Synthetic dollar issuer Ethena Labs has introduced the release of claims for its latest governance token ENA. The protocol, renowned for its yield-earning USDe token, aims to distribute 750 million ENA tokens through an airdrop, with 5% of the total supply entering the market.

Ethena Labs shared this update on an X post, urging users to claim the airdrop. Following the announcement, the price of ENA surged by 8%, leading to a significant market cap exceeding $890 million on Aug. 2, as per Coingecko data.

At the heart of Ethena’s platform is the USDe token, crafted as a “synthetic dollar” to maintain a stable value close to one dollar. This is achieved through a unique combination of ether liquid staking tokens and short ether (ETH) perpetual futures positions.

This approach has not only attracted individual investors but also captured the attention of institutional players in the cryptocurrency space. Stablecoin issuer MakerDAO has disclosed plans to allocate 600 million DAI to Ethena’s USDe token through the defi lending protocol Morpho Labs.

“Ethena TVL growth is on track with internal expectations,” stated Seraphim Czecker, Ethena’s Head of Growth, following the MakerDAO announcement. MakerDAO’s confidence in Ethena and USDe is based on an analysis by BA Labs, a part of MakerDAO’s advisory council, which highlighted strong user demand for the stablecoin. The analysis recommended a focus on higher leverage USDe pools, suggesting a more significant allocation of MakerDAO’s stablecoin DAI in these areas.

In addition, Ethena has rolled out a new phase of its airdrop on April 2, named the “Sats” campaign, which aims to onboard BTC as a backing asset for USDe. The project will leverage BTC perpetual futures, providing access to an additional $25bn of open interest for hedging.

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