- Standard Chartered initiated coverage of Ethena with a $2 price target for ENA by the end of 2028, compared with its current price around $0.26.
- The bank expects USDe supply to grow from $4.9 billion to approximately $40 billion by the end of 2028 as Ethena expands its yield sources.
- Ethena’s fee switch directs 95% of net revenue generated across businesses under the Ethena brand toward programmatic ENA buybacks.
Standard Chartered has initiated coverage of Ethena, forecasting that its ENA token could reach $2 by the end of 2028 as the protocol expands USDe and broadens the assets used to generate yield.
ENA was trading around $0.26 on Wednesday. Standard Chartered’s $2 target represents roughly 669% upside from that level.
The bank also expects USDe’s outstanding supply to increase more than eightfold, rising from $4.9 billion today to approximately $40 billion by the end of 2028.
Ethena currently ranks as the fourth-largest stablecoin issuer behind Tether, Circle and Sky, according to Standard Chartered. It is also the second-largest issuer of yield-bearing stablecoins behind Sky.
Ethena Expands Beyond Crypto Basis Trades
Standard Chartered said Ethena is broadening the yield-generating engine behind USDe as returns from traditional crypto basis trades decline.
The bank highlighted real-world assets, DeFi and institutional lending, liquid stablecoins, and equity and commodity-linked basis trades as potential sources of additional yield.
Ethena has also expanded into tokenized equities through Binance’s bStocks, using the assets as spot backing for USDe while using Binance equity perpetuals to hedge the exposure.
Standard Chartered expects tokenized assets, including stablecoins and other real-world assets, to grow from approximately $350 billion today to $4 trillion by the end of 2028.
“The broader asset base for yield generation enables scalability,” the bank said.
ENA Buybacks Could Increase With USDe Growth
Standard Chartered’s ENA forecast also depends heavily on Ethena’s recently approved fee switch.
The proposal passed with 100% of votes and calls for 95% of net revenue generated across businesses under the Ethena brand to be used for programmatic ENA buybacks.
If USDe reaches $40 billion by the end of 2028 while ENA remains at $0.26, Standard Chartered estimates annualized buybacks would equal approximately 23% of ENA’s circulating value.
The bank argues that such a buyback rate would be difficult to sustain at the current token price.
“For these buybacks to be sustainable, the ENA token price will rise,” Standard Chartered wrote.
Stablecoin Growth Remains Key to Forecast
Standard Chartered compared the potential ENA buyback dynamic with Uniswap, where it said the annualized buyback rate has settled around 3% to 4% since its fee switch was activated in December 2025.
The bank said UNI has roughly tripled since it began covering the token in June, with the higher price reducing the proportion of circulating value represented by buybacks.
However, Standard Chartered identified slower-than-expected adoption of yield-bearing stablecoins as the main risk to its Ethena forecast.
Slower growth in tokenized real-world assets could also affect the outlook as Ethena increasingly relies on a broader range of onchain assets to generate yield.
