Plasma’s $250M XPL Token Sale

$250M for XPL Public Sale — Fairness or Plain Greed?

Plasma — the developer of a blockchain for stablecoins — as we wrote earlier, announced a public sale of the XPL token with the goal of raising $50 million (10% of the token supply) at a price of $0.05 per token. This valued the network at approximately $500 million FDV. However, on June 4, the team suddenly changed the terms: the fundraising cap was increased to $250 million (50% of the token supply). According to Plasma, the decision was made “at the request of the community” and is aimed at “broad involvement and fair participation.”

In practice, this means that within a single token sale, the fundraising target was increased fivefold, while the limit for one participant remained at $50M.

Downsides of the Decision

Reduced Potential Profitability

The increase of the hard cap from $50M to $250M means that the token supply is multiplied, so the share of each early investor will be heavily diluted. Potential “X’s” become less likely. While at $50M one could expect scarcity and demand for the token, at $250M — the feeling of overvaluation becomes noticeable.

Signs of Greed and Troubling Parallels to 2017

Social media already voices concerns: this scale of public fundraising for an unlaunched project recalls the worst practices of the 2017 ICOs. Statistics show that more than 80% of those projects turned out to be either failures or outright scams.

“This is no longer a fair launch, but a fair trap.”

Centralization and Priority for Whales

Formally, participation is “limited” — no more than $50M per address. But this opens the door not to the crowd, but to 5–6 large wallets that can “close” the entire cap without any problem. Such conditions increasingly resemble not a fair launch, but a pre-ICO for insiders, publicly dressed up.

Potential Upsides

Larger Funding = Ambitious Growth

Plasma is betting on the global stablecoin market. A larger funding round is an opportunity to quickly expand the dev team, strengthen the partner network, and assert itself in the international jurisdiction. The very fact that the project wants to raise $250M speaks to the scale of its ambitions — and the presence of demand.

Accessibility for a Broader Audience

The official message: “more people will be able to participate.” The Plasma team claims that the initial $50M limit would not have allowed many to receive an allocation. The cap increase is a reaction to demand. Tokens are still being sold at the Founders Fund round price, which appears to be a gesture of equality.

“We are raising the deposit cap to $250 million to ensure fair participation and broad involvement.”

Confidence in the Project and Those Behind It

Plasma is supported by Founders Fund (Peter Thiel), Tether/Bitfinex, Coinbase Ventures, and other respected market players. It’s also worth noting that the token sale is organized through Sonar — a platform from the well-known blogger Cobie, whom part of the audience trusts more than entire funds. There’s a sense that something serious is being built here, not just capitalizing on the hype.

Conclusion

On paper, Plasma XPL is a powerful project backed by serious money, big names, and ambitious goals. But this is exactly what raises concerns. The fivefold increase in the cap is a signal: either the team overestimated the community’s capabilities, or they saw that demand allows them to “skim more cream.”

The market has seen this before. The real question is: will Plasma be able to play this game to the end, without losing face and without crashing the price right after listing? For now, opinions are divided. But the hype is guaranteed — and the attention to XPL on launch day will be at least as intense as it is to the tokens themselves.