Ethena’s governance community has approved a fee-switch framework that could eventually direct protocol revenue into open-market purchases of ENA, but the mechanism will remain inactive until USDe’s 14-day average supply rises above $7.5 billion. USDe stood at about $4.75 billion in supply in the material supporting the proposal, leaving the stablecoin roughly 37% below the activation threshold.
The vote, approved on Sept. 2, creates a path for ENA holders to receive indirect value from a protocol that has generated $1.04 billion in cumulative revenue since launch, including $284 million over the preceding 12 months, according to Ethena’s governance materials. No revenue has been distributed to ENA holders so far.
Under the approved framework, Ethena’s revenue share directed through the fee switch will increase as USDe supply grows. At the first $7.5 billion threshold, the switch would apply a 5% take rate. That rises to 10% when supply reaches $10 billion, 15% at $15 billion, and 20% at $20 billion. Ninety-five percent of the revenue routed through the mechanism would be used for ENA buybacks.
The structure ties any future token purchases to the scale of USDe rather than committing Ethena to a fixed buyback budget. It also leaves the mechanism dependent on the protocol maintaining both stablecoin demand and sufficient yield from its backing strategies.
Supply recovery remains the first hurdle
USDe previously reached $15 billion in supply during 2025, according to the proposal materials, showing that the thresholds are not unprecedented for Ethena. The current level is much lower, though, and the fee switch depends on a 14-day average rather than a brief spike in outstanding supply.
At a 6% protocol-yield assumption, Ethena estimated that the $10 billion and $15 billion supply tiers could support annual ENA buybacks equal to 4% and 9%, respectively, of the token’s current market value. The same materials put ENA’s valuation at $1.43 billion, or about five times the fees Ethena collected during its weakest reported year.
Those projections depend on yields remaining available after Ethena pays costs and manages its backing. Its revenue model has historically relied heavily on funding and basis trades, where the protocol captures differences between spot and derivatives markets while aiming to keep USDe dollar-pegged.
Funding conditions deteriorated sharply earlier in 2026. The governance materials said Ethereum funding on Binance averaged negative 4.0% in February, its weakest monthly result since 2023. Ethena responded by shifting more backing into DeFi lending, liquidity stablecoins, institutional lending and real-world asset strategies, while basis trades fell to around 1% of backing.
By August, the materials showed conditions had improved: average ETH funding had turned positive to 5.7%, while Bitcoin funding averaged 7.3%, alongside a Bitcoin price of $80,000. A sustained recovery in derivatives funding would give Ethena more scope to use the strategies that historically generated much of its yield.
Equity perpetuals could expand the available market
Ethena is also seeking to expand the pool of assets supporting USDe through equity perpetuals basis trading. In an Aug. 28 announcement, the protocol outlined plans to use perpetual futures tied to equities and other real-world assets, rather than relying exclusively on crypto markets.
The opportunity is potentially large, though it remains early. The governance material estimated that equity perpetuals open interest across major venues had reached roughly $6.2 billion by late August, around 10 times its March level. It cited annualized funding rates of about 14% on Hyperliquid and 17.5% on Binance for equity perpetuals, compared with 4% to 7% for BTC and ETH in the same comparison.
Ethena projected that RWA perpetuals could account for more of its allocation than crypto within 12 to 24 months. They currently represent about 13% of backing, according to the proposal.
The case for that expansion rests on the much larger size of public equity markets. The material cited global equity market capitalization of $166.5 trillion in July 2026, against roughly $2.2 trillion for the crypto market. It also included a projection that equity-perpetual open interest could eventually reach $4 trillion, compared with a $110 billion peak for crypto perpetuals.
Those figures describe a possible addressable market rather than Ethena’s expected share of it. Liquidity, access to suitable hedging venues, counterparty arrangements and the durability of funding premiums will determine whether equity-linked perpetuals can become a meaningful source of protocol yield.
Distribution efforts target more USDe use
Ethena has continued to add channels intended to increase USDe’s use beyond its existing crypto-native base. The stablecoin can be used as margin on Bybit and Binance, while Bybit, OKX, Bitget and Binance offer it as a holdable asset, according to the governance material. Coinbase and Robinhood also offer products that accept USDe.
USDe launched on TRON on Sept. 11, opening access to a network that handles substantial stablecoin transaction activity. The materials also said USDe reached $300 million shortly after its Robinhood rollout, though the document did not provide a comparable timeline for that figure.
Ethena Pay, launched on Sept. 1, adds a consumer-facing spending product. The service advertised yields of up to 6% on USDe balances and 5% AVAX cashback on spending, with Avalanche supporting the rewards program. From Sept. 1 through Sept. 9, on-chain card spending totaled $632,000, while average daily spending rose from $16,000 to $61,600, according to the materials.
The card was initially offered in beta to a few hundred users outside the United States and European Union. That makes the early spending data more useful as an indication of initial usage than as evidence of broad payments adoption.
Unlocks and yield volatility remain constraints
ENA also faces a token-unlock event scheduled for Oct. 5. Ethena’s materials estimated that venture-capital-related unlocks could amount to about 14% of circulating supply, valued at roughly $200 million at then-current prices. The release was brought forward by 17 months from the original vesting schedule.
The scheduled unlock does not alter the fee-switch thresholds, but it places a large new block of tokens into circulation before buybacks can begin. With USDe supply below $7.5 billion, the approved mechanism currently offers no automatic market demand for ENA.
Ethena’s own risk discussion also identifies the conditions that could limit the buyback program after activation. Negative funding rates could force more capital into lower-yielding allocations estimated at 4% to 5%. Delays in equity-perpetual deployment could reduce the expected diversification of returns. The protocol also retains exposure to DeFi lending venues including Aave and Morpho, along with institutional credit providers such as Maple and FalconX, where exploits or borrower defaults could affect backing and USDe minting capacity.
For now, the governance vote gives ENA a defined revenue-linked framework, while leaving its practical effect tied to whether USDe can regain the scale it reached in 2025 and whether Ethena can preserve yields across more volatile derivatives and credit markets.
Want deeper insight into leverage and funding risks behind Ethena’s strategy? Learn more in this guide on crypto perpetuals.
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