Ironclad Updates: S1 Sale, Tokenomics and the Future of ICL

The last few weeks have been intense, and we appreciate your patience and understanding. This article will cover the recent developments with the S1 public sale, details about the upcoming airdrop, the revised tokenomics, ICL staking, and our plans for the future of Ironclad.

Public Sale: What Happened?

Decision to Reduce Offer Amount

In response to current market conditions, we decided to reduce the amount offered in our public sale. Our goal was to adapt to a smaller fundraising target, however, we did not communicate this change effectively, and we take full responsibility for the confusion that resulted. Rest assured, no impactful decisions made in the future will come without proper communications.

 

KYC and Site Challenges

The KYC process presented significant challenges. Many who completed KYC found themselves unable to access the sale, while some who did not complete KYC were granted access. This inconsistency created an unfair environment for participants.

 

Refund Options

To address these issues, S1 offered partial refunds to those who participated in the public sale to ensure fairness and restore any trust that was lost with the community.

Revised Tokenomics & Airdrop Details

Increased Airdrop Allocation

We have increased the airdrop allocation from 5% to 10.5%. Of this, 0.5% will be dedicated to those who committed to their public sale purchases and are not seeking refunds. The additional airdrop amount has been reallocated from the reduced public sale amount and the ecosystem grants portion (see new tokenomics breakdown below).

Airdrop Specifics

The airdrop will be distributed in option tokens (oICL — more details below). The airdrop will be distributed as follows:

  • 50% immediately
  • 25% after one month
  • 25% after two months

The airdrop is non-linear. We have curved the top end of the distribution such that the largest Embers farmers will receive proportionately less ICL, and cut off the threshold on the bottom end such that only the top 888 Embers farmers will receive an airdrop.

Our rationale behind this decision is simple: we wanted to reward our most loyal and dedicated users and ensure that these users receive a significant allocation. This year, the standard playbook for airdrops has been a linear distribution for all points farmers, often resulting in thousands of users receiving negligible amounts. Those providing significant value over long periods end up diluted by the bottom 50% in aggregate, and the bottom 50% often complain about not getting enough. Structuring an airdrop to make everyone happy is a near-impossible task. Our decision was not easy, but we believe it will lead to the best outcome.

New Tokenomics Breakdown

  • Liquidity: 7.5%
  • Public: 1.5% (decreased from 2.5%)
  • Seed: 7.5%
  • Strategic: 5%
  • Treasury: 15%
  • Airdrop: 10.5% (increased from 5%)
  • Codex: 10%
  • Incentives: 35.5%
  • Ecosystem Grants: 7.5% (decreased from 12%)

ICL Tokenomics

ICL LGE

The LGE is when the token will go live on a DEX. We will seed liquidity at a 20M FDV on Velodrome via an ICL-MODE pool.

The date for the LGE is July 2nd, 2024.

The airdrop will happen shortly following the LGE, allowing sufficient time to secure the TWAP oracle required for oICL redemptions.

BitGet Listing

On Day 1 of the LGE, there will be a market for ICL on the centralized exchange BitGet. BitGet will also support staking ICL with several months of ICL rewards for stakers.

oICL: Exercising Option Tokens

The airdrop, as well as future incentives distributed, will be in the form of options tokens, or oICL.

1 oICL represents a 50% discount on purchasing 1 ICL. For example, if a user farms 100 oICL, they can purchase 100 ICL for half price, paid in $MODE (referred to as a premium).

The effective profit for the user is 50 ICL of value. MODE premiums will be used to either buy back ICL or paired with treasury ICL to deepen liquidity.

Adopting oICL enables us to route a huge amount of fees to ICL stakers while ensuring sustainable growth. The motivation behind an oToken model is the belief that value should flow from mercenary farmers towards those committed to the long-term success of the protocol. We want to align ourselves with the latter, and those who are looking to farm and dump will end up indirectly supporting the token and deepening liquidity.

More details and educational resources about our oToken model will be made available in the coming weeks and months.

ICL Staking on Ironclad

Ironclad offers users a staking module to stake their ICL to earn from protocol revenue.

The ICL staking module is a Cod3x Relic made up of two components.

  1. ICL Stake. ICL Stake receives Lend Module fees in the form of WETH and MODE and can be claimed freely. Stakers will also receive iUSD mint fees and iUSD redemption fees in the future.
  2. ICL Relic. Users may deposit their ICL into the ICL Relic. The Relic compounds ICL Stake earnings into more ICL on behalf of users, as well as enabling users to build up their maturity, allowing Ironclad to distribute periodic time-weighted emissions (in the form of oICL) as an additional layer of yield to long-term stakers.

For more information about the tech behind relics, read this.

Revenue Sources

  1. The Ironclad lending module. Revenue from lending and borrowing activity on Ironclad will be aggregated into WETH and MODE and distributed to ICL Stake. A modest reserve factor on markets directs a small portion of borrow-side interest to the Ironclad treasury.
  2. The Ironclad CDP. Coming soon, the Ironclad CDP will allow users to mint iUSD against premium collateral. Minting iUSD incurs a 0.5% security fee, which will be distributed to ICL Stake.

Additional sources of revenue such as MODE DevDrops, etc. will be rewarded to ICL stakers via the Reliquary emissions contract, which applies a time-based weighting on the user’s position to provide additional rewards to long term stakers.

The Future of Ironclad

CDP Module

The release of the CDP module is imminent. Users will soon be able to borrow iUSD, Ironclad’s native stablecoin, against Mode’s premium collateral, including LRT assets, BTC, and MODE. Stablecoin collateral will be used to bootstrap the supply side of the lending market, reducing borrower interest rates and generating a scalable, sustainable source of yield for stablecoin minters via the stability pool.

We have been pioneering stablecoin research for some time now, and we’re extremely excited to launch a Mode-native stablecoin. This will help solve the network’s money supply problem and provide an endless supply of USD-denominated credit to Mode’s most popular assets.

Staked iUSD (siUSD)

Following the release of the CDP module, staked iUSD (siUSD) will be introduced. Staked iUSD is the interest-bearing version of iUSD, allowing users to compound the native stablecoin yield while still being able to use it across the network, such as by providing liquidity to a DEX pool.

Liquidity Growth Engine

Our liquidity growth engine will enable users to stake ICL Velodrome LPs for boosted yield, utilizing our veVELO voting power. More information to come.

Conclusion

Ironclad is evolving, and we are committed to navigating these changes in an effective and transparent way. We offer a huge thank you to everyone who has been so supportive of us. We will continue to relentlessly build and innovate in DeFi until the end of time.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Cheers!