Sovryn, the Bitcoin-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, announces the success of its Genesis community-only reserve sale which allowed participants to reserve their right to purchase SOV token, which will go on sale in early February 2021. The event generated the equivalent of $2.5 million in only 18 minutes.

The reservation presale was oversubscribed by a factor of x2, with 800 community members reserving between 0.03 and 2 BTC-worth of SOV. To take part, participants had to have been active users of Sovryn before 8 January, when the Genesis reservation event was announced, and the allocation for members depended on the duration and depth of their engagement with the Sovryn protocol. This was to ensure fewer speculators and a prioritisation of those who wish to support the Sovryn project over the long term. Unlike in other token sales or ICOs, users who participated in the Sovryn reservation sale committed to 10 months of token lock up, as part of their long-term commitment to the project. 

In 2020, the combined locked-in value of DeFi markets grew by 982%, but crypto’s major asset, Bitcoin, has been largely left out of these first generation DeFi protocols, forcing them to use a centralised, wrapped token. There has hitherto been no way for Bitcoin investors to access financial services, without handing over their Bitcoin assets to centralized intermediaries.

Sovryn solves this challenge by creating a Bitcoin-native financial operating system that allows people to utilize their Bitcoin in decentralised applications, without having to give up their assets, trade via a centralized entity, or forfeit their financial privacy and sovereignty. The Sovryn protocol provides an infrastructure using layer-2 technologies, where Bitcoin is the reserve asset and Bitcoin-backed stablecoins and sidechain technologies provide low fees and secure scalability. Sovryn provides the financial operating system that bridges blockchains, expands the level of decentralisation, and keeps Bitcoin as the sovereign currency, with users controlling their keys, even when used in financial applications.

Sovryn Co-Founder Edan Yago commented: “The success of the Genesis presale reservation event has been extremely encouraging, as has the feedback we have received from the community members, and it bodes well for the upcoming Origin presale. The vision of Sovryn is to create a protocol and a trading community which is truly decentralized; the success of this reservation sale event is a significant milestone on our journey to achieving that.”