Plasma doubles its deposit cap, clarifies it is eyeing $50M public sale at $500M FDV

Plasma announced that it raised its stablecoin deposit cap to $1 billion, a threshold that was subsequently filled within just 30 minutes of opening.

The stablecoin firm explained in a post on the social media platform X that it raised the deposit cap to give community members another opportunity to participate in the sale of XPL. 

Earlier this week, Plasma opened up its initial round of stablecoin deposits with a total limit of $500 million and an individual cap of $50 million. Users who deposit stablecoins into the vault can earn the right to purchase Plasma's XPL token.

Plasma reported reaching its initial $500 million cap in less than an hour after opening, indicating high demand. The cap was later increased to $1 billion and was filled in 30 minutes.

In the announcement, Plasma noted that the $1 billion stablecoin deposit should not be mistaken for a $1 billion raise, and that the public sale of XPL tokens has not begun. It added that $50 million worth of tokens will be sold at a fully diluted valuation of $500 million. 

"To clarify: this is not a $1 billion raise. Deposits are not the sale itself, and the XPL public sale hasn’t started yet. All funds will be bridged to the Plasma mainnet beta and remain fully owned by depositors. Depositors earn the right to participate in the sale based on their final units at the time of the lock-up. The public sale terms remain unchanged: $50 million will be sold at a $500 million fully diluted valuation," Plasma added.

"We heard from community members who had trouble joining and felt that snipers and bots had too much time to prepare," Plasma wrote Wednesday. "The announcement was made on short notice to reduce bot setups and create more room for real participants."

According to data from Arkham, Plasma's vault currently holds $558 million worth of USDC, $396 million worth of USDT, $16.6 million in USDS and around $3.4 million in Dai. 

High-profile crypto trader Jordan Fish, better known as Cobie, launched the angel investing platform Echo in March with the goal of unifying fragmented angel investments in crypto startups. In May, Echo unveiled its initial coin offering (ICO) subsidiary, Sonar, with Plasma as Sonar's inaugural project.

Plasma is an EVM-compatible Bitcoin sidechain designed to eliminate transaction fees for Tether's USDT. It raised $3.5 million in a funding round led by Bitfinex in October and followed up with an additional $20 million in Series A funding in February. 

The stablecoin space has witnessed a series of significant developments in recent weeks, including the advancement of the landmark  GENIUS stablecoin bill , major U.S. banks and  giant tech firms exploring the potential launch of their own stablecoin projects, and USDC issuer Circle going public.