RUNE Distribution Update — August

2020-08-24 — 3 min read

There are 5631 Rune Holders, with 2482 engaged with RUNEVault. The top 100 own 122,285,123.74 (64%). There are 77 THORNode candidates, with a minimum cost of $840k to run a THORNode. The monthly network purchasing power is $2.5m USD.

Distribution

RUNE is the liquidity and security of the THORChain network. Prior to the launch of mainnet, the RUNE token must be distributed as widely as possible to as many aligned individuals as possible, in the fairest manner possible.

The following are the current/previous distribution mechanics:

The Binance DEX public IDO (20%)
RUNEVault Staking Program (12%)
Operational Expenses (12%)
Team allocation (capped 10%)
The original Seed sale (5%)

Holders

There are now 5631 Rune Holders (+782), with 2482 (+563) engaged with RUNEVault, staking 158m RUNE. A further 500 stakers are staking at BitMax, staking 8m RUNE. The top 100 have reduced their ownership of the network from 119,514,638.48 (68%) to 122,285,123.74 (64%).

From Oct 2019, the long term trend is clear: Large holders are trimming holdings, whilst the medium holders are increasing their ownership in order to fatten the tail. This is a good trend.

The Bitmax Staking Wallet of 14m RUNE has been reduced to 8m RUNE, whilst the Binance Trading Wallet has accumulated 14m RUNE. Both exchanges are partners to THORChain so the team isn’t concerned at this stage. RUNE sitting on the Binance Trading Wallet is not earning any incentives and should slowly reduce.

Less than 10% of RUNE supply is on exchanges.

THORNodes

The total number of node operators has increased to 77:

The maximum nodes a single wallet can now run is 14 nodes, being the Binance Trading Wallet — if they were to allocate all the RUNE capital to running nodes. This is 18% of the network, which is fine from a security point of view.

The total network value is now $150m, with a monthly purchasing power of $2.5m — these is the amount of incentives the networks pays out to participants for security and liquidity.

The minimum cost to acquire a THORNode is $840k USD.

Summary

RUNE is still in its distribution phase — the primary KPIs are discussed above. The long term trend from October 2019 is in the right direction.

Whilst the current metrics are sufficient, but the community should assist the project in increasing the distribution of the asset. There is still time prior to main-net to target the distribution goals of the project (99 holders with 67% of the supply). Rune distributed to Team and Seed investors at mainnet will improve metrics by increasing Node count and widening distribution.