Extension of 10 hours still failed to meet the target, why did Linera's LNRA community round encounter a chill?

Written by: ChandlerZ, Foresight News

On September 9, Layer 1 blockchain Linera announced the end of the LNRA community round, with a total of 617 participants from 69 countries submitting 848,000 USDC. The minimum target for this round was 1.5 million USDC, falling short by 652,000 USDC; compared to the fundraising cap of 8 million USDC, the completion rate was 10.6%. Each participant subscribed for an average of about 1374 USDC.

Linera's sales page stipulated that participants would receive a full refund if the subscription amount did not reach 1.5 million USD. The project team would return the funds to the original payment wallet, and an announcement would be made after the refund period ended. There will be no final allocation in this round of LNRA, and Linera has not stated whether the token sales would restart or if the original rewards could be retained.

Linera was founded in 2021 by former Meta Novi researcher Mathieu Baudet. Its microchain architecture allows users or applications to run lightweight chains separately, which are then processed in parallel by validators. Early on, the project identified payment, messaging, gaming, and trading as application directions, with the official website currently showcasing a one-minute prediction market and real-time on-chain games. The community round was originally used to distribute LNRA before the mainnet and the first official operating season launched.

After extending by 10 hours, the subscription amount still fell short by 652,000 USDC

The LNRA community round opened on September 1, with payments made in USDC on the Base network, and individual participants' subscription amounts ranging from 100 to 100,000 USD. Sales were completed through Sonar, with U.S. participants required to be accredited investors and accept a 12-month lockup; users from restricted jurisdictions were unable to participate.

This round set up two subscription pools. Holders of testnet badges entered a priority pool, while other users who passed identity verification entered an open pool; when subscriptions exceeded the limits, the priority pool was allocated first, and the open pool was allocated proportionally afterward. Testnet points and badges only determined the order of priority, and users still needed to complete Sonar registration and pay USDC.

As the original end time approached, Linera stated that Sonar had set overly strict wallet filtering criteria, causing some users to be unable to subscribe. The team then relaxed the filtering rules and extended the deadline by 10 hours to September 9 at 00:00 UTC. Linera claimed that the additional time and related subscriptions would be sufficient for the project to meet the minimum target.

During the extension period, Linera further raised the transaction limit reward corresponding to the first 1.5 million USDC subscriptions to 50 times. For every 1 USDC subscribed, participants could receive a 50 USD fee-free transaction limit during Linera's official operating season. This credit could only offset future trading fees and could not be withdrawn as cash.

When sales commenced, this credit had a decreasing design, with early subscribers receiving 50 times, and the higher the total subscription amount, the lower the multiple for subsequent participants. The official announced progress as subscription amounts reached 250,000, 400,000, and 500,000 USDC consecutively, and after the extension, the range for the first 1.5 million USDC was uniformly restored to 50 times.

Approximately 12 hours before the end, the official subscription amount was about 500,000 USDC, still 1 million USD short of the minimum target. The final figure rose to 848,000 USDC, adding about 348,000 USDC, but still did not reach the threshold set for refunds.

0.02 USD comes from eight times the reward, contract subscription price still at 0.16 USD

The total supply of LNRA is 1 billion tokens, of which 60% enters the community reserve, 5% for community sales, and investors and teams receive 11.3% and 13.7% respectively. According to the sales terms updated on August 28, this round plans to sell a maximum of 50 million LNRA at a base price of 0.16 USD per token, corresponding to a fully diluted valuation of 160 million USD, and 8 million USD can be raised if fully sold.

On September 8, Linera primarily promoted the effective price of 0.02 USD in the final stage of sales. According to the Genesis Founder reward rules, subscribers of the first 10 million LNRA, upon completing a transaction once the mainnet is online, could receive 7 additional tokens for every token subscribed, ultimately increasing their holdings by eight times. The 0.02 USD is derived from 0.16 USD divided by 8, with the corresponding 20 million USD valuation also based on all rewards being credited.

The LNRA obtained from community sales was originally planned to be fully unlocked at the time of token generation, with U.S. participants subject to a 12-month lockup restriction. The shares for investors and teams would be locked for 12 months after token generation, then unlocked linearly over 24 months. If this round had gone through, the initial liquidity for community buyers would precede that of institutional investors and teams.

In the end, the entire subscription amount of 848,000 USDC fell within the reward range for the first 1.6 million USD. After the community round failed to meet the minimum target, participants will recover their USDC, and the originally planned LNRA distribution will also cease. Linera has not announced whether the Genesis rewards and the 50 times fee-free limits will continue to be counted toward subsequent activities.

Funding of 12 million USD, 50 million community sales shares still pending

Linera has previously completed two rounds of seed financing, each for 6 million USD, with the first round in 2022 led by a16z crypto and the follow-on funding in 2023 led by Borderless Capital, with participation from institutions such as Laser Digital Ventures, Flow Traders, GSR Markets, and Matrixport, bringing the total funding amount to 12 million USD.

The Archimedes testnet launching in November 2024 will introduce multi-user chains and fee mechanisms, and the Babbage testnet in April 2025 will add a web client, native oracles, and EVM-compatible block headers, while the Conway testnet in September of the same year will continue to add wallet connections, EVM addresses, and high-throughput configurations. The fourth phase before the mainnet will also include governance, token economics, and security audits.

The 848,000 USDC is about 7.1% of Linera's previously accumulated funding amount; this funding will not enter the project account, and after the refund is completed, Linera still needs to decide how to handle the remaining 50 million community sales shares.

Linera's mainnet and first official operating season are still planned to launch at the end of October or November, with specific dates possibly adjusted, and the token generation and distribution time remain marked as to be determined. As of September 9, the project team confirmed only that they would handle refunds and would announce subsequent arrangements after the refund process concludes.