Algorand raised over $60 million in a token sale of its native Algo token on Coinlist, using a Dutch Auction mechanism that ensures market participants set a uniform price per Algo. All 25 million tokens were sold at a market drive price of $2.40.
Company representatives told CoinDesk, the “cryptocurrency auction was the first implementation of its transparent, innovative economic model,” which stresses fairness and inclusivity in an attempt to build a “Borderless Economy.”
Algorand is where “macroeconomics meets cryptocurrency,” writes Ninos Mansor of Arrington XRP Capital, in his paper “The Monetary Experiment: Algorand A Thesis For Algo Currency Markets,” published June 17.
The auction coincided with the official launch of Algorand’s MainNet. The platform handles 1,000 transactions per second with a latency of less than 5 seconds, putting it on par with the throughput of major global payment networks — such as Visa or Mastercard.
Additionally, as a permissionless, pure proof-of-stake blockchain Algorand offers the “bleeding edge cryptography with a clever economic model,” said Arrington.
This is the first time Algos entered market circulation. It is unclear how many buyers participated in the auction, which was originally scheduled to last for more than five hours, but sold out in under four due to oversubscribed global demand.
“Algos are being dispersed to wallet right now (for successful bids). Therefore – there are non on exchanges,” said Keli Callaghan, VP of Marketing at Algorand. Therefore, no market capitalization is available for the firm, though some have speculated it sits around $6 billion. “Which is still a top 10,” Callaghan said.
“Our focus in the Algorand ecosystem has been to encourage broad and inclusive participation where global users, not a centralized collection of companies, control the network,” said Silvio Micali, founder of Algorand in a statement.
The Foundation previously said it will auction off 600 million Algos per year, meaning that this most recent auction of 25 million tokens only represents a portion of the forward float. The total token supply of the Algorand platform is 10 billion Algos.
The recent influx of equity, “into a system that is decentralized by design,” is on top of the $66 million the company raised from venture capital firms such as Union Square Ventures and Pillar Venture Capital.
Algorand announced earlier this week that its node repository has been open-sourced and that it has entered into a partnership with Flipside Crypto to provide a free user engagement analytics suite.
Auction photo via Shutterstock