ENA Rises 15% as Ethena Labs Increases Staking Rewards

• Users who lock 50% or more of their ENA relative to their balance of USDe will receive a reward boost of 50%.
• ENA is trading at $1.26, having almost doubled since its debut last week.
• Large holders have been withdrawing funds from Binance and staking to capitalize on the reward increase.

ENA, the native token of Ethena Labs, surged by 15% on Monday following the announcement of "season 2," which includes a 50% increase in rewards for a portion of users.

The token is currently trading at $1.26 after debuting at $0.64 last week, according to CoinMarketCap. Ethena Labs is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol behind the yield earning USDe stablecoin.

As of April 8, users can lock in ENA for a minimum of seven days. Users who lock 50% or more of their ENA relative to their balance of USDe will receive a reward boost of 50%.

Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain reported that three wallets withdrew a total of 11.9 million ENA ($15.23 million) from Binance in order to stake.

"Team and investor allocations, which are locked on vesting schedules, will not be able to participate in the $ENA lock," Ethena Labs wrote in a blog post.

The initial cap of the ENA lock was set at $200 million and will be adjusted to increase over time.

Last week, Ethena introduced a strategy that involves purchasing bitcoin (BTC) and simultaneously shorting the asset to generate an annual yield in a cash and carry trade. The platform has employed a similar strategy on ether (ETH) since January.