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Ethena’s investor tokens are fully unlocked today, with the big holder StablecoinX also cleared
On October 5, the governance token ENA issued by Ethena, the issuer of the stablecoin USDe, will see two unlocks at the same time. According to an 8-K filing submitted by StablecoinX to the U.S. SEC, all tokens held by this Nasdaq-listed ENA reserve company are permanently released from all lockups and vesting restrictions as of October 5. On the same day, the earlier announcement by the Ethena Foundation regarding an early unlock of investor tokens also officially took effect. StablecoinX will have approximately 3.03 billion ENA tokens whose 48-month lockups are lifted; any sales still require the Foundation’s approval. StablecoinX (stock ticker: USDE) will have signed an exemption letter with Ethena OpCo and the Ethena Foundation on September 14, and filed it with the SEC on September 17. The exemption letter became effective on October 5, canceling all lockup, vesting, and unlock restrictions applicable to the company’s ENA, including the 48-month contractual lockup period attached to tokens obtained through PIPE private placements when the company merged via SPAC. The filing documents state that this effective date matches the unlock date previously announced by the Foundation for other ENA holders.
Based on StablecoinX’s Q2 10-Q report, the company received about 3.03 billion ENA through Ethena’s investment and two rounds of PIPE. In an ecosystem update announcement in August, the Ethena Foundation said that StablecoinX is one of the top two ENA holders, holding about 20% of total supply.
Unstaking does not mean StablecoinX can freely sell tokens. The filing states that any sale or transfer of ENA still requires prior written approval from the Foundation, and the text of the exemption letter also includes lending, hedging, and pledging within the scope requiring consent. The exemption letter also sets out a separate “funds sale” procedure: if StablecoinX sells ENA as working capital or for strategic needs, it must notify the Foundation at least five business days in advance. The Foundation may buy all or part of the tokens at the proposed price; if the Foundation does not respond within the time limit, StablecoinX may proceed with the sale.
The purposes listed in the exemption letter include strategic investments and acquisitions, share buybacks of the company’s own stock approved by the Foundation, and working capital needed for the next 12 months’ operating budget. StablecoinX is the subject of one of the token purchase agreements signed when it announced the formation of an ENA reserve and planned a Nasdaq listing in July 2025.
Investor tokens were unlocked once in full ahead of schedule on 10/5. Tokenomist estimates that the Ethena Foundation bought about 1.4 billion ENA tokens within two weeks, targeting large seed investors whose original allocations exceeded 0.25% of total supply—specifically those investors who had previously sold ENA after the market’s peak on October 10, 2025. Only one wallet refused to sell. For investors who never sold, the Foundation proposed buying them at the original price; the announcement said “no investor agreed.” The Foundation did not disclose the amounts and prices of the purchases.
At the same time, the Foundation announced that starting October 5, 2026, all remaining investor tokens will be unlocked once and completed early. After that, investor tokens will no longer be subject to lockup restrictions; team tokens will continue to follow their original lockup and vesting schedule. The Foundation said that the roughly 12% of supply still locked after the transactions belongs only to holdings by the team, the ecosystem, and the Foundation. Ethena has not released the exact number of tokens unlocked on October 5.
According to a research report from Tokenomist, a token-unlock tracking platform, based on the publicly available schedule, the investor allocation that was originally to be fully distributed on March 2028 is added into this day, totaling about 1.406 billion ENA—equivalent to 14.3% of the circulating supply at the time. How many of those have been bought by the Foundation has not been disclosed.
ENA buybacks will wait until USDe supply reaches $7.5 billion
The same announcement also proposed allocating 95% of net revenues from Ethena’s various business lines to a programmatic buyback of ENA. Tokenomist’s records show that this governance vote ended on September 2, with about 17.79 million ENA voting in favor and no votes against. However, the buyback will not start until the circulating supply of USDe reaches $7.5 billion.
According to CoinGecko data, as of the morning of October 5 Taiwan time, the USDe market cap was about $4.91 billion—still roughly $2.6 billion short of the $7.5 billion threshold. ENA was quoted at about $0.242; it fell about 11% over the past 7 days, rose about 49% over the past 30 days, with circulating supply of about 10.36 billion ENA and a maximum supply of 15 billion ENA.
This article, “Ethena’s investor tokens are fully unlocked today, with the big holder StablecoinX also cleared,” first appeared on .
Ethena’s investor tokens are fully unlocked today, with the big holder StablecoinX also cleared
On October 5, the governance token ENA issued by Ethena, the issuer of the stablecoin USDe, will see two unlocks at the same time. According to an 8-K filing submitted by StablecoinX to the U.S. SEC, all tokens held by this Nasdaq-listed ENA reserve company are permanently released from all lockups and vesting restrictions as of October 5. On the same day, the earlier announcement by the Ethena Foundation regarding an early unlock of investor tokens also officially took effect. StablecoinX will have approximately 3.03 billion ENA tokens whose 48-month lockups are lifted; any sales still require the Foundation’s approval. StablecoinX (stock ticker: USDE) will have signed an exemption letter with Ethena OpCo and the Ethena Foundation on September 14, and filed it with the SEC on September 17. The exemption letter became effective on October 5, canceling all lockup, vesting, and unlock restrictions applicable to the company’s ENA, including the 48-month contractual lockup period attached to tokens obtained through PIPE private placements when the company merged via SPAC. The filing documents state that this effective date matches the unlock date previously announced by the Foundation for other ENA holders.
Based on StablecoinX’s Q2 10-Q report, the company received about 3.03 billion ENA through Ethena’s investment and two rounds of PIPE. In an ecosystem update announcement in August, the Ethena Foundation said that StablecoinX is one of the top two ENA holders, holding about 20% of total supply.
Unstaking does not mean StablecoinX can freely sell tokens. The filing states that any sale or transfer of ENA still requires prior written approval from the Foundation, and the text of the exemption letter also includes lending, hedging, and pledging within the scope requiring consent. The exemption letter also sets out a separate “funds sale” procedure: if StablecoinX sells ENA as working capital or for strategic needs, it must notify the Foundation at least five business days in advance. The Foundation may buy all or part of the tokens at the proposed price; if the Foundation does not respond within the time limit, StablecoinX may proceed with the sale.
The purposes listed in the exemption letter include strategic investments and acquisitions, share buybacks of the company’s own stock approved by the Foundation, and working capital needed for the next 12 months’ operating budget. StablecoinX is the subject of one of the token purchase agreements signed when it announced the formation of an ENA reserve and planned a Nasdaq listing in July 2025.
Investor tokens were unlocked once in full ahead of schedule on 10/5. Tokenomist estimates that the Ethena Foundation bought about 1.4 billion ENA tokens within two weeks, targeting large seed investors whose original allocations exceeded 0.25% of total supply—specifically those investors who had previously sold ENA after the market’s peak on October 10, 2025. Only one wallet refused to sell. For investors who never sold, the Foundation proposed buying them at the original price; the announcement said “no investor agreed.” The Foundation did not disclose the amounts and prices of the purchases.
At the same time, the Foundation announced that starting October 5, 2026, all remaining investor tokens will be unlocked once and completed early. After that, investor tokens will no longer be subject to lockup restrictions; team tokens will continue to follow their original lockup and vesting schedule. The Foundation said that the roughly 12% of supply still locked after the transactions belongs only to holdings by the team, the ecosystem, and the Foundation. Ethena has not released the exact number of tokens unlocked on October 5.
According to a research report from Tokenomist, a token-unlock tracking platform, based on the publicly available schedule, the investor allocation that was originally to be fully distributed on March 2028 is added into this day, totaling about 1.406 billion ENA—equivalent to 14.3% of the circulating supply at the time. How many of those have been bought by the Foundation has not been disclosed.
ENA buybacks will wait until USDe supply reaches $7.5 billion
The same announcement also proposed allocating 95% of net revenues from Ethena’s various business lines to a programmatic buyback of ENA. Tokenomist’s records show that this governance vote ended on September 2, with about 17.79 million ENA voting in favor and no votes against. However, the buyback will not start until the circulating supply of USDe reaches $7.5 billion.
According to CoinGecko data, as of the morning of October 5 Taiwan time, the USDe market cap was about $4.91 billion—still roughly $2.6 billion short of the $7.5 billion threshold. ENA was quoted at about $0.242; it fell about 11% over the past 7 days, rose about 49% over the past 30 days, with circulating supply of about 10.36 billion ENA and a maximum supply of 15 billion ENA.
This article, “Ethena’s investor tokens are fully unlocked today, with the big holder StablecoinX also cleared,” first appeared on .
