Ethena Labs unlocks a phenomenal 2.07 billion $ENA tokens

This represents a huge uptick in deposits to our major trading partners.

A significant event in the cryptocurrency market occurred yesterday when Ethena, a leading decentralized finance (DeFi) project, unlocked a phenomenal 2.07 billion $ENA tokens. This represents a huge uptick in deposits to our major trading partners.

To look at this rationally, the unlocked tokens (less than 45% of which are registered in exchange wallets) represent about 39.17% of the $ENA tokens in circulation; so people were naturally concerned. Bear in mind, though, that just 25% of the unlocked tokens are supposed to have any effect on the $ENA price, and only when they are used in trading. Oh, and also remember: to rationally look at this.

According to @Tokenomist_ai, #Ethena unlocked 2.07B $ENA($740.71M, 39.17% of the circulating supply) yesterday.

In the past 2 days, 12 wallets deposited 125M $ENA($45M) to #Binance, #Bybit and #FalconX.

Massive Token Movement to Major Exchanges

The recent unlocking of $ENA comes during an uptick in activity around the token. Since late last week, a number of wallets and addresses have begun transferring and depositing large amounts of $ENA into major centralized exchanges like Binance, Bybit, and FalconX. In just the last two days, 12 different wallets have made sizable deposits of $ENA totaling around 125 million tokens, worth an impressive $45 million, onto those platforms. Concerns are emerging, meanwhile, among investors that all this $ENA hitting the market could create some serious downward price momentum.

In the last 18 hours, the multi-signature wallet of Ethena Labs has been very lively indeed, transferring a colossal 94.16 million ENA tokens—worth around $33.7 million—to no fewer than 33 different addresses. These serial movements appear to form part of a much larger planned release of ENA tokens, some 2.07 billion of which are expected to be unlocked over a not-to-distant horizon. The wallet distributing these ENA tokens to so many different places obviously raises a gigantic question mark over the project’s tokenomics.

These transfers are remarkable for their sheer scale and for involving major players in the process. It appears that a lot of the freshly unlocked $ENA tokens are making their way to a handful of concentrated exchanges and wallets, which sets us up for some short-term price action.

Key Players and Distribution of $ENA

Among the recent recipients of transfers of $ENA, two names stand out for their size and significance. OKX Ventures, the investment arm of leading exchange OKX, received a hefty 17.87 million $ENA tokens. This is a substantial and strategic move in terms of securing a foothold in a project like Ethena and suggests that OKX, as a major player in the crypto space, may have future intentions to engage with Ethena or its ecosystem.

Alongside OKX Ventures, Michael Egorov of Curve Finance received 2.8 million $ENA tokens. Egorov is a well-known name in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector and one that adds to the credibility of $ENA and the Ethena project in terms of their potential and future success.

Both OKX Ventures and Michael Egorov have deposited their $ENA tokens on Binance, indicating that these tokens might soon be available for trading or could be employed as liquidity. Given their excellent track record and deep involvement in DeFi, the presence of either one of these high-profile individuals could have a meaningful impact on the near-term trajectory of $ENA’s price and its position in the broader crypto market.