Nikolas Sargeant
TL;DR
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Standard Chartered initiated coverage of Ethena with a $2 ENA price target for the end of 2028.
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The forecast implies approximately 669% upside from ENA’s reported price of $0.26.
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The bank expects USDe supply to rise from $4.9 billion to around $40 billion.
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Its investment thesis combines broader yield sources with a policy directing 95% of net revenue toward ENA buybacks.
Standard Chartered expects Ethena’s ENA token to reach $2 by the end of 2028, arguing that growth in USDe and revenue-funded buybacks could support substantial appreciation.
The bank initiated coverage Wednesday, when ENA traded around $0.26. Its target implies roughly 669% upside, although the forecast depends on Ethena significantly expanding its asset base and revenue.
Standard Chartered expects outstanding USDe supply to grow more than eightfold, from $4.9 billion to approximately $40 billion over the same period.
USDe Expansion Forms the Foundation of the Forecast
Ethena is the fourth-largest stablecoin issuer behind Tether, Circle and Sky, according to the report. Among issuers of yield-bearing stablecoins, it ranks second behind Sky.
Standard Chartered estimates that yield-bearing stablecoins currently account for approximately 5% of the broader stablecoin market.
The bank’s forecast assumes that this segment has substantial room to expand and that Ethena can capture part of that growth.
Reaching $40 billion in outstanding USDe would represent a considerable increase from current levels. That expansion matters to the ENA thesis because a larger yield-generating asset base could produce more revenue for the business and, subsequently, more funding for token buybacks.
Supply growth alone, however, does not establish how much revenue Ethena will generate. Returns across its backing strategies also influence the outcome.
Standard Chartered highlighted Ethena’s efforts to broaden the sources of yield supporting USDe as returns from traditional crypto basis trades have declined.
Newer sources include real-world assets, DeFi and institutional lending, liquid stablecoins, and basis trades linked to equities and commodities.
Ethena has also expanded into tokenized equities through Binance’s bStocks. Under that approach, the tokenized assets provide spot backing for USDe, while Binance equity perpetuals hedge the exposure.
The bank argues that a broader asset base gives Ethena more capacity to scale rather than depend on a single market opportunity.
Its forecast also assumes strong growth across tokenized assets. Standard Chartered expects stablecoins and other tokenized real-world assets to reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028, up from approximately $350 billion today.
Revenue-Funded Buybacks Drive the ENA Thesis
The second component of the forecast concerns how Ethena’s revenue flows into ENA purchases.
Ethena’s fee-switch proposal passed with unanimous support from participating voters. It calls for 95% of net revenue generated across businesses under the Ethena brand to fund programmatic ENA buybacks.
Standard Chartered calculates that, if USDe reaches $40 billion while ENA stays at its current price, annualized buybacks would equal approximately 23% of the token’s circulating market value.
The bank considers that ratio difficult to sustain and expects price appreciation to reduce the proportion represented by buybacks.
That is a valuation argument rather than a guarantee. ENA’s price would still depend on revenue delivery, token supply, seller behavior and broader market demand.
Uniswap Provides a Comparison, While Growth Risks Remain
Standard Chartered points to Uniswap as a reference for how buybacks can interact with token valuation.
The bank says Uniswap’s annualized buyback rate has settled around 3%–4% since its fee switch was activated in December 2025. It also notes that UNI has roughly tripled since the bank began covering it in June.
Standard Chartered argues that the higher price helped reduce the relative scale of those purchases.
For Ethena, the main risk is slower-than-expected adoption of yield-bearing stablecoins. Weaker growth in blockchain-based real-world assets would also challenge the forecast as those assets become more important to its yield strategy.
The $2 target therefore rests on several linked assumptions: USDe expansion, sustainable returns, and revenue sufficient to support meaningful ENA buybacks.
