Ethena Labs Denies Allegations of Unfair Staking
Ethena Labs, the Ethereum-based synthetic dollar protocol, has firmly refuted recent claims that it used 180 million ENA tokens in one of its crypto-farming events.
On 27 October, crypto investigator Nomad alleged that Ethena held 25% of the total staked ENA (SENA) in its Season 3 farming event, where users earn Sats for participation within the Ethena ecosystem.
1. Evidence Timeline:
August 22: Coinbase announced their Prime service would be the primary custodian for Ethena Labs' and Foundation's ENA tokens.https://t.co/OlnccE636I
— Nomad (@Nomad02887202) October 27, 2024
The allegations sparked a wave of debate in the crypto community, raising concerns about Ethena's transparency and governance.
Following Ethena's official statements and clarifications about the token distribution, Nomad retracted his claims.
Ethena has made a response and I give credit to the team for their fast response. Had they made a clear response in discord that these tokens belong to the Ethena foundation, I wouldn’t have to make the thread earlier.
Now it’s clear that these tokens are from Ethena foundation…
— Nomad (@Nomad02887202) October 28, 2024
Founder Guy Young confirmed that the tokens in question were unlocked in line with the vesting schedule outlined in Ethenas original distribution roadmap.
Ethena further clarified that these tokens, owned by the Ethena Foundation, are ineligible for airdrops or rewards from Ethereal.
This confirmation was shared publicly on Discord last week, with all ENA tokens in those wallets marked as unlocked.
Young noted:
“Nomad has since recanted their accusations and acknowledged that their concerns were unfounded. We would like to reiterate that absolutely no locked team or investor tokens are staked as sENA or are earning any rewards.”
To enhance transparency, Ethena plans to update its user interface this week, adding a section that details the total sENA eligible for future airdrops while excluding any undistributed sENA held in Liquifi contracts.
The Ethena-linked Wallets in Question
Nomad recently reported that a Coinbase Prime Custody address received over 3 billion ENA tokens in August, believed to be locked assets for Ethena Labs' core team and its foundation.
In October, six wallets associated with Ethena were transferred 180 million ENA tokens from this address following the September launch of SENA staking.
3. October 3: When SENA staking launched with S2 airdrop, the Coinbase Prime Custody address distributed 180M ENA tokens to six wallets:
•First day: 2 transfers (30M and 35M ENA)
•Following days: 4 transfers (35M, 30M, 25M, 25M ENA)https://t.co/gSTQKKV1iw…
— Nomad (@Nomad02887202) October 27, 2024
These wallets, featured on the Ethena leaderboard, actively participated in Sats farming and received Ethereal (ETRL) rewards, allegedly accruing 20% of the community’s total Ethereal points—raising community concerns over possible favoritism.
pic.twitter.com/h255SQ4L6M
— Nomad (@Nomad02887202) October 27, 2024
pic.twitter.com/teKRVZSkLa
— Nomad (@Nomad02887202) October 27, 2024
Nomad's findings have reignited questions about trust in centralised finance protocols.
Nomad stated:
“No one really knows how much funding revenue and staking revenue Ethena is generating from the $2.6 billion user fund or if it’s streaming all revenue to SUSDe holders.”
@0xSisyphus @Rewkang @WuBlockchain @DefiIgnas @DeFi_Made_Here @Route2FI @TardFiWhale @DU09BTC @ayyeandy @pendle_fi @PendleIntern @heycape_ @leptokurtic_ @MacroMate8 #ENA #ena #defi #cryptocurrency #usde #ethena $USDe $ENA
— Nomad (@Nomad02887202) October 27, 2024
He noted issues in Ethena's previous Seasons 1 and 2 farming events, where some users faced financial losses due to unexplained anomalies, leaving a history that has made community members cautious about fairness at Ethena Labs.
6. The Ethena team's ethics have always been questionable, as they have a poor record of arbitrarily changing vesting rules. Users who farmed S1 remember how the Ethena team forced them to stake 50% of their vested tokens halfway through the vesting schedule. Users who farmed S2…
— Nomad (@Nomad02887202) October 27, 2024
In response, Ethena stated that the staked tokens belong to the foundation, granting them eligibility for participation in Sats farming and rewards.
While Ethena plans to address these concerns in more detail, many ENA token holders remain anxious, looking for transparency on how this structure might impact the community going forward.
We are aware of questions circulating in Discord and X as to whether investors or the Ethena team are earning Ethereal rewards via sENA using locked tokens.
We would like to categorically confirm to our community that absolutely no locked team or investor tokens are staked as… pic.twitter.com/v5SxgDwCTp
— Ethena Labs (@ethena_labs) October 28, 2024
ENA Price Dipped 6% But Has Since Rebounded
Ethena Labs recently faced scrutiny after revelations surfaced about its use of 180 million ENA tokens in a crypto farming event.
The news immediately impacted ENA’s market value, causing a dip of over 6% to around $0.33. After clarification from the team, it has since rebounded.
It is currently at $0.3742, a 6.42% increase in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.
