Ethena USDe Could Reach $40B by 2028, Standard Chartered Says

Highlights:

• Standard Chartered expects Ethena’s USDe supply to grow from about $4.9 billion to $40 billion by 2028.
• The bank also forecasts ENA at $0.42 in 2026, $1.10 in 2027, and $2 by 2028.
• Ethena is expanding beyond crypto basis trades into DeFi lending, RWAs, stablecoins, and other yield sources.

Standard Chartered has initiated research coverage of Ethena, forecasting strong growth for its USDe synthetic dollar and the ENA token through 2028. In a September 30 research report, the bank said USDe supply could rise from about $4.9 billion to around $40 billion by the end of 2028. Ethena shared the report in an official X post the same day, describing the projection as roughly eightfold USDe growth over the next two years.

The bank also set year-end ENA price forecasts of $0.42 for 2026, $1.10 for 2027 and $2.00 for 2028. Its outlook centers on Ethena’s position across stablecoins, decentralized finance (DeFi), tokenization and perpetual futures as traditional finance, or TradFi, moves further on-chain.

pic.twitter.com/49uETKU7Wk

— Ethena (@ethena) September 30, 2026

Standard Chartered Sees USDe as Ethena’s Main Growth Engine

USDe is Ethena’s synthetic dollar stablecoin and the main product behind the protocol’s growth. Standard Chartered said USDe became the fastest stablecoin to reach a $10 billion market cap after its late-2023 launch. The report currently puts outstanding USDe supply at about $4.9 billion.

Ethena also issues sUSDe, a staked version of USDe that earns yield, with around $1.3 billion outstanding. Its USDtb stablecoin has roughly $500 million in supply. According to the report, 90% of USDtb reserves are held in BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized Treasury fund.

Standard Chartered expects demand for yield-bearing stablecoins to expand. It estimates that these products currently represent about 5% of the wider stablecoin market. The bank expects Ethena to benefit if more users seek dollar-linked assets that can also generate yield.

Ethena Expands Yield Sources Beyond Crypto

USDe initially earned most of its yield through crypto basis trading. Ethena buys crypto in the spot market while taking short positions in perpetual futures, helping it earn funding income with less exposure to price swings.

However, returns from crypto basis trading have declined. Ethena has responded by expanding into DeFi lending, institutional lending, liquid stablecoins, real-world assets, and equity and commodity basis trades. Standard Chartered puts the current blended annual percentage yield across these categories at 5.2%.

The bank expects the broader asset mix to give Ethena more room to grow. Its research forecasts tokenized assets, including stablecoins and other RWAs, rising from around $350 billion today to $4 trillion by the end of 2028. 

Standard Chartered separately expects RWAs deployed on blockchains to increase from about $40 billion to $2 trillion over the same period. That expansion could give Ethena more assets to back USDe and generate yield outside traditional crypto markets.

ENA Buybacks Support Standard Chartered’s Outlook

Ethena’s ENA token is another major part of the bank’s forecast. The report says a fee-switch proposal would direct 95% of net revenue generated across Ethena-branded businesses toward ENA buybacks. Under Standard Chartered’s illustrative model, annualized ENA buybacks could reach $22.5 million with $7.5 billion of USDe supply. At $25 billion in supply, annual buybacks could rise to $375 million.

The bank also identified risks to its outlook. Slower growth in yield-bearing stablecoins or weaker-than-expected expansion of tokenized real-world assets could limit Ethena’s ability to scale. 

At the time of writing, ENA is trading at around $0.25, down about 0.14% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.