Polychain Capital has officially exited its position in Celestia, selling its remaining $62.5 million worth of TIA tokens back to the Celestia Foundation, according to an announcement released Thursday. The move marks a significant step back by one of the modular blockchain project’s earliest and most influential backers.
The foundation repurchased the tokens at approximately $1.44 per TIA, closely aligned with the token’s price at the start of July. Those tokens will now be redistributed to new investors under a revised vesting schedule that begins August 16 and runs through November 14.
The Celestia Foundation has worked with Polychain Capital to assign Polychain’s entire remaining TIA holdings to new investors.
— Celestia 🦣 (@celestia) July 24, 2025
This month, the Foundation purchased 43,451,616.09 TIA from Polychain Capital for $62.5m. Polychain will shortly be undelegating their entire staked…
Celestia’s native token, TIA, has fallen about 5.2% on the day to roughly $1.86. That’s a sharp drop from its all-time high of nearly $20 in early 2024.
Polychain’s exit follows months of scrutiny from crypto analysts and community members. The venture firm was previously criticized for selling a substantial amount of TIA earned from staking rewards—even as its originally allocated tokens remained locked. According to one onchain analyst, Polychain may have sold up to $242 million worth of TIA since the network’s token generation event, with around $179 million originating from staking reward addresses. Polychain’s initial investment in Celestia’s Series A and B rounds was estimated at $20 million.
Tikta
In response to concerns over staking reward dilution and token dynamics, Celestia is preparing to roll out its v4 "Lotus" mainnet upgrade by the end of the month. Among its headline features: a change in how staking rewards are distributed. Once live, staking rewards will be proportionally locked to match the vesting schedule of the underlying tokens.
Was bored so decided to do an update to Polychain $TIA sells
— 360 🐰🇵🇸 (@gtx360ti) July 2, 2025
Polychain has now dumped over $242 million worth of TIA since TGE
They still hold around ~44.7 mil TIA ($63.9 mil) https://t.co/SIBhMi4GzI pic.twitter.com/sXMLSNA0Q6
For example, a vesting wallet with 50% of its allocation still locked will only be able to claim half of the staking rewards it earns. Accounts with fully locked or delayed-vesting tokens will need to wait until the unlock date to access either the tokens or their associated rewards.
The Celestia Foundation has not issued additional comments beyond the announcement, and Polychain Capital did not respond to inquiries.
Polychain's full exit from Celestia, combined with the upcoming staking reforms, signals a turning point for the modular blockchain project. As the network matures and prepares for its next upgrade, attention now shifts to how these changes will reshape long-term incentives for token holders and validators alike.
