CryptoSlate
Standard Chartered has initiated coverage of Ethena's ENA token with a year-end 2028 price target of $2, roughly sevenfold the current price of about $0.28. The bank projects a stepped ramp through $0.42 at the end of 2026 and $1.10 in 2027, with ENA set to outperform Standard Chartered's own forecasts for Bitcoin and Ethereum across the same window. Hitting that path requires Ethena to grow USDe from roughly $4.9 billion today to $40 billion by 2028, a near-quadrupling of its previous peak.
Why it matters
The call leans on a fee switch Ethena's governance has already approved. Once USDe supply crosses $7.5 billion, 95% of qualifying net revenue paid to the Ethena Foundation from covered businesses is directed into ENA buybacks. Blockworks Advisory's framework models the protocol's share of gross revenue rising from about 5% near that threshold to 20% at $20 billion. At Standard Chartered's projected $40 billion USDe scale, those purchases could amount to roughly 23% of ENA's current market capitalization annually if the price stayed flat, before investors capitalised the expected stream and compressed the ratio. Standard Chartered points to Uniswap as the analogue: UNI's annualised buyback share settled at 3% to 4% once its own fee switch activated, and that equilibrium underpins the $2 target.
Market impact
Ethena's original edge was a basis trade: long spot crypto hedged with short perpetual futures, capturing funding payments while staying largely delta-neutral. Returns topped 20% at peak and pushed USDe past $10 billion. That trade crowded, funding rates compressed, and USDe supply has roughly halved. The bank's thesis assumes Ethena can broaden its yield stack into DeFi lending, institutional credit, liquid stablecoins, real-world assets, and new equity and commodity basis trades. That diversification anchors growth in a tokenised-asset market Standard Chartered expects to expand from $350 billion to $4 trillion by 2028, with on-chain real-world assets rising from about $40 billion to $2 trillion over the same period.
Frequently asked questions
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What is Standard Chartered's ENA price target and timeline?
Standard Chartered set a year-end 2028 ENA target of $2, up from about $0.28 currently, with interim levels of $0.42 by end-2026 and $1.10 in 2027.
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How does Standard Chartered expect ENA to outperform Bitcoin and Ethereum?
The bank expects ENA's buyback-driven valuation to deliver larger percentage gains than its own forecasts for Bitcoin and Ethereum across the same 2028 horizon.
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What does Ethena need to do to reach the $2 ENA target?
Ethena must grow USDe supply from about $4.9B today to $40B by 2028, with the fee switch that drives the valuation only activating past a $7.5B threshold.
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How does Ethena's ENA fee switch work?
Once USDe crosses $7.5B, 95% of qualifying net revenue from covered businesses flows to ENA buybacks, with protocol gross-revenue share scaling from 5% at the threshold to 20% at $20B USDe.
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Why is Ethena's $40B USDe target so ambitious?
USDe peaked above $10B before funding-rate compression roughly halved supply to $4.9B today, so reaching $40B by 2028 requires quadrupling the previous peak while diversifying yield beyond crypto basis.
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