This is our statements on the recent fud that's been circulating.
29 May 2022, 08:13
This is our statements on the recent fud that's been circulating. You can also check it from our discord under #speculation channel
I wanted to take some time to address the comments made here. I missed these the last few days and am only just now getting caught up.
When times are tough, it’s easy to assume the worst. When transactions are sent to an exchange, everyone assumes tokens are being sold. It’s like falling in a black hole and you can’t see what’s happening on the other side.
Keep in mind there are lots of other reasons why someone might want to have tokens on an exchange other than “dumping.” For one, there are several people on our team who have families w/ small children. Exchanges are custodial and make it easier for someone who is not crypto native to be a beneficiary of your account in the off chance that something happens to you. Exchanges can over an added level of security.
In the case of FTX, RAY is supported as a collateral token, which means it can be used for trading without actually selling the position. We’ve talked about this in the past but the Raydium team comes from a background in quantitative trading. While that has definitely taken a backseat since we’ve launched Raydium, we are still traders at heart. And holding RAY as collateral is some strong utility if you are a semi-active trader.
I want to add that while team tokens are unlocking at the set rate… that does not mean that they are all liquid. A common misconception in crypto is that a small team of 4-5 people own 20% of the project. While that is true in some cases, something that is equally common is “token pools,” which means team token allocations are budgeted out for different phases of the project to not only incentivize early contributors and team members pre-token launch but also set aside allocations for new hires.
The Raydium team has been working on this protocol for almost two years. Early contributors traded their sweat equity to help get the project off the ground for Raydium equity and waited for vesting, this was in addition to putting up their own capital for operations. Everyone who has started on the Raydium team is still with us today. And we have picked up additional colleagues along the way. New hires generally receive a modest base salary and have the opportunity to earn RAY w/ vesting based on their performance and to incentivize them to be a part of the team long-term. This is standard in the space.
A lot of the team-unlocked RAY is staked on Raydium or in single-sided lending protocols like Francium, Solend, Tulip, or Deltaone, among others. In the last 15 months we have seen massive swings in price, pushing to ATHs in May 2021, dropping to new lows in July, and then climbing again in August 2021. We don’t just work on Raydium, but we live it and love it. We have been a long for this ride with all of you. I speak for myself here but I haven’t put the work in to sell the bottom. I believe in Raydium, I believe in the Solana ecosystem as a whole and think the sky is the limit for what’s to come.