Coinbase Ventures purchased ENA tokens on the open market as Coinbase and Athena prepare for a new partnership focused on on-chain currency and savings products.
Summary
- Coinbase Ventures purchased ENA tokens on the open market rather than participating in a discounted private round.
- Athena said the acquisition comes alongside a new partnership with Coinbase that focuses on financial and savings products.
- Coinbase Ventures confirmed the purchase of ENA and said that Athena plays an important role in on-chain currency.
Athena said in an official X post on Tuesday that Coinbase Ventures made the first publicly disclosed investment in the ENA protocol token, while Coinbase and Athena agreed to work together on products for Coinbase users. The company said the first plan to grow the partnership would be launched next week, although it did not name the product.
Coinbase Ventures is taking ENA’s public position
Coinbase Ventures confirmed the purchase in a separate post of X, saying it is backing Athena with an open purchase of the ENA market. The business arm said that Athena plays an important role in on-chain money and added that it expects close work between Athena, Coinbase, and USDC.
The transaction differs from the standard business model used by Coinbase Ventures. According to the Coinbase Ventures website, the company has made over 600 investments across crypto and web3 since its launch in 2018, with many deals including seed or early private rounds.
In this case, Coinbase Ventures bought ENA on the public market rather than using a discounted private share. Athena did not disclose the number of tokens purchased, the average price, or any wallet addresses associated with the transaction.
The Athena partnership targets Coinbase users
According to Athena’s announcement, the partnership will focus on expanding financial and savings products to Coinbase’s user base. Athena said Coinbase has more than 100 million users, a figure Coinbase previously reported after crossing 100 million verified users in 2022.
The partnership could bring more attention to Athena’s core products, USDE and sUSDe. USDE is Athena’s synthetic dollar asset, while sUSDe is a fixed version designed to generate yield.
Coinbase reported $294 billion in platform assets at the end of the first quarter. Athena did not say whether the upcoming launch will include USDE, sUSDe, ENA, or a separate Coinbase product.
Athena’s TVL and revenue remain stable
According to DefiLlama data cited in the context of the announcement, Athena holds approximately $5.4 billion in total locked-in value. The USde contract accounts for approximately $4.5 billion of that amount.
Source: DefiLlama
DefiLlama data also shows that Athena generates $178 million in annual fees. The protocol has generated $972 million in fees collected and $332 million in protocol capital since Athena Labs was founded by Guy Young in 2023.
ENA, the management token of the protocol, has a market capitalization of approximately 859 million and a fully diluted value of approximately $1.4 billion, based on the same market data.
ENA rises after the announcement
Market data showed that ENA rose 8.3% in the last 24 hours after the announcement. DefiLlama showed ENA’s 24-hour trading volume of $168 million.
Source: Coinglass
At the same time, DefiLlama showed $178 million in on-chain ENA volume through Uniswap V3 and Aerodrome. The reported on-chain volume exceeded the average exchange flow during that period.
Athena and Coinbase did not provide additional details about the expected product next week. Coinbase already serves as the main custodian of ENA managed by the Athena Labs core group and Foundation under the previous Coinbase Prime agreement.
