CMC News

Aztec Network Raises $61M in Community-First Token Sale

#Aztec Network closed its public Aztec's token sale on Saturday, collecting 19,476 $ETH from more than 16,700 participants in what the privacy-focused #Ethereum layer-2 developer claims represents a shift away from insider-dominated token launches.

The sale ran from Dec. 2 to 6 using a Continuous Clearing Auction mechanism built with Uniswap Labs, raising approximately $61.3 million at current Ether prices. Aztec said half of the capital came from its existing community, including testnet operators and early users of its now-shuttered Aztec Connect product, rather than large institutional allocations.

Aztec's token distribution avoided the airdrop model that has become standard for #layer-2 launches in favor of what it described as a fair-access auction. The CCA mechanism started at a floor price corresponding to a $350 million fully diluted valuation, which Aztec said represented a 75% discount to the implied valuation from its equity financing rounds.

Per-user caps of 240 $ETH were instituted to limit whale concentration during the sale. The auction format was designed to prevent front-running and timing games that often plague token launches.

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams praised the sale in a post on X, noting there was no sniping, bundling, or timing games involved. He said the mechanism allowed for slow, fair price discovery that ended at 59% above the floor, with participants having days to bid earlier and secure a better average price.

A #Uniswap v4 liquidity pool containing 273 million Aztec tokens, roughly 2.6% of total supply, will go live following the token generation event to bootstrap secondary market #trading. The pool aims to provide immediate liquidity for participants looking to exit or adjust positions.