A self-directed and self-starring control drama? Interpreting the dramatic stories of AEVO in the two months since its launch

Author: Nan Zhi, Odaily Planet Daily

Last week, AEVO had a market capitalization of only $140 million, while claims about AEVO's upcoming "unlocking" of tokens worth up to $1 billion intensified in the market. In response, neither Aevo's official team nor relevant data websites provided any explanations. When the "unlocking" event occurred, AEVO dropped 16% within an hour. After the drop, Aevo began to clarify and explain the "unlocking" and made a commitment to lock up tokens, which led to a rapid increase in AEVO's price. Odaily Planet Daily will interpret this event in this article.

Origin of AEVO Token

In April 2023, the options trading platform Aevo officially launched its mainnet, which was introduced by the on-chain structured product Ribbon Finance. Before the launch of the AEVO token, the platform did not have a native token, while Ribbon Finance had previously issued the token RBN.

At the time of the product launch, Aevo mentioned in its white paper that it would introduce the AEVO token, which was not created out of thin air but was a rebranding of Aevo's previous governance token RBN.

Most of the RBN tokens were locked in the DAO Treasury and were difficult to utilize, so Aevo proposed a more dynamic and functional allocation of the treasury in the AGP-1 proposal. The tokens from this treasury would be converted to AEVO at the TGE, to be used for airdrops, liquidity, community growth, and DAO expenditures.

In March 2024, the AEVO token was officially launched and listed on Binance Launchpool, with a total supply of 1 billion tokens and an initial circulation of 110 million tokens. RBN holders could convert their RBN to AEVO at a 1:1 ratio, but with a 2-month lock-up period (i.e., unlocking in May). Private investors (seed round and Series A), the team, and other ordinary RBN holders could convert in May, and once the conversion opened, the circulation of AEVO would rise to about 950 million tokens.

RBN Price Difference and AEVO's Roller Coaster Market

Before the announcement of the listing on Binance Launchpool on March 6, the price of RBN was about 0.79 USDT. After the announcement, it began to rise, reaching a peak of 1.83 USDT on March 13.

After AEVO was launched, there was a price difference of 90%-100% between AEVO and RBN, which only started to narrow this month. Especially in the early days of the launch, the price difference was too large, leading some market users to choose to buy RBN spot while shorting in the futures market, resulting in a short squeeze for AEVO at the end of March. After the short squeeze, the price maintained for about 10 days before starting to decline ahead of the market.

Massive Token Unlocking?

Before the conversion from RBN to AEVO opened, users could check on the token unlocking website token.unlocks that AEVO would unlock tokens worth $1.06 billion on May 15, accounting for 770% of the circulating market cap. The market also began to circulate corresponding panic selling rumors.

However, as mentioned earlier, this conversion was merely a transfer of the circulating market cap of RBN to that of AEVO, which can be understood as a merger of the market caps of the two tokens. In the conventional sense, unlocking should mean that tokens transition from "non-transferable" to "transferable," but prior to the conversion, RBN was already in a state of significant circulation and could be freely traded.

Clarification After the Drop

Regarding the rumors of a massive unlocking in the market, Aevo did not provide a clear clarification but instead shared content on how to convert RBN. When the "unlocking" event occurred on May 15, AEVO dropped 16% within an hour. However, on May 16, Aevo published a statement clarifying the "unlocking," stating: "This round of 'unlocking' is not a typical insider/VC/team unlocking; it is the ability for RBN holders to migrate their RBN to AEVO tokens."

In the clarification tweet, the Aevo team stated: "To demonstrate our long-term commitment to making Aevo the number one derivatives DEX on Ethereum, the team and supporters will voluntarily re-lock about 15% of the supply before the end of 2024." Following this statement, the AEVO token began to rebound rapidly, rising over 10% in three hours.

Conclusion

Indeed, Aevo has taken on the historical burden from the Ribbon Finance era at a low cost, but the price difference of up to 100%, the massive selling pressure during the "conversion" rather than "unlocking," and the unusual circumstances of clarifying only after the drop may indicate a self-directed control scheme behind the scenes.

However, the related events have all concluded, and with the AEVO token entering a nearly fully circulating state, whether the team can continue to develop its business after settling historical debts will be left for the market to judge.