Standard Chartered has initiated coverage of Ethena's native token ENA with a price target of $2 by the end of 2028, implying roughly 700% upside from the token's price near $0.25 on September 30, 2026. The report, authored by global head of digital assets research Geoff Kendrick, describes Ethena as a scalable yield-bearing stablecoin and argues the protocol sits at the intersection of three expanding markets: stablecoins, perpetual futures, and tokenized real-world assets.
The bank highlights Ethena's synthetic dollar USDe, which it says became the fastest stablecoin to reach a $10 billion market capitalization after its late 2023 launch. Standard Chartered estimates yield-bearing stablecoins currently account for roughly 5% of the stablecoin market and expects that share to grow. Ethena has expanded beyond its original crypto basis trade into institutional credit through a $1 billion lending facility with FalconX, tokenized equities and equity perpetual futures, and a planned $250 million allocation to Securitize's tokenized AAA-rated collateralized loan obligation fund.
Standard Chartered also pointed to Ethena's proposed ENA buyback program, under which 95% of net revenue from branded businesses would be directed toward recurring buybacks once USDe supply reaches thresholds starting at $7.5 billion. The bank expects real-world assets deployed on blockchains to grow from around $40 billion to $2 trillion by the end of 2028. Infrastructure developments include CME Group's introduction of ENA reference rates in August and the September beta launch of Ethena Pay, which combines self-custodial USDe balances with payments and annual reward rates of up to 6%.
