TL;DR
- Standard Chartered initiated coverage of Ethena with a price target of $2 for ENA by end of 2028, implying an upside of 669%.
- The bank projects USDe supply will grow more than eightfold, from the current $4.9 billion to approximately $40 billion by 2028.
- The ENA buyback mechanism, approved with 100% of votes, will allocate 95% of net revenues to programmatically acquire tokens.
Standard Chartered formally initiated coverage of Ethena, setting a price target of $2 for the ENA token by end of 2028.
ENA currently trades at around $0.27, making that projection a potential gain of 669% from current levels. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the token has posted a 7.7% gain in the last session, with a market capitalization of approximately $2.72 billion and a volume that exceeded $833 million, after surging 81% in a matter of hours.
The bank also projects that the circulating supply of USDe, the yield-bearing stablecoin issued by the protocol, will grow more than eightfold, from the current $4.9 billion to approximately $40 billion by end of 2028. Today, Ethena ranks fourth among stablecoin issuers worldwide, behind Tether, Circle, and Sky, and second among yield-bearing stablecoin issuers.
Diversification of Yield Sources and the Engine Behind Ethena’s Price
In a note to clients, Standard Chartered noted that Ethena is broadening the yield sources backing USDe, as returns from the crypto basis trade have declined.
The bank highlighted real-world assets, DeFi protocols, institutional lending, liquid stablecoins and basis trades tied to equities and commodities as new revenue-generating avenues.
Along those lines, the bank projects that tokenized assets — including stablecoins and other real-world assets — will reach $4 trillion by end of 2028, up from approximately $350 billion today.
The Key Factor: Token Buybacks
Additionally, Standard Chartered points out that the ENA buyback mechanism, approved with 100% of the protocol’s votes, will be pivotal. Under that scheme, 95% of net revenues generated under the Ethena brand will be used to programmatically repurchase tokens.
If USDe reaches $40 billion while ENA remains at its current price, the bank calculates that annualized buybacks would be equivalent to 23% of the token’s circulating value, a level it considers unsustainable. As a reference point, Standard Chartered pointed to Uniswap, where the annualized buyback rate stabilized at around 3% to 4% following the activation of its own fee switch in December 2025.
The bank also identified certain risks: slower-than-expected growth in yield-bearing stablecoins and weak expansion of real-world assets deployed on blockchains represent the main threats to the projected scenario.
