Ethereum Name Service (ENS) — Price, Chart & Trade Analysis

See the price, chart, and trade setup for ENS — trend ratings, technical indicators, on-chain data, news, events, and AI-detected patterns, all in one place. Save it to a watchlist or set an alert to keep following it.

ENS Description

Overview

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a decentralized naming and identity protocol on the Ethereum blockchain that maps human-readable names, such as .eth domains, to wallet addresses, websites, and other identifiers.

Users register and renew .eth names for annual fees paid in ETH. The ENS token is the governance asset of the protocol's decentralized autonomous organization, ENS DAO, formed on November 8, 2021.

Value Proposition

ENS pairs a widely adopted naming layer, over 2.8 million .eth domains registered as of 2026, with a governance token tied to the protocol's registration revenue.

Annual registration fees are tiered by name length: $640 for 3-character names, $160 for 4-character names, and $5 for 5-plus character names, paid in ETH. This fee revenue flows to the ENS DAO treasury, giving ENS token holders direct governance oversight over a protocol with recurring, name-length-based revenue rather than purely speculative utility.

Token Basics

ENS is a governance token; it carries no staking, fee-payment, or collateral function within the protocol.

Holders use ENS to vote on ENS DAO proposals, signaling preferences through Snapshot votes and executing binding decisions through Tally onchain governance. Domain registration and renewal fees are paid separately, in ETH, not in ENS tokens.

Tokenomics

ENS has a fixed maximum supply of 100,000,000 tokens, with circulating supply of approximately 42.03 million as of 2026-09-01.

25% airdropped to .eth domain holders at DAO launch
25% allocated to protocol contributors
50% allocated to the DAO community treasury, of which 10% was liquid at launch and the remainder vested over 4 years

Net supply growth is currently low: most of the fixed 100 million total is already allocated or vesting toward a capped ceiling rather than being newly minted, making emission disinflationary.

Launch & Funding

ENS launched its token via a DAO-formation airdrop on November 8, 2021, rather than an ICO or private sale.

Eligible .eth domain holders as of October 31, 2021 could claim tokens through May 4, 2022, with over 137,000 accounts participating, weighted by registration duration. The token launch date is distinct from the project's founding: ENS was originally started around 2016 as an internal Ethereum Foundation project, roughly five years before its DAO and token launched.

Blockchain & Consensus

The ENS token is deployed on Ethereum mainnet as an ERC-20 token and secured by Ethereum's proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.

ENS does not operate its own blockchain or validator set. The ENS protocol supports name resolution for other chains, but the ENS token contract itself exists only on Ethereum mainnet.

Team

ENS was founded by Nick Johnson ("nick.eth"), a former Google software engineer who began building ENS around 2016 while at the Ethereum Foundation. He remains the lead developer and an active ENS DAO delegate.

Co-founder Alex Van de Sande ("avsa.eth") has also remained active in DAO governance proposals. Brantly Millegan, former Director of Operations at ENS Labs, left the ENS ecosystem in July 2025.

Issuing Organization

ENS was originally developed inside the Ethereum Foundation before being spun out into a dedicated development entity, ENS Labs (formerly True Names Ltd.), which continues to build the protocol.

Governance and treasury control passed to ENS DAO at token launch on November 8, 2021. In August 2026, the DAO formalized the ENS Foundation, a staffed legal entity based in the Cayman Islands, with Alexander Urbelis as its inaugural Executive Director and a five-member board including Nick Johnson.

Governance

ENS is governed by ENS DAO, with token holders voting on proposals via Snapshot for signaling and Tally for binding onchain execution.

In 2025, founder Nick Johnson used roughly 50% of active voting power to block a Security Council renewal despite a favorable Snapshot vote, prompting public criticism over centralization; a new 5-of-8 multisig Security Council was approved in July 2025. In August 2026, tokenholders (~70% support) approved the ENS Foundation to administer a ~$65 million endowment under a nine-day transaction timelock, while the DAO retains control of the core treasury.

Roadmap

In February 2026, ENS Labs scrapped its planned "Namechain" Layer-2 rollup and pivoted ENSv2 to deploy entirely on Ethereum mainnet. The move cited lower Ethereum layer-1 gas costs and public debate over the rollup-centric scaling roadmap.

An ENSv2 alpha reportedly launched in March 2026. In August 2026, ENS DAO approved formalizing the ENS Foundation as a staffed operating body to manage the DAO's endowment, grants, and policy going forward.

Security

ConsenSys Diligence audited the ENS Permanent Registrar and new ENS Root in 2019 ahead of a May 2019 upgrade. The audit identified a front-running vulnerability in the registration commit-reveal scheme, which was subsequently addressed.

A front-running vulnerability in the ENSv2 registry/NameWrapper design was disclosed in December 2024. ENS ran an Immunefi-hosted audit competition for ENSv2 with a bug-bounty pool of up to $70,000. Liquidity risk is rated high, as DEX liquidity relative to market cap sits below typical thresholds; elevated top-10 holder concentration largely reflects DAO treasury and vesting contracts.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Ethereum Name Service (ENS)?

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a decentralized naming and identity protocol on Ethereum that converts human-readable names, primarily .eth domains, into machine-readable identifiers such as wallet addresses and website records. The ENS token is the ERC-20 governance asset of the protocol's decentralized autonomous organization, ENS DAO, launched November 8, 2021.

What is the ENS token used for?

ENS is a governance token, not a utility or payment token. Holders use it to vote on ENS DAO proposals, signaling through Snapshot and executing binding decisions through Tally onchain governance. Domain registration and renewal fees are paid separately in ETH, not in ENS tokens.

How many ENS tokens exist?

ENS has a fixed maximum supply of 100,000,000 tokens. Circulating supply was approximately 42.03 million as of 2026-09-01, with the remainder held across the DAO treasury and contributor allocations, some of which vested over four years following the 2021 token launch.

How was the ENS token launched?

ENS launched via a DAO-formation airdrop on November 8, 2021, with no ICO or private sale. 25% of supply went to holders of .eth names as of October 31, 2021, 25% to contributors, and 50% to the DAO treasury, with the claim window open through May 4, 2022.

Who founded ENS?

ENS was founded by Nick Johnson, a former Google software engineer who began building the protocol around 2016 while at the Ethereum Foundation; he remains lead developer and an active DAO delegate. Alex Van de Sande co-founded ENS and has remained active in its governance.

Who governs ENS today?

ENS DAO governs the protocol, with token holders voting via Snapshot for signaling and Tally for binding onchain execution. In August 2026, the DAO formalized the ENS Foundation, a Cayman Islands entity led by Executive Director Alexander Urbelis, to administer a roughly $65 million endowment.

Has ENS been audited?

ConsenSys Diligence audited the ENS Permanent Registrar and new ENS Root in 2019, identifying and addressing a front-running vulnerability in the registration process. A separate front-running issue in the ENSv2 registry design was disclosed in December 2024, and ENS ran an Immunefi audit competition offering up to $70,000 in rewards.

What is the ENS Foundation?

The ENS Foundation is a staffed legal entity based in the Cayman Islands, formalized by ENS DAO tokenholders in August 2026 with roughly 70% support. It is led by inaugural Executive Director Alexander Urbelis and a five-member board including founder Nick Johnson, and administers a roughly $65 million endowment.