Plasma Hits $1B Deposit Cap in Minutes, Clarifies $50M Token Sale at $500M Valuation Still Ahead
In a clear signal of surging interest in next-gen crypto infrastructure, Plasma has doubled its stablecoin deposit cap to $1 billion—and saw it fill in just 30 minutes. The EVM-compatible Bitcoin sidechain made the announcement via X, emphasizing that while deposits surged, this does not equate to a billion-dollar raise. The actual public sale of its native token, XPL, is still pending.
Plasma’s deposit vault, which allows users to lock in stablecoins for the right to buy XPL in an upcoming token sale, has attracted enormous traction. The initial $500 million deposit cap, launched earlier this week, was met in under an hour. To accommodate more community members—particularly those who missed out or were crowded out by bots—Plasma raised the limit to $1 billion. That too was filled within half an hour.
“This is not a $1 billion raise,” Plasma clarified. “Deposits are not the sale itself. The XPL public sale hasn’t started yet.”
Instead, the locked funds will be bridged to the Plasma mainnet beta, and participants retain full ownership of their deposits. Eligibility for the token sale is determined by final unit holdings at lock-up.
The public sale of XPL will involve $50 million worth of tokens at a $500 million fully diluted valuation (FDV). That translates to 10% of the total token supply. No changes to these sale terms have been announced.
Plasma noted the short-notice announcement was intentional: “We heard from community members who had trouble joining and felt that snipers and bots had too much time to prepare,” the team explained, aiming to level the playing field for genuine participants.
According to blockchain intelligence platform Arkham, Plasma’s vault currently holds:
- $558 million in USDC
- $396 million in USDT
- $16.6 million in USDS
- $3.4 million in DAI
This momentum builds on Plasma’s rapid growth over the past year. The protocol raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Bitfinex in October, followed by a $20 million Series A round in February. It also made headlines in May as the debut project for Sonar, the ICO arm of Echo—a crypto startup investing platform founded by prominent trader Jordan Fish, aka Cobie.
Plasma is positioning itself as a Bitcoin sidechain with zero transaction fees, initially targeting seamless support for Tether’s USDT. The project’s timing coincides with a broader wave of stablecoin adoption, as the U.S. moves closer to passing the GENIUS stablecoin bill and institutions ranging from banks to tech giants explore launching digital dollar alternatives.