Ethena Foundation Buys Out Seed Investors' Locked ENA, Proposes Fee Switch

According to BlockchainReporter, the Ethena Foundation announced on August 27 that it bought out all locked ENA tokens from major seed investors who sold any of the asset over the preceding nine months. This action is part of a four-part restructuring of the protocol's ownership and token economics. Under a separate Master Framework Agreement, the Foundation and Ethena Labs assigned the protocol's intellectual property and accrued value exclusively to the Foundation for token holder governance, with equity investors in the Labs entity receiving no residual cash flow.

Additionally, a live governance proposal suggests activating a fee mechanism to direct net revenue from Ethena business lines into programmatic ENA buybacks. The Foundation and lead investors also agreed to release unvested tokens to remove monthly venture-capital unlock overhangs, while team tokens remain on their original schedules. The Foundation has not disclosed the purchase amount or buyback pace, and the buyout and fee switch remain subject to governance approval.