# cryptocurrency #shanzhai coin Standard Chartered just came up with a thought experiment for Ethena: by the end of 2028, the size of the USDe stablecoin could reach $40 billion, and the ENA token could rise to $2. Right now, ENA is only around $0.27—so this UK bank believes there’s still about 7x upside. After the news broke, ENA surged 28% in a week and 77% over a month. The market seems to believe first. Let’s look at the technical picture first. ENA’s current price is $0.25887, up 3.23% over the past 24 hours. Before and after the release of the Standard Chartered report, ENA already kicked off a clear uptrend. From $0.27 to $2 isn’t a small target—it’s 7x. Standard Chartered’s targets for BTC are $300,000 and for ETH $18,000; ENA has to outperform both of these “big guys.” The logic is that after USDe scales up, protocol revenue will be used to buy back ENA. Now for the funding side: In early September, Ethena governance approved a fee switch. Once the USDe supply reaches a specific milestone, 95% of net revenue will be used for ENA buybacks. Standard Chartered ran the numbers: when USDe reaches $25 billion, assuming a 6% gross margin and taking 25% of net income, it could generate $375 million in buybacks each year. If USDe really hits $40 billion, and ENA’s price stays unchanged, the annual buyback volume could account for 23% of circulating market cap. Even Standard Chartered says this ratio isn’t sustainable—so the ENA price would need to rise, so that the buyback share falls back to a more reasonable 3% to 4%, taking Uniswap’s UNI as a reference. Finally, let’s consider the macro picture. USDe’s original yield came from crypto basis trading: going long spot and shorting perps, but that revenue source is declining. Ethena has been forced to expand into DeFi, institutional lending, real-world assets, and basis trades in stocks and commodities, and now its blended yield is around 5.2%. Standard Chartered also predicts that the tokenized asset market could grow from today’s $350 billion to $4 trillion by the end of 2028—bigger pool, more kinds of assets that USDe can play with. But there’s a catch: Standard Chartered’s forecast spans more than two years—whether USDe can withstand de-pegging pressure in the meantime, and whether basis yields will keep shrinking, are still unknown. A bank research report isn’t a guarantee. On the road from $0.27 to $2 for ENA, are you planning to get on board or watch from the sidelines? 👉 Click to enter my chat room and get the latest strategy!