Standard Chartered Sets $2 ENA Target for End-2028
Ethena (ENA)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
cryptotimes.io reports that Standard Chartered has initiated research coverage of Ethena, forecasting its governance token ENA will reach $2.00 by the end of 2028. The bank’s digital assets team led by Geoff Kendrick sets interim targets of $0.42 for 2026 and $1.10 for 2027, implying a 7x gain from the $0.28 reference price. The forecast relies on USDe supply growing to approximately $40 billion, up from its current level of about $4.9 billion.
Standard Chartered ranks Ethena as the fourth-largest stablecoin issuer and notes USDe was the fastest to reach a $10 billion market capitalization. The bank models ENA buybacks using a 6% gross protocol APY, estimating annual buybacks could equal 23% of circulating supply at $40 billion in USDe. This growth path is expected to outpace the bank's own Bitcoin and Ether forecasts through 2028.
Ethena recently began an equity basis trade on Binance and integrated USDe into BlackRock’s Aladdin platform. In a post sharing the note, Ethena stated it was “unclear why they are so bearish,” citing a gap between the bank’s $40 billion base case and its own $100 billion outlook. The bank lists risks including slower growth in yield-bearing stablecoins and insufficient on-chain RWA scaling. All remaining original investor ENA tokens are scheduled to unlock on October 5, 2026.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for ENA, measured when this story was written up on 30 September 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
Whalio data shows ENA trading at $0.2484 with a 24-hour buy ratio of 43.7%, indicating a slight preference for buyers over sellers. The 1-hour buy ratio stands at 38.6%, while the 4-hour ratio is 47.4%, suggesting that short-term selling pressure is currently outweighing the broader daily trend. Volume delta is negative across all timeframes, with -$789,232 in the last hour and -$5,385,992 over 24 hours, meaning sell volume has exceeded buy volume. CVD for the 24-hour close is -$6,510,723, confirming that net flow has been negative. Only 2 out of 24 hours recorded net buying, highlighting that selling pressure dominated the trading day.
The latest daily buy ratio of 50.0% sits at the 67th percentile of the last 323 days, against a median of 49.0% - ordinary for this coin.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for ENA, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
Over the preceding week, the 7-day average buy ratio was 49.5%, compared to the current 24-hour reading of 43.7%, showing a 5.9 point decline in buying preference. Spot volume over the last day was 0.61x the weekly average, indicating significantly lower trading activity than usual. Net buying occurred on only 3 of the past 7 days, further confirming a lack of sustained accumulation. Volume delta for the 8-day period totaled -$12,681,860, consistent with the recent negative flow. This represents an unusual day for the coin, characterized by lower volume and a distinct drop in the buy ratio compared to the weekly norm.