Ethena moves to end VC unlocks, plans revenue-funded ENA buybacks

The Ethena Foundation just made the kind of move that most DeFi projects talk about but never actually execute. It bought out early investors, reached agreements on token and equity rights, approved a revenue-driven buyback proposal, and eliminated future venture capital token unlocks entirely. What actually happened The foundation behind the USDe synthetic dollar protocol took four distinct actions in a single announcement. First, it executed buyouts of early-stage investors, effectively clearing legacy stakeholders from the cap table. Second, it formalized agreements covering both token rights and equity rights, clarifying the legal and economic relationship between ENA holders and the foundation’s corporate structure. Third, the foundation approved a revenue buyback proposal. This means protocol revenue will be channeled toward purchasing ENA tokens on the open market. Fourth, the foundation eliminated future VC token unlocks. The supply math matters ENA, the governance token for the Ethena protocol, has a maximum supply of 15 billion tokens. Under the original tokenomics, 25% of that maximum supply was allocated to investors under a vesting schedule that included a one-year cli...