Connect with us
DAPA Banner

Crypto World

RNBW Tanks 65% Below ICO Price on First Day of Trading

Published

on

the-defiant

The launch was plagued by reports of delayed token distribution to early investors and technical issues.

Self-custodial Ethereum wallet Rainbow debuted its native token RNBW yesterday, Feb. 5. But the project’s token generation event (TGE) on Base, and the token’s debut for trading across exchanges, were met with reports of delayed distribution to ICO participants, which contributed to the token’s poor day-one performance.

the-defiant
RNBW/USD 15-minute chart, Feb. 5-6. Source: Coinbase

According to Coinbase data, RNBW hit a high of $0.05 on its first day of trading, but fell quickly and closed the daily session around $0.034, down more than 30%, putting its fully diluted valuation around $34 million.

That left most bettors on Polymarket scrambling, having expected the FDV to hit roughly $100 million just a day after the TGE.

Today, RNBW fell further, trading around $0.032 by press time, making its FDV around $32.17 million.

Advertisement

ICO Investors in the Red

The price is far below what early buyers paid. Rainbow conducted its initial coin offering (ICO) in mid-December 2025 via CoinList, where investors were offered RNBW at $0.1 per token. The sale saw 30 million RNBW tokens, or 3% of total supply, sold at an FDV of $100 million, meaning participants in that sale are now down more than 65% on their investments.

For U.S. investors, the situation could be even worse as their full token unlock won’t happen until December of this year, according to CoinList’s terms and conditions.

Back in 2022, Rainbow raised $18 million in a Series A funding round led by Seven Seven Six, the VC firm from Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, bringing total funding to $21 million. The multi-chain wallet is known for its rewards program and gamification, where users can earn points for their on-chain activity.

The firm explicitly connected RNBW with its points system when it first announced the token in September, and later specified that users who earned points in the wallet were eligible for a token airdrop.

Advertisement

‘No Better Day for TGE’

The token’s drop came amid a broader market bloodbath that wiped out $2.6 billion in liquidations in a single day. Total crypto market capitalization fell to $2.3 trillion as Bitcoin slid toward $60,000, reaching roughly 50% below its all-time high of $126,080, set in October.

Soon after its TGE, Rainbow’s cofounder Mike Demarais indicated in an X post that some users had not received their claimed tokens, explaining “it’s because our backend token indexer has been getting slammed.”

As frustration over the messy launch mounted, Rainbow CEO Alex LaPrade took to X on Thursday evening eastern time to say he still believes “there was no better day for TGE than today,” noting that the project had planned to launch its token on Feb. 5 back in December. LaPrade added:

“TGE isn’t the finish line. Having a token live in market brings more scrutiny — both positive and negative.”

But the CEO’s public statement didn’t succeed in calming all investors. Some quickly fired back at the CEO, accusing the project of late token distribution to CoinList pre-sale participants, as well as to points earners, calling it a scam and demanding refunds.

Advertisement

Last year, MetaMask confirmed that it has plans to launch its own token, after years of hinting and speculation.

Source link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Crypto World

Ansem Says Ethereum Is in a Worse Spot Than 2023 as Thesis Weakens

Published

on

Ethereum Price Prediction

Crypto analyst Ansem argues that Ethereum (ETH) is in a “worse spot” in 2026 than it was in 2023, pointing to a thesis he says has been eroding for years.

His bearish take drew rebuttals from some members of the community. Meanwhile, on-chain activity and technical indicators elsewhere on the network flash bullish signals.

Ansem Lists Cracks in the ETH Thesis

Ansem argues that Solana (SOL) has dominated retail activity this cycle. Hyperliquid has taken the lead in perpetual futures trading, while rollups have failed to gain traction.

He also noted that Vitalik Buterin “publicly abandoned” the general-use rollup thesis. The ongoing Aave (AAVE) situation around the KelpDAO rsETH exploit, Ansem said, is a mark on  Ethereum’s core value proposition of “safety + security of defi & insto interest.

Advertisement

“ETH thesis has been weakening consistently for years,” the analyst wrote. ETH in 2026 is in a worse spot than it was in 2023, amplified by AI doing extremely well & tech stocks being much more favorable investments with real revenues / emerging narratives / increasing momentum, ETH is a $300B asset with a ton of overhang from Tom Lee topblasting + complacent ETH holders sitting idle in defi protocols.”

Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens

Technically, the analyst noted that ETH remains in a sustained downtrend after failing to break multi-year resistance. He projected that the second-largest cryptocurrency could slip to 2025 lows near $1,300 and to the bear-market lows from 2022.

“Tight invalidation 2377 assuming problems worsen if you want to play it loose assuming other risk assets continues doing well & drags it up probably somewhere around 2700/2800 invalidation fundamentals wise would want to see breakout activity from some new vertical,” the post read.

Ethereum Price Prediction
Ethereum Price Prediction. Source: X/Ansem

Community Members Push Back

The take triggered notable pushback. Ryan Berckmans accused Ansem of not understanding fundamentals. Leo Lanza went further, sharply dismissing the analyst’s bearish case on X.

Another user pointed to a 56% drop in the SOL/ETH pair this cycle.

Advertisement

“Soleth is down 56% after being up 12x+ *this cycle* because one guy decided to buy 5% of the eth supply after it had underperformed all cycle. idk why you guys act like i dont also bearpost solana i havent posted anything bullish about sol in over a year,” Ansem replied.

Not everyone shares the bearish view on Ethereum. BeInCrypto recently highlighted that network activity remains strong, while technical indicators like the Rainbow Chart and MACD are also flashing bullish signals.

With macro and geopolitical uncertainty still in play, the question is whether ETH slides further this year or stages a renewed rally.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights

The post Ansem Says Ethereum Is in a Worse Spot Than 2023 as Thesis Weakens appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Advertisement

Source link

Continue Reading

Crypto World

Aave’s TVL Falls $8B After $293M Kelp DAO Hack

Published

on

Aave’s TVL Falls $8B After $293M Kelp DAO Hack

Total value locked on decentralized lending protocol Aave dropped by nearly $8 billion over the weekend after hackers behind the $293 million Kelp DAO exploit borrowed funds on Aave, leaving roughly $195 million in “bad debt” on the protocol and triggering withdrawals.

Data from DeFiLlama shows that Aave’s TVL fell from about $26.4 billion to $18.6 billion by Sunday, losing the top spot as the largest DeFi protocol. 

Aave v3’s lending pools for USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC) are now at 100% utilization, meaning that more than $5.1 billion worth of stablecoins cannot be withdrawn until new liquidity arrives or borrows are repaid. 

$2,540 is available to be withdrawn from the $2.87 billion USDT pool on Aave v3 at the time of writing. Source: Aave

Aave’s TVL fall shows how rapidly risk from a single security incident can spread throughout the broader, interconnected DeFi lending market, potentially leading to a severe liquidity crisis.

The incident began on Saturday when hackers stole 116,500 Kelp DAO Restaked ETH (rsETH) tokens worth about $293 million from Kelp DAO’s LayerZero-powered bridge and used them as collateral on Aave v3 to borrow wrapped Ether (wETH).

Advertisement

Crypto analytics platform Lookonchain said the move created about $195 million in “bad debt” on Aave, which contributed to the Aave (AAVE) token tanking nearly 20% from $112 on Saturday at 6:00 pm UTC to $89.5 about 25 hours later. 

Lookonchain noted that some of the largest crypto whales to withdraw funds from Aave were the MEXC crypto exchange and Abraxas Capital at $431 million and $392 million, respectively.

Source: Grvt

Several crypto networks and protocols tied to rsETH or the LayerZero bridge have paused use of the bridge until the problem is resolved, including DeFi platform Curve Finance, stablecoin issuer Ethena and BitGo’s Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC).

Aave has frozen several rsETH, wETH markets

Shortly after the Kelp DAO exploit, Aave said it froze the rsETH markets on both Aave v3 and v4 to prevent any suspicious borrowing and later stated that rsETH on Ethereum mainnet remains fully backed by underlying assets.

WETH reserves also remain frozen on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Mantle and Linea, Aave said.

Advertisement

This incident marks the first significant stress test of Aave’s “Umbrella” security model, which was introduced in June 2025 to provide automated protection against protocol bad debt while enabling users to earn rewards.

Related: Aave DAO backs V4 mainnet plan in near-unanimous vote

Earlier this month, the Bank of Canada found that Aave avoided bad debt in its v3 market by using overcollateralization, automated liquidations and other strategies that shifted risk to borrowers.

In comments to Cointelegraph, Aave defended its liquidation-based model, framing it as a core safety mechanism that protects lenders while limiting downside for borrowers.

Advertisement

It comes as Aave parted ways with its longest-standing DeFi risk service provider, Chaos Labs, on April 6, following disagreements over the direction of Aave v4 and budget constraints.

Magazine: Are DeFi devs liable for the illegal activity of others on their platforms?