Ethena recorded its largest single day of network growth in more than three months on May 12, driven by a surge in newly created wallets and a sharp rise in whale activity.
At the same time, large transactions involving the ENA token reached their highest level in five weeks.
Network Activity and Whale Growth
Crypto analytics firm Santiment attributed the spike in activity to several notable developments surrounding the protocol in the days leading up to May 12.
One key factor was Grayscale Investments adding ENA to its DeFi Fund with a 13.59% allocation—an adoption milestone that likely encouraged the creation of new custody wallets as institutional interest grew.
Interest in the protocol intensified after a $310 million USDC transfer from an Ethena-linked wallet on May 8 and the temporary suspension of a LayerZero bridge on May 9. Market participants were also anticipating Ethena’s upcoming fee switch activation and a probable governance vote, which may have contributed to heightened on-chain activity.
ENA has declined more than 85% from its August 2025 highs amid broad market selling pressure. Over the past month, however, the token showed signs of recovery with a measured upward trend. Fresh selling pressure on Thursday erased part of those gains, leaving ENA up by less than 20% for the month.
Ethena USDe Expansion
Separately, Ethena’s USDe stablecoin is being integrated into a new institutional-focused lending market launched on Solana-based DEX aggregator Jupiter via its Jupiter Lend product. The offering was developed in collaboration with Bitwise Asset Management and Fluid.
The launch marks the first instance of a traditional asset manager curating a lending market on Jupiter Lend. Bitwise said Ethena’s move into the Solana ecosystem and its expanding institutional footprint line up with the firm’s positive outlook on on-chain finance and broader DeFi adoption.