Ethena’s schedule had been flagged as an overhang, meaning a known, scheduled source of new supply that can cap price gains regardless of demand. Removing or buying out part of that schedule changes the calculus for holders pricing in future dilution. That is the mechanism both outlets describe, even where the precise figures behind it are not yet public.

Until the Foundation’s own post or on-chain wallet activity confirms the buyout size and the fee-switch terms, the two reports available give a consistent but incomplete picture: an unlock-related buyout, a possible new fee mechanism, and an ENA rally without a stated percentage.

Sources

• coingape.com
• theblock.co