Crypto ‘Dutch Auctions’ Show Promise After $1.76M Offering Sells Out

On March 24, United States-based blockchain company Solana successfully sold all of its tokens via a “Launch Auction” hosted by crypto fundraising firm CoinList.

Solana raised $1.76 million from 445 bids placed from 91 different companies. 8 million SOL tokens were distributed at $0.22 each. 1,416 prospective investors had registered to participate.

CoinList’s Launch Auction token issuance model comprises a “Dutch auction” — where the bidding for a token begins at an initial price ceiling which is dropped by a fixed amount periodically. 

Investors bid for the number of tokens that they wish to purchase at a given price until either all tokens are sold or the price drops down to a reserve price set by the issuer. Solana had set its price floor at $0.04 per token.

Solana Launch Auction sells out

In total, Solana has raised $25.6 million through issuing 186 million tokens or 37.2% of its total supply across four fundraising rounds. 

In its seed round the firm raised $3.2 million from 79.4 million tokens at $0.04 per token, before issuing 63.2 million tokens at $0.20 each to raise $12.6 million, followed by its validator round which raised $5.7 million through issuing 25.3 million tokens at $0.225 per token. Solana will also issue a further 10 million tokens through its forthcoming strategic round.

Given the volatility across all markets and the uncertainty caused by COVID-19, we find these figures especially impressive,” said CoinList.

Solana claims to offer greater scaling efficiency owing to its “Proof-of-History” protocol.

Dutch auction shows promise as crypto fundraising method

Though not as widely known as initial coin offerings (ICOs) or initial exchange offerings (IEOs), the cryptocurrency industry is no stranger to Dutch auctions.

In June 2019, the Algorand Foundation raised $60 million in a Dutch auction that issued 25 million ALGO tokens. The offering began at $10 per token, with the price being driven down to $2.40 over the course of 4,000 rounds of bidding.

In 2017, crypto firm Gnosis introduced plans to launch a decentralized exchange for ERC-20 token issuances modeled on Dutch auctions. While Gnosis has since stepped away from dxDAO, the platform exchange is still operating today.