Ethena Labs is gearing up to send out 750 million of its governance tokens on April 2.
The decentralized finance protocol (DeFi) will distribute the 750 million ENA tokens to holders of “shards,” or digital units that measure users’ engagement with the protocol, Ethena Labs said Wednesday in a statement. The airdropped tokens represent 5% of the total ENA supply of 15 billion.
The tokens will go to users who hold the USDe, the protocol’s ‘synthetic dollar’, pegged to the US currency.
According to Ethena Labs’ statement, the ENA token will be broadcast to eligible participants on April 2 and become available on centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEXs). The size of each user’s drop will be determined by the number of shards they collect through April 1. The statement states that users must hold their USDe stake or otherwise on the Ethena protocol to receive the free tokens.
The Ethena Labs airdrop follows the Ethena Shard Campaign, a six-week event in which crypto enthusiasts were tasked with collecting “shards” by performing activities under the Ethena protocol. At the event, USDe’s offering reached $1.3 billion, making it the fastest USD-denominated asset to surpass $1 billion in offering, according to Ethena Labs.
The rollout of the token also comes after investors injected $20.5 million into Ethena Labs in two funding rounds over the past year. These rounds included participation from the likes of Galaxy Digital, OKX, Dragonfly, Binance Labs and Bybit, setting the token maker’s valuation at $300 million, CoinGecko reported.
About the author
Elizabeth Napolitano is a data reporter who reports business and technology news, with a focus on cryptocurrencies. Before joining The Block, Elizabeth reported on BigTech, AI, crypto and video games for CBS Moneywatch. As a CoinDesk reporter, she covered DeFi, NFTs and US courts. She has an MA in journalism from CUNY. Follow her on X: @LizKNapolitano
