The team behind the blockchain project Plasma has increased the maximum deposit limit for participation in the ICO XPL for the second time — this time to $1 billion. The new threshold was reached remarkably quickly: all available spots were filled in just 33 minutes after the sale began.
This is reported by Finway
Reasons for the Limit Increase and Community Reaction
The Plasma developers explained that this decision was made in response to numerous user feedback after the first round of the ICO. A significant portion of participants complained about difficulties with registration — in their opinion, automated “snipers” and bots had an unfair advantage, quickly taking all the quotas. In light of this, the team decided to give real users more chances by reopening the limit with a short prior announcement.
“One of the main goals of the XPL token offering is broad participation. After the first round concluded, we heard from community members that they faced challenges in participating. They felt that the ‘snipers’ and bots had too much time to prepare. We reopened the limit to give these users more opportunities,” the project team stated.
According to Dune Analytics, around 1,900 wallets participated in the second round. The total number of participants across both rounds reached 2,929. The maximum deposit in the first round was nearly $50 million, while in the second round, it was $23.7 million.
The developers emphasized that they announced the reopening of the limit only an hour before the start to reduce the influence of large traders and provide more opportunities for small investors.
ICO Statistics and Features of the New Stage
The Plasma team noted that the public sale stage of XPL has not yet begun; the deposit limit has only been increased for now. All collected funds will be transferred to the beta version of the Plasma mainnet, and they will remain available to depositors. Owners will be able to participate in the public sale according to their investment volume and asset lock-up period. The terms remain unchanged: $50 million will be sold at a fully diluted valuation of $500 million.
Among community members, the team’s decision elicited mixed reactions. Those who did not manage to invest in the previous stage supported the limit increase, while others expressed dissatisfaction, asking when the next increase in the “ceiling” might occur.
The first stage of the project’s ICO took place on June 9, when the $500 million limit was reached in just five minutes. This drew criticism due to the participation of a large number of so-called “whales” and the subsequent increase of the limit from $250 million to $500 million even before the sale began.
According to analytics, the top 10 investors accounted for about 40% of the total $500 million. Meanwhile, the median investment amount was $35,000, and the average deposit, according to Jan Answorth, co-founder of Kairos Research, was around $400,000, significantly exceeding the capabilities of regular users.
The public sale of XPL is still ahead, and the increase in the limit opens new opportunities for a broader range of investors, although the issue of fair distribution remains relevant.