ENS
Ethereum Name Service · Naming infra
Score qualifies for T3; held by Value engine 0 (needs 2).
Key facts
- Circulating 42.3M, 42%
- Locked or unvested 57.7M, 58%
- Max 100.0M
Market data: CoinGecko, Oct 24, 2026. Scores reviewed Oct 23, 2026.
Assessment
ENS routes nothing to holders by design: registration fees fund a DAO endowment of ~$93M plus ~$88M of reserves, so the token is a vote and a soft treasury claim, and revenue has decayed to a ~$3-4M/yr run-rate. Issuance is zero, and the DAO timelock can mint up to 2%/yr only after an on-chain ENS vote. Contributors received ~26%, .eth holders got a 25% airdrop, and the 50% treasury moves only by on-chain vote. The registry is immutable, DAO changes pass a 7-day vote and 2-day timelock, and since Aug 11, 2026 the Foundation administers the endowment. What holds it back is the engine: no fee route reaches the token.
How value reaches holders
None by design; fees fund a DAO endowment (~$93M, Aug 2026) plus ~$88M reserves; token = vote + soft treasury claim. Aug 11, 2026 Next Era vote (~70% for) gave the ENS Foundation administrative control of the endowment behind a 9-day timelock and Security Council veto, plus a one-time 1M ENS for staff; DAO's 54.6M ENS unmoved. All vesting finished Nov 2025
Score anatomy
Demand
12 / 45: the stronger of two routes, plus adoptionWhy would anyone hold it: does value reach the token, and is the network or product used today?
Approved or designed but inert, indirect sinks only, or flows into a treasury or endowment
$0.5-5M/yr, or undisclosed
Governance token; names are priced in ETH/USD and ENS is not used as collateral.
Trading onlyhigh confidenceHow this is scored
ENS is the default on-chain naming system with no close rival, but registrations are shrinking: fees $3.8M TTM, -39% YoY
Leader: a top-three network or product in its category by use, holding or gaining sharemedium confidenceHow this is scored
Two routes, the stronger counts
Soundness
23 / 40Can a long-term holder trust the rules: supply, float, distribution and control?
Zero issuance; the token owner is the DAO timelock, which can mint up to 2%/yr only after an on-chain ENS governor vote (read Oct 23, 2026).
Under 1%/yr net without a hard cap, a hard cap with halvings issuing 1-3%/yr, or zero issuance where binding on-chain token governance could vote to mint morehigh confidenceHow this is scored
Float 42% (42.3M of 100M); the DAO holds 54.6M ENS with no release schedule, though it moves only by on-chain vote.
0.5-1.5% per month, or large foundation or treasury holdings without a schedulehigh confidenceHow this is scored
Contributors 25% (core 18.96%, other 6.04%) plus 1M ENS to the Foundation (Aug 2026): ~26%; 25% airdrop to .eth holders; the 50% treasury moves by on-chain vote; no sale
Insiders received 25-50%, or one organization directs 10-30%medium confidenceHow this is scored
The ENS registry is immutable and DAO contracts change only by on-chain vote (7-day vote, then a 2-day timelock read on-chain); the Security Council can only veto; the endowment sits behind a 9-day timelock
Attack cost $100M-1B with the top entity under 35%, or contracts immutable or upgradeable only by on-chain vote with a 7+ day exit window on a base layer scoring 4+high confidenceHow this is scored
Durability
5 / 15Is it big, proven and reachable by institutions?
$237.4M market cap (band 2), $11.3M/day median volume (band 3), no flags.
Small: $50-250M market cap and $1M/day+How this is scored
Launched Nov 8, 2021: 4.96 years old today; it reaches 5 years on Nov 8, 2026 and, having fallen 99% from $120, would then score 3.
3-5 years, or a rollback, coordinated chain-wide halt or restart, or a $50M+ exploit in the last 5 yearshigh confidenceHow this is scored
Spot on Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, Bybit, Gemini and Upbit; no ETP or US filing found.
Top-tier exchanges only, or delisting pressuremedium confidenceHow this is scored
What would move it up
To reach T3 Mixed, one gate is still open:
- Value engine 0needs 2(open)
- Score 40gate 40(met)
- Adoption 4gate 2(met)
- Supply 4gate 1(met)
Tier outlook · next trigger Nov 8, 2026
Stable
- Track record rises to 3 when ENS reaches five years on Nov 8, 2026
- Holder routing rises off 1 only with a fee-to-token, buyback or staking proposal (none as of Oct 2026)
- Revenue holds the $0.5-5M band at a ~$3-4M/yr run-rate that is still falling
- Distribution: ENS Labs treasury movements, such as 1.46M ENS deposited to Coinbase on May 8, 2026
- Revenue: ENSv2 mainnet timing and its updated pricing model
Research report
Sep 17, 2026 · source confidence 65%Fully vested since November 2025 with no unlock overhang, and backed by roughly $180M of liquid DAO endowment and reserves against a market cap near $244M, which is an unusually hard floor for a token of this size. The trade-off is that nothing reaches holders by design: fees fund the endowment, the August 11 2026 governance vote placed administrative control of that endowment with the ENS Foundation behind a timelock and Security Council veto, and no fee-to-token or buyback proposal exists. Protocol revenue is running around $3M to $4M a year versus about $20M in 2025, with premium-name auctions supplying a large share. ENSv2 is in public beta on Sepolia after the Namechain plan was cancelled in February 2026; mainnet timing follows testing.
Structure (11 facts)
- Chain
- ethereum
- What it is
- naming infrastructure; DAO governance token with no fee claim by design
- Max supply
- 100,000,000
- Circulating supply (approx)
- 42,170,000
- Market cap (approx)
- $244,000,000
- Unlocks
- All vesting finished Nov 2025. DAO holds 54.6M ENS (no sell program); Foundation 1M vesting (Aug 2026 vote). ENS Labs timelock deposited 1.46M ENS (~$9.3M) to Coinbase on May 8 2026, purpose unstated
- Value accrual
- None: registration and renewal fees fund the DAO endowment (~$93M, Aug 2026) and reserves (~$88M, Jun 2026). Aug 11 2026 "Next Era" vote gave the Foundation administrative control of the endowment behind a 9-day timelock and Security Council veto. No fee-to-token, buyback or staking proposal since
- Annualized revenue
- $3,500,000
- Revenue trend
- 2025 total $20.4M; H1 2026 protocol revenue $3.05M falling monthly (Jan $695k to Jun $337k); DefiLlama 30d ~$309k. Premiums ~59% of registration revenue
- Roadmap
- Namechain cancelled Feb 6 2026; ENSv2 app + explorer beta on Sepolia since Aug 12 2026; Immunefi audit competition Aug 18 to Sep 14; mainnet timing follows public testing. Updated pricing arrives with full v2, revenue still to DAO
- Liquidity
- ~$13M/day
Market figures at report date (Sep 17, 2026)
- Price (approx)
- $5.77
- FDV (approx)
- $578,000,000
- All-time high / low
- ATL 3.78 (2026-08-18)
Compare with
How the ranking works and how ENS compares: see the full ranking. This entry as JSON:
GET https://tokens.10102.io/api/v1/tokenomics?symbol=ENS