To separate itself from Sam Bankman-Fried’s now-collapsed empire, the decentralised finance (DeFi) trading project Mercurial aims to rebrand as “Meteora,” distribute a new token to virtually all MER holders, and extend its trading roster.
The proposed rebranding of the stablecoin exchange has significant implications for holders of MER, a token that has dropped by 46% since the collapse of FTX. The new Meteora token, which has a maximum supply of 100 million, is being adopted instead. Most MER holders would receive the new coin proportionate to their present holdings.
7/ MER will be migrating to a new Meteora token.
There’ll be 100M Meteora tokens, where 20% will be circulating and fully liquid & 80% given to the DAO to manage. There will be no increase in circulating supply or emissions until the DAO approves.
MER Migration calculation: pic.twitter.com/Ml5iFvLvPw
— Mercurial Fi (@MercurialFi) December 27, 2022
Yet those with inside knowledge will suffer greatly. According to Jupiter Finance co-founder Ben Chow, 50% of all unvested MER tokens will be distributed to Mercurial’s seed investors, private investors, and key backers, who hold 45% of all MER tokens. He claims that the restructuring would give token holders more power in the reconstituted project.
In the wake of the collapse of the FTX and the end of Alameda Research, the Meteora crypto protocol has sprung from the ashes. As leading venture capitalists and market-makers, Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange and hedge fund were kingmakers in the Solana DeFi ecosystem. Mercurial, which issued its token in a sale facilitated by FTX, is just one of several Solana-based trade protocols that their death has crippled.
The hacker who stole $800,000 worth of MER tokens in November, just hours after FTX Group declared bankruptcy, also stole many other cryptocurrencies. According to Chow, the theft made Mercurial’s crew rethink their procedures.
As a revolutionary yield-generating DeFi product known as a dynamic automated market maker, Meteora has been developing at Mercurial since September. According to Chow, Meteora’s AMM vaults generate interest for its depositors by loaning excess capital to lending protocols. Along with the trading fees from the AMM, this generates a lending yield.
It also raises the possibility that assets are misplaced or stolen. Chow conceded that there was a greater possibility of being rekt, but high-risk tolerances are the norm in DeFi. Furthermore, loans are automatically rebalanced through the protocol.
Snapshot
The snapshot used to calculate new token holdings is scheduled for late December or early January. The new token will be released in January along with the yield-generating product dynamic vaults, the Mercurial social media accounts will be deleted, and the transition to community governance will commence.
According to the new plans, token-holders will have substantial leverage over protocol operations within the newly formed decentralised autonomous organisation that Meteora is establishing.
Chow mentioned that dealing with the MER due to the hacker’s address would be one of their first orders of business. They also have a sizable say in how Meteora controls its supply in circulation.