- Ethena gained momentum after USDe expanded into Solana’s Jupiter Lend ecosystem
- Whale transactions and wallet growth surged as Grayscale added ENA to its DeFi Fund
- Traders are closely watching Ethena’s upcoming fee switch vote and growing institutional exposure
Ethena is suddenly seeing a fresh wave of momentum after USDe expanded into Solana’s Jupiter Lend ecosystem, opening the door for more leveraged trading strategies and broader DeFi participation. The integration allows users to deploy USDe as collateral directly inside Jupiter Lend, while Stargate temporarily boosted bridge capacity to $30 million per hour just to keep up with the spike in demand. That alone caught traders’ attention pretty quickly.
At the same time, Bitwise — which currently manages around $11 billion in assets — partnered with Ethena to launch an institutional-grade lending market tied to Jupiter Lend. The move gives USDe more exposure to larger capital allocators and professional investors, something the ecosystem has been chasing for a while now. Even with overall trading volume dropping nearly 20%, ENA still climbed over 5% and pushed toward the $0.1223 region as confidence returned to the market.
Whale Transactions and Wallet Growth Hit Multi-Week Highs
New data shared by Santiment showed that Ethena recorded its strongest single day of network growth in more than three months. Wallet creation accelerated sharply ahead of May 12, while whale transactions simultaneously reached their highest level in roughly five weeks. Usually when those two things happen together, traders start paying attention.
A major catalyst came from Grayscale adding ENA into its DeFi Fund with a 13.59% allocation. That instantly placed Ethena beside projects like AAVE, UNI, and ONDO within one of crypto’s most recognized institutional DeFi products. Funds tracking the portfolio now require direct ENA exposure, creating a kind of structural demand tied directly to assets under management. Grayscale also removed Aerodrome Finance during the rebalance, which strengthened Ethena’s position even more inside institutional DeFi narratives.
Fee Switch Vote Could Completely Change ENA’s Narrative
Another major factor pushing sentiment higher is Ethena’s upcoming fee switch governance vote. On May 13, Ethena’s Risk Committee confirmed that the protocol officially met all activation requirements, including USDe supply surpassing $6 billion and cumulative revenue crossing above $250 million.
If approved, part of protocol revenue would begin flowing toward ENA buybacks and rewards for sENA stakers. That would dramatically change how investors value the token because ENA would shift from being mainly governance-focused into an asset with direct revenue exposure. Historically, DeFi markets react aggressively when protocols activate cash-flow mechanics like this, sometimes even before the vote itself happens.
Still, not everything looks perfect. Monthly token unlock schedules remain one of the biggest concerns hanging over ENA. Unlock-related selling pressure is expected to continue through April 2027, and analysts estimate the market may need to absorb more than $5 million in weekly sell-side flows connected to those releases. So while momentum has improved, supply pressure still sits in the background.
Can ENA Actually Reach $1?
Looking at the chart, ENA has already staged a pretty strong recovery since forming a base near the $0.078 level back in early April. Buyers pushed price above $0.12 over recent weeks, with the biggest breakout arriving around April 17 when ENA briefly tagged the $0.135 area. That move helped reverse months of downside pressure and finally established a cleaner higher-low structure.
Right now, price action appears stuck consolidating between roughly $0.115 and $0.125 after several failed attempts to break above $0.13 resistance. Momentum indicators look somewhat mixed in the short term too. The RSI histogram slipped back into negative territory, suggesting bullish momentum cooled slightly, while the stochastic RSI bounced aggressively from oversold conditions, hinting buyers may already be preparing another recovery attempt.
As for the bigger picture, reaching $1 would require enormous expansion from current levels. Ethena would likely need sustained institutional demand, continued USDe adoption, successful fee switch activation, and much deeper Solana integration over time. The fundamentals are definitely improving though, especially with Grayscale exposure, whale accumulation, and rising stablecoin adoption all hitting at once. It’s becoming harder for the market to ignore what’s happening around Ethena lately.
