🪙THALES Tokenomics
Last updated
Last updated
THALES is a standard ERC-20 used by the community as the governance token of Thales DAO. Token distribution follows the outline below:
8.75% to SNX stakers
2.25% SNX staking distribution up until implementation of TIP-37 - Distribution Completed
4.5% Retroactive distribution for SNX staking (L1 and OP) - Distribution Completed
2% Airdropped to every SNX staker (L1 and OP) - Distribution Completed
18% Thales Core Contributors - Vesting for 3 years starting Q2 2022
15% THALES stakers - Ongoing 3 year long distribution that started Q4 2021 Includes SNX stakers in gamified staking rewards bonus, along with protocol volume bonus
58.25% Growth Fund:
9% to Strategic Partners - 2 year long distribution that started Q4 2021
2% Crowdpooling event on DODO - Distribution Completed
1% Initial DODO LP reward - Distribution Completed
You can find a more detailed explanation of THALES tokenomics in this Medium article.
The Thales governance structure has modified the original distribution plan to improve long-term alignment with the Thales protocol and DAO
The original distribution plan from 2021 was as follows:
35% to SNX stakers
18% Ongoing SNX staking distribution
15% Retroactive distribution for SNX staking (L1 and OP)
2% Airdropped to every SNX staker (L1 and OP)
30% Growth fund
18% ThalesDAO treasury to fund further development
9% to Strategic Partners
2% Crowdpooling event on DODO
1% Distributed over 20 weeks for LPs on DODO THALES/ETH pool 2
20% Thales Core Contributors
15% THALES stakers
This original distribution has gone through 4 major improvements and modifications:
Part of the initial tokenomics plan included 35% of the THALES total supply to be distributed to SNX stakers to ensure a long-term alignment between Thales and Synthetix communities. Subsequent TIPs (Thales Improvement Proposals) introduced changes to the protocol to amended this distribution.
TIP-18 paused the retroactive distribution to SNX stakers as part of the introduction of gamified staking by TIP-17
TIP-32 gave a deadline for claiming the one-off airdrop. Unclaimed THALES were returned to the treasury of ThalesDAO.
TIP-37, championed by Kain (Synthetix co-founder) effectively stopped the vesting of retroactive distribution for SNX stakers, and forfeited his own allocation as the largest SNX staker for the greater good of Thales protocol.
When TIP-37 was approved by Thales governance, the THALES token was effectively distributed to SNX stakers as follows:
4,500,000 THALES to retroactive SNX stakers
2,250,000 THALES to ongoing SNX stakers
2,000,000 THALES to any SNX staker via one-off airdrop
After TIP-37 was implemented approx. 26,250,000 THALES tokens were returned to ThalesDAO treasury.
In May 2022, the idea of utilizing SafeBox funds (a safeguard smart contract that takes a fee from AMM buys and sells) to start a buyback and burn program for the THALES token was specified on TIP-50. This program was subsequently modified by TIP-59, increasing the buyback frequency, and TIP-124 paused Buyback and Burn. Buyback and Burn was resumed thanks to TIP-141.
Buyback and Burn was implemented on Arbitrum with TIP-163.
As explained in TIP-9, after a Thales Core Contributor stopped contributing and communicating with the rest of the team, the situation was shared with the community-at-large and it was decided by governance to re-allocate his future THALES tokens, send back 2% to ThalesDAO treasury, and reduce the Thales Core Contributor part of the distribution from 20% to 18%.
