ENA is the native governance token of Ethena, used to influence protocol decisions through a committee-based system. Tokenholders appoint and rotate committee members who oversee various operational aspects of the protocol. ^[1]

Overview

ENA functions primarily as a governance token for the Ethena protocol, allowing holders to influence key decisions through voting. This influence is exercised by electing members to specialized committees, including the Risk Committee. The Risk Committee for the initial six-month term includes entities such as Gauntlet, Block Analitica, Steakhouse, Blockworks Research, LlamaRisk, and Ethena Labs Research. The governance structure is designed to allow ENA holders to delegate routine decision-making to expert stakeholders while maintaining transparency. ENA holders also participate in proposals related to ENA tokenomics, ecosystem projects like Ethereal, and strategic initiatives such as onboarding SOL as a USDe backing asset and selecting Reserve Fund RWA allocations.

Restaking functionality has been integrated through a partnership with Symbiotic to increase ENA’s utility. Restaked ENA contributes to the security of cross-chain USDe transfers that utilize LayerZero’s DVN-based messaging system. This infrastructure is intended to support upcoming applications within the Ethena Network, incorporating restaked ENA modules into the platform’s financial architecture. ^[1]

Governance

Ethena employs a governance structure that delegates most protocol decisions to specialized committees rather than relying solely on direct voting by all ENA tokenholders. These committees operate within defined scopes, and ENA holders primarily participate by appointing committee members on a rotating basis.

This committee-based model is intended to accommodate the protocol’s off-chain dependencies and aims to balance efficient decision-making with transparency and external oversight. While fully on-chain governance is impractical, the structure allows experienced stakeholders to manage routine governance while ENA holders retain influence over broader governance direction and committee appointments. Governance discussions occur on a dedicated forum, and voting takes place on Snapshot. ^[2]

sENA

Staked ENA (sENA) is the liquid receipt token issued for locked ENA. It is designed to be composable and usable across various DeFi protocols. sENA holders receive rewards, initially including unclaimed tokens from the Season 2 airdrop distribution. This reward mechanism is intended to incentivize users aligned with the long-term growth of Ethena.

Additionally, sENA earns rewards from ecosystem projects. The Ethereal team, for example, has committed to allocating 15% of its potential future token supply to sENA holders. The sENA token is structured to accrue value in a model where ecosystem applications reserve portions of their token supply for sENA-based airdrops. ^[1]

Tokenomics

The ENA token has a total supply of 15 billion tokens. The allocation of the total supply is as follows: ^{[3] [4]}

• Core Contributors: 30%
• Ecosystem Development: 28%
• Investors: 25%
• Foundation: 15%
• Binance Launchpad: 2%