$360m one‑shot raise. StablecoinX funds ~$260m cash + $60m in‑kind $ENA; all cash drives immediate spot‑market ENA buys at signing.
10% float removal. Initial program retires ~670m ENA (~10% of supply) into a permanent, non‑trading Nasdaq treasury.
MicroStrategy‑style flywheel. $ENA price up → StablecoinX NAV / share price up → cheaper follow on raises → more $ENA buys.
Dual access for investors. Direct token via Upbit or equity proxy via forthcoming USDE listing; Korea poised as demand hub.
Crypto is gearing up for a stablecoin supercycle. In this context, Ethena’s $ENA token and its ecosystem are emerging as a pivotal force across crypto and tradfi. This memo outlines the key pillars of the $ENA thesis and explains why Ethena sits at the center of the coming stablecoin boom.
Ethena is heading to public markets via a SPAC merger. TLGY Acquisition Corp. will rebrand as StablecoinX upon closing, with an expected Nasdaq ticker “USDE”. The raise is a single ~$360million tranche: roughly $260 million in cash from investors such as Pantera Capital, ParaFi, and Dragonfly plus an in‑kind $ENA contribution from the Ethena Foundation. The Foundation’s piece is about $60 million and is included in the headline total.
Immediately after signing, the cash PIPE buys locked $ENA from the Foundation, laying the foundation for what is expected to be a multi year treasury strategy to accumulate $ENA. Management has indicated these tokens will sit on the public company’s balance sheet permanently.
Notably, what separates this treasury company among other altcoin treasury companies is the immediate impact on crypto markets. The Ethena Foundation has decided to immediately launch a buyback program, using all cash proceeds from the token sale to strategically purchase $ENA across publicly traded venues starting today, further aligning the Foundation’s incentives with those of StablecoinX shareholders.
In parallel, StablecoinX will acquire and run validator nodes and other infrastructure to support Ethena’s ecosystem. When the merger closes, StablecoinX receives the locked $ENA on its balance sheet and begins operating the nodes for Ethena.
The company will function as a publicly traded proxy for the network, holding a large, permanent $ENA treasury while actively supporting on‑chain operations.
The backdrop to this move is a surging investor appetite for anything related to stablecoins. Circle Internet (CRCL) went public in early June, and its stock has been on a tear, soaring over more than 800% in the first 18 days. At one point, CRCL’s market cap hit $77 billion, briefly eclipsing the total USDC float. A frenzy of global and retail buying fueled this spike. With Circle up about 7x from its IPO price and Tether’s parent company private, investors are now hunting for the next stablecoin exposure play.
Source: Yahoo Finance
This is where Ethena comes in. Ethena’s USDe stablecoin has rapidly grown to roughly $6 billion in market cap, now the third largest USD stablecoin behind USDT and USDC. It is also the fastest growing dollar pegged asset on the market, having leapt in scale over the past year.
$ENA represents a higher beta, earlier stage way to ride this cycle. Circle’s stock offers a regulated equity bet on USDC’s growth, whereas $ENA is the token native play on Ethena’s dollar ecosystem, essentially a leveraged bet on stablecoin adoption. We’re already seeing savvy traders make this connection. After Circle’s explosive rally (and with Tether inaccessible), attention is rotating to $ENA as the next stablecoin proxy trade.
Roughly $260 million in cash will flow into the spot $ENA market immediately after signing. At today’s ~$0.54 (22 Jul 2025), that buys about 480 million $ENA, or ~7% of the circulating supply. The Ethena Foundation will also contribute ~$60 million in locked $ENA (~110 million tokens) as mentioned above. In total, StablecoinX’s initial treasury build is expected to reach ~$360 million, or roughly 670 million $ENA in total, close to 10% of float.
Removing 7~10% of the available tokens from circulation is a profound demand shock. Unlike typical token buybacks or market maker inventory, these $ENA units will be effectively retired into a public treasury, locked on StablecoinX’s balance sheet.
As $ENA’s price rises, StablecoinX’s book value and stock price should increase, since it will hold so much $ENA as assets. A higher stock price and solid balance sheet could then enable StablecoinX to raise additional equity capital down the line; capital that, by design would likely be used to buy even more $ENA.
This positive feedback cycle ($ENA price up → StablecoinX equity up → more capital to accumulate $ENA → $ENA price up) mirrors the playbook pioneered by MicroStrategy with Bitcoin, now applied to a fast growing stablecoin platform. Importantly, even investors who only buy the StablecoinX stock will be indirectly long $ENA.
Having $ENA on a NASDAQ traded balance sheet also introduces benchmark visibility and a new class of observers to the token. With quarterly reports marking $ENA holdings to market, the token’s performance and the Ethena story will start appearing in Bloomberg terminals, ETF screeners, and tradfi analyst notes. Over time, this could pave the way for index inclusions or structured products such as $ENA 3x bull/bear ETFs.
Every share of USDE will represent a claim on a treasury full of $ENA tokens. It is a powerful alignment of incentives that could amplify $ENA demand without every participant needing to hold the token directly.
Korean retail demand for stablecoin plays is already proven. Circle’s stock became the hottest overseas listing in Korea last month, with roughly $443 million in net buys by local investors. That mania helped drive Circle’s share price to astronomic heights in a short span.
Now, Ethena’s $ENA has landed in Korea as well. On July 11, Upbit (the country’s largest crypto exchange) announced the listing of $ENA with KRW, BTC, and USDT trading pairs. The market response was immediate. $ENA’s 24h trading volume jumped +300%, topping $1b after the listing as Korean traders piled in.
This creates a potent setup. Korean retail now has easy access to $ENA tokens before the StablecoinX stock even begins trading. If $ENA starts to rally on the back of the upcoming merger or other news, it could ignite a self-reinforcing narrative in the Korean market, essentially Circle déjà vu but this time with a direct token.
Korea’s crypto enthusiasm is well documented (aka the kimchi premium), so a strong upward move in $ENA could trigger outsized momentum. In effect, the combination of a new high profile listing on Upbit, the visible success of Circle’s stock, and the anticipation of the USDE launch creates a flywheel (positive price action → heightened retail FOMO in Korea → more buying → further price strength).
All the pieces are in place for $ENA to capture the same supercharged blend of speculative fervor and fundamental interest that put stablecoins at the center of this cycle.
StablecoinX is the first Nasdaq traded $ENA accumulator. The deal turns Ethena’s growth flywheel into a public equity story, provides a demand shock for $ENA, and gives equity investors an alternative way to bet on the stablecoin cycle. For Korean markets, fresh off Upbit’s listing and Circle mania, it arrives at the perfect moment, offering both direct token access now and an equity proxy in Q4. Expect heightened Korean flows, tighter $ENA float, and louder discourse on crypto treasury companies as a new asset class.
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