The founder of Cap, a Franklin Templeton-backed stablecoin protocol, apologized for cutting a promised user reward to $4.2 million from the roughly $12 million the project had committed to in February, and denied accusations that he directed funds to a wallet linked to his former employer.
Cap said in a post on X on Friday that its "Stabledrop," a reward paid in the project's dollar-pegged cUSD rather than in its CAP governance token, would total $4.2 million. The company had planned to fund the reward through a token sale targeting a $250 million valuation and an offering of 10% of CAP's supply. When it ran the sale in June, it instead offered 5% of supply at a floor of $75 million and raised $4.2 million, with bids clearing at valuations of up to $106 million. Cap said 100% of the sale proceeds would go to the Stabledrop.
The reversal is the latest flashpoint over the "points" and airdrop programs that crypto projects use to attract early users, rewarding them with the promise of future tokens or cash while leaving the final payout to the team's discretion. For Cap, a stablecoin protocol with about $230 million in total value locked, according to DefiLlama, the episode is a test of user trust as it builds out a credit business that, according to its Q1 2026 investor update, originated a $100 million revolving credit facility to Susquehanna Crypto, a Cap operator and seed investor.
