Ethena experienced its biggest single day of network expansion in over three months on May 12, driven by a sharp increase in newly created wallets and rising whale activity across the protocol.
At the same time, large scale ENA transactions climbed to their highest level in five weeks, signaling renewed interest from major investors.
Institutional Developments Fuel Network Activity
According to data from crypto analytics platform Santiment, several important developments helped drive the sudden surge in activity surrounding Ethena.
One of the biggest catalysts came from asset management giant Grayscale Investments, which recently added ENA to its DeFi Fund with a 13.59% portfolio allocation. Santiment suggested that this move likely encouraged the creation of new custody wallets and boosted institutional participation within the ecosystem.
Market attention toward Ethena also intensified following a major $310 million USDC transfer from an Ethena related wallet on May 8. Shortly afterward, the temporary suspension of a LayerZero bridge on May 9 added even more focus to the protocol.
Growing anticipation surrounding Ethena’s upcoming fee switch activation and a potential governance vote may have also contributed to the spike in network growth and whale activity.
ENA Still Recovering From Major Decline
Despite the recent momentum, ENA remains significantly below its previous highs. The token has declined more than 85% since reaching peak levels in August 2025 during the broader crypto market downturn.
However, ENA had shown signs of recovery over the past month with a gradual upward trend before fresh selling pressure on Thursday erased part of those gains. Even after the pullback, the token remains up by less than 20% over the past month.
Ethena Expands USDe Presence Through Solana Partnership
In another major ecosystem development, Ethena’s USDe stablecoin is set to be integrated into a new institutional focused lending market launched through Jupiter Lend, a product built by Solana based decentralized exchange aggregator Jupiter.
The initiative was developed in partnership with Bitwise Asset Management and Fluid, marking a notable step toward broader institutional DeFi adoption.
The launch is particularly significant because it represents the first time a traditional asset manager has curated a lending market on Jupiter Lend.
Bitwise stated that Ethena’s growing expansion into the Solana ecosystem, combined with its increasing institutional presence, aligns with the firm’s long term outlook for on chain finance and decentralized finance adoption.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic
