Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Ethena Labs announced its plan to airdrop 750 million ENA tokens to the holders of “shards,” digital units that measure user interaction within the protocol. This distribution corresponds to 5% of the total supply of 15 billion ENA tokens.
Airdrop to Be Based on Shard Count
Ethena Labs recently stated that ENA tokens would be airdropped to users holding the protocol’s US dollar-pegged synthetic dollar, USDe.
The airdrop, scheduled for April 2, will make ENA tokens accessible on centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEXs). The allocation of tokens to each user will be based on the number of “shards” accumulated by April 1, and users must maintain their staked or otherwise held USDe assets within the Ethena protocol to qualify for the airdrop.
The announcement follows the conclusion of the Ethena Shard Campaign, a six-week initiative designed to encourage crypto enthusiasts to collect “shards” by transacting on the Ethena protocol. According to Ethena Labs, the USDe supply reached a value of $1.3 billion during the campaign, surpassing the $1 billion milestone.
Project Reached a Valuation of $300 Million
The launch of the ENA token followed significant investments made in Ethena Labs last year. At that time, investors contributed $20.5 million to the project over two funding rounds. According to the crypto data and price platform CoinGecko, key participants in these funding rounds included Galaxy Digital, OKX, Dragonfly, Binance Labs, and Bybit, which led the token creator to a valuation of $300 million.
Ethena Labs’ decision to distribute ENA tokens via airdrop is part of its commitment to encourage user participation in the protocol while capitalizing on DeFi‘s growing popularity in the crypto world. This move also highlights the increasing importance of synthetic assets like USDe in facilitating transactions in DeFi and expanding access to digital financial services for users worldwide.
