Rainbow, a self-custodial Ethereum pockets, debuted its native token RNBW yesterday, February Fifth. Nonetheless, the mission's Token Era Occasion (TGE) on Base and the token's buying and selling debut amongst exchanges adopted reviews of delays in distribution to ICO individuals, which contributed to the token's poor first-day efficiency.
RNBW/USD 15-minute chart, February Fifth-Sixth. Supply: Coinbase
In keeping with Coinbase knowledge, RNBW hit a excessive of $0.05 on its first day of buying and selling, however rapidly fell, dropping greater than 30% to shut at round $0.034, giving it a completely diluted valuation of roughly $34 million.
Because of this, most bettors on Polymarket have been panicking, anticipating FDV to achieve round $100 million simply sooner or later after the TGE.
Right now, RNBW has fallen additional and is buying and selling at round $0.032 on the time of writing, giving it an FDV of round $32.17 million.
Buyers shedding cash in ICO
Costs are nicely under what preliminary consumers paid. Rainbow performed an preliminary coin providing (ICO) by way of CoinList in mid-December 2025, providing RNBW to buyers at $0.1 per token. The sale noticed 30 million RNBW tokens, representing 3% of the overall provide, bought at an FDV of $100 million, which means individuals within the sale have now misplaced greater than 65% of their funding.
The scenario might get even worse for US buyers, as full token unlocking won’t happen till December of this yr, in line with CoinList's phrases of service.
Again in 2022, Rainbow raised $18 million in a Sequence A funding spherical led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian's enterprise capital agency Seven Seven Six, bringing its complete funding to $21 million. Multichain wallets are identified for his or her rewards applications and gamification that permit customers to earn factors for on-chain actions.
When the corporate first introduced the token in September, it explicitly linked RNBW to its factors system.
“There couldn’t be a greater day for TGE.”
The token's fall got here amid a broader market disaster that worn out $2.6 billion in liquidations in a single day. The cryptocurrency's market capitalization fell to $2.3 trillion as Bitcoin fell in the direction of $60,000, about 50% under its all-time excessive of $126,080 set in October.
Shortly after the TGE, Rainbow co-founder Mike Demarais famous in a put up on
Amid rising frustration over the chaotic launch, Rainbow CEO Alex Laprade informed X on Thursday evening ET that he nonetheless believes “there has by no means been a greater day for TGE than right this moment,” noting that the mission had deliberate to launch its token on February 5 in December. Laprado added:
“TGE will not be the aim. With the token circulating out there, there can be extra scrutiny, each constructive and damaging.”
Nonetheless, the CEO's public statements didn’t reach calming all buyers. Some have been fast to hit again on the CEO, criticizing the mission for the delay in distributing tokens to ICO individuals and demanding refunds, calling it a rip-off.
Final yr, MetaMask confirmed that it had plans to launch its personal token after years of hints and hypothesis.
