Ethena Buys Out Early Investors as ENA Rally Nears 100%
Ethena (ENA)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
bitcoinethereumnews.com reports that Ethena (ENA) surged 11% after its Foundation bought out seed investors who had been selling since the October 2025 peak. This transaction capped a near-100% monthly rally as a vote on an ENA buyback mechanism went live. The Foundation spent two weeks purchasing locked tokens directly from early backers, each of whom held more than 0.25% of the ENA supply.
As a result, these investors now hold no unvested ENA that could be sold into the market in the future. The monthly supply drip ends with this deal, and the rest of the investor calendar concludes on October 5, 2026. Roughly 12% of the supply remains locked in team, ecosystem, and Foundation holdings.
StablecoinX remains a large holder outside this deal, retaining about 20% of the supply under a separate lockup. A Snapshot governance vote open through September 2 could trigger protocol revenue buybacks once USDe supply hits $7.5 billion. The Foundation aims for USDe to reach $100 billion within five years, with buyback shares scaling from 5% to 20% based on supply levels. ENA trades near $0.155, up 84.6% over the past 30 days.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for ENA, measured when this story was written up on 28 August 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
Whalio data shows ENA trading at $0.1701 with a 1-hour buy ratio of 54.5% and a 4-hour ratio of 57.3%, both exceeding the 24-hour average of 52.3%. This indicates that buying pressure is building in the short term, with aggressive accumulation outpacing the daily average. The 1-hour volume delta is positive at $362,728, while the 4-hour delta reaches $1,936,935, showing consistent net inflows. Over 24 hours, the volume delta stands at $6,367,162, with cumulative volume delta closing at $6,520,299. Net buying occurred for 17 of the last 24 hours, supporting the higher short-term buy ratios. Spot volume for the period reached $137,269,138 across 609,691 trades.
The latest daily buy ratio of 48.8% sits at the 47th percentile of the last 281 days, against a median of 49.0% - ordinary for this coin.
Twenty-four hours later
What ENA did over the 24 hours after the story broke. The market moves for its own reasons; this is what happened, not what the story caused.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for ENA, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
Compared to the preceding week, the current 24-hour buy ratio is 2.5 points higher than the 7-day average of 49.8%. This suggests the current session is slightly more bullish than the recent average, though volume is elevated at 1.74 times the weekly norm. Net buying days have increased to 3 out of 7 in the weekly view, contrasting with the 17 out of 24 hours of net buying seen today. The 8-day price change of 45.9% aligns with the broader rally, while the 8-day volume delta totals $10,039,317. This day represents an unusual spike in trading activity relative to the weekly baseline, driven by the buyout news and governance vote.