Cap Labs just wrapped up one of the more interesting token launches in recent memory. The DeFi protocol’s CAP token auction cleared at a $106 million fully diluted valuation, pulling in $16.4 million in commitments from 1,002 unique bids.
That 5.5x oversubscription rate tells you something about where investor appetite sits right now, particularly for projects in the stablecoin yield generation corner of DeFi.
How the auction actually worked
Cap Labs didn’t go the traditional route of slapping a fixed price on tokens and calling it a day. Instead, the project used a Continuous Clearing Auction, or CCA, format facilitated through Uniswap. Participants submitted bids in USDC, each setting a maximum FDV they were willing to accept. The auction then cleared at a uniform price: $0.011 per CAP token. Everyone who bid at or above that clearing price got their allocation at the same rate.
The whole process ran on a structured timeline. A registration phase kicked off on June 1 and ran through June 8, with 0xPredicate handling KYC verification. The actual bidding window opened June 8 and closed June 17, giving participants roughly nine days to commit capital.
