Standard Chartered initiates coverage of Ethena with $2 price target by end of 2028

Sources · 7 sources

1. CB

   Crypto Banter@crypto_banterPost on X · Sep 30

   🚨STANDARD CHARTERED SEES 7X ON ETHENA! Standard Chartered just initiated coverage of Ethena. They put ethereum:0x57e114b691db790c35207b2e685d4a43181e6061 at $2.00 by end-2028, about 7x from $0.28, and said USDe could grow about 8x over two years. They also flagged the new ethereum:0x57e114b691db790c35207b2e685d4a43181e6061 buyback-and-burn, with 95% of net revenue going back into the token if USDe scales.

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2. CR

   CryptoSlateArticle · Sep 30

   Standard Chartered says Ethena’s ENA could crush Bitcoin and Ethereum returns by 2028 Standard Chartered expects Ethena’s ENA token to rise about sevenfold by 2028, provided the protocol can rebuild its shrinking synthetic-dollar business. The bank initiated coverage of ENA with a $2 year-end 2028 target, up from about $0.28 currently. It forecasts the token reaching $0.42 at the end of 2026 and $1.10 in 2027 before accelerating further the following year. The projection would leave ENA outperforming Standard Chartered’s expected gains for both Bitcoin and Ethereum over the same period. But reaching it requires Ethena to reverse a contraction that has cut USDe supply by more than half from its peak and expand far beyond the scale it has previously achieved. Standard Chartered's Projected Returns For Ethena, Ethereum and Bitcoin by 2028 (Source: Standard Chartered) The bank’s thesis rests on Ethena finding new sources of yield as returns from its original crypto trading strategy decline, while generating enough revenue from a much larger USDe base to make ENA increasingly valuable to holders. Ethena first has to rebuild USDe USDe became one of crypto’s fastest-growing stablecoins after launching in late 2023, exceeding $10 billion as traders piled into a structure that combined long spot crypto positions with short perpetual futures. That approach allowed Ethena to capture funding payments while keeping its overall market exposure largely delta-neutral. At times, the strategy generated returns above 20%, helping attract deposits into USDe and its yield-bearing counterpart, sUSDe. However, those conditions have since weakened amid the ensuing market contraction. As the trade became more crowded and crypto funding rates compressed, USDe supply fell to about $4.9 billion. Standard Chartered estimates Ethena’s blended yield across its strategies is now about 5.2%. The bank’s forecast assumes contraction can reverse dramatically. It expects USDe supply to reach $40 billion by 2028, meaning Ethena would first have to regain its previous $10 billion-plus peak and then roughly quadruple again. Ethena has responded to lower crypto basis returns by broadening where it generates yield. Its strategies now include DeFi lending, institutional lending, liquid stablecoins and real-world assets, alongside newer basis trades tied to equities and commodities. Related Reading Ethena is targeting the $120 trillion Wall Street stock market to hunt yields 5x higher than Bitcoin That diversification is central to Standard Chartered’s growth assumptions. The bank expects tokenized assets, including stablecoins and other real-world assets, to reach about $4 trillion by the end of 2028 from roughly $350 billion currently. It projects real-world assets deployed on blockchains could rise from about $40 billion to $2 trillion over the same period. A larger tokenized-asset market would give Ethena more collateral and yield opportunities beyond crypto derivatives, potentially allowing USDe to expand without requiring another period of exceptionally high perpetual-futures funding rates. Ethena is also building businesses outside the core synthetic dollar, including white-label stablecoins and Ethena Pay. Standard Chartered expects those operations to widen the revenue base as the protocol grows. However, the first hurdle is much closer than $40 billion. Ethena’s approved fee-switch framework begins at $7.5 billion of USDe supply, leaving the protocol below the first threshold at which the revenue mechanism underlying Standard Chartered’s valuation begins to take effect. Why the buyback math leads to $2 Once those thresholds are crossed, the ENA valuation increasingly depends on how much of Ethena’s economics can be directed toward token holders. The approved framework allocates 95% of qualifying net revenue paid to the Ethena Foundation from covered businesses toward ENA buybacks. Ethena does not retain the full yield generated by the assets supporting USDe, making the distinction between gross and net revenue central to the calculation. Blockworks Advisory’s analysis modeled the protocol’s share of gross revenue increasing with USDe supply, beginning at about 5% around $7.5 billion and reaching 20% by $20 billion. The model used a 6% protocol yield as an illustrative assumption, not a guaranteed return. At the much larger scale envisioned by Standard Chartered, those economics become substantial. The bank estimates that if USDe reaches $40 billion, ENA purchases could amount to roughly 23% of the token’s current market value annually if its price remained unchanged. Standard Chartered does not expect such a percentage to persist. It argues that investors would capitalize the expected stream of purchases into ENA’s valuation, pushing the token higher and reducing annual buybacks as a percentage of its market capitalization. The bank points to Uniswap as an analog, saying UNI’s annualized buyback percentage has settled around 3% to 4% as the token appreciated after activating its fee switch. Applying a comparable equilibrium to Ethena underpins Standard Chartered’s $2 target. But the mechanism introduces its own constraint. Capturing a larger share of Ethena’s revenue for the protocol can reduce what remains available to sUSDe holders. That creates a balancing act: Ethena needs enough margin to support ENA purchases while maintaining sufficiently competitive yields to keep attracting the deposits required for USDe to grow. The assumptions become more demanding as supply rises. The 6% return used in the framework has not been guaranteed across market cycles, while the higher revenue-capture tiers have yet to be tested at the scale Standard Chartered expects. That leaves investors with several nearer-term checkpoints before the $2 target becomes relevant. USDe must first cross the $7.5 billion fee-switch threshold and reclaim its previous peak. Beyond that, Ethena will have to show that its newer yield strategies can absorb tens of billions of dollars without materially compressing returns. How quickly those thresholds are crossed will determine whether Standard Chartered’s projected buyback engine begins to resemble the one embedded in its valuation model. The post Standard Chartered says Ethena’s ENA could crush Bitcoin and Ethereum returns by 2028 appeared first on CryptoSlate .

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3. FC

   Frank Chaparro@fintechfrankPost on X · Sep 30

   Standard Chartered initiated coverage of Ethena’s ENA with a $2.00 price target by end-2028, implying roughly 7x upside from $0.28. The bank forecasts ENA at $0.42 by end-2026, $1.10 in 2027 and $2.00 in 2028, as USDe supply potentially grows to $40 billion and token buybacks scale alongside it.

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4. TM

   That Martini Guy ₿@MartiniGuyYTPost on X · Oct 1

   Standard Chartered thinks Ethena’s USDe stablecoin could reach $40 BILLION by the end of 2028. The bank also expects ENA to hit $2, roughly 7x from the $0.28 price cited in its report. Their forecast is based on USDe continuing to scale while Ethena expands its yield sources beyond crypto and increases token buybacks. Standard Chartered also sees Bitcoin reaching $300K and Ethereum $18K by the end of 2028. Big expectations for crypto over the next two years.

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5. LS

   Laura Shin@laurashinPost on X · Sep 30

   Standard Chartered’s ENA call rests on buybacks: if USDe grows to $40B and ENA’s price doesn’t move, buybacks would retire about 23% of tokens a year, a level the bank says “would be far too high.” https://t.co/SGE3ujdpQt

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6. UN

   UnchainedArticle · Sep 30

   Standard Chartered Forecasts Ethena’s Token Will Hit $2 by End of 2028 on Buybacks Standard Chartered expects Ethena’s ENA token to reach $2 by the end of 2028, arguing that buybacks funded by the protocol’s revenue will force the price higher as its USDe synthetic dollar grows. The bank initiated coverage of ENA in a research report on Wednesday from Geoff Kendrick , its global head of digital assets research. It forecasts ENA at $0.42 at the end of 2026 and $1.10 at the end of 2027, and said the path to $2 implies a gain of roughly 7x from the report’s reference price of $0.28 , outpacing its own forecasts for bitcoin and ether. ENA traded near $0.25 on Wednesday. Buybacks at the Center The call rests on the fee switch ENA holders approved on Sept. 8, which sends 95% of net revenue from Ethena’s business lines to buying back ENA. The share of revenue set aside grows as USDe supply rises, and the schedule takes nothing until supply reaches $7.5 billion , according to a Risk Committee analysis posted with the proposal. USDe supply is about $4.9 billion . Kendrick estimates USDe could reach $40 billion by the end of 2028. At that size, with ENA’s price unchanged, the bank calculated that buybacks would retire around 23% of tokens a year. It said “a 23% buyback would be far too high,” so it expects the price to rise until the buyback share settles at a sustainable level. The bank’s model is Uniswap, whose annualized buyback rate settled at around 3% to 4% after its fee switch went live in December 2025, as UNI’s price roughly tripled from when the bank began covering it in June. At that rate, $40 billion of USDe would require about a 7x move in ENA, the report said. Beyond the Basis Trade By market cap, only Tether, Circle and Sky issue more stablecoins than Ethena, according to the report, and USDe reached a $10 billion market cap faster than any other stablecoin after its late-2023 launch. Its yield first came from the crypto basis trade. As those returns shrank, USDe supply fell, and Ethena has since added lending, real-world assets and tokenized equity basis trades to its backing. The bank said it views the broader collateral base “as highly sustainable.” The report also noted that the Ethena Foundation bought out locked tokens from major seed investors in August. From Oct. 5, only tokens held by the foundation or Ethena Labs employees, 12% of the total, will continue vesting. The main risk to the forecast is slower-than-expected growth in yield-bearing stablecoins, which make up about 5% of the stablecoin market, the bank said. A second risk is that tokenized real-world assets do not scale as it expects. Related Listen: Guy Young on Why Ethena Launched a Neobank on Top of Its Stablecoin The post Standard Chartered Forecasts Ethena’s Token Will Hit $2 by End of 2028 on Buybacks appeared first on Unchained .

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7. BS

   BSCN@BSCNewsPost on X · Sep 30

   Standard Chartered sees ENA hitting $2 Standard Chartered has initiated coverage of @Ethena and expects the ecosystem's governance token to rise significantly. According to the bank, the price target for $ENA is $2 by 2028, driven by the rapid expansion of the protocol's synthetic dollar, $USDe. According to the calculations, the supply of $USDe will increase up to 8 times, from the current $4.9B to $40B.

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