The Initial Relayer Offering

A specter is haunting the crypto markets—the spectre of retail frustration and disillusionment. The recent rise of high FDV/Low Float tokens has highlighted a lack of equal opportunity, with early investors and insiders gaining access at favorable entry points, while retail participants encounter inflated valuations on public exchanges, watching as value flows back to early entrants through private sell-offs.

The rise of meme coins, with their wide initial distribution and low entry barriers, reflects a proletarian response—a collective push for more equitable access to investment opportunities. Individuals are banding together to reclaim financial autonomy through these community-driven assets, fostering a shift toward a more inclusive model where retail participants have a fairer chance to participate in the market.

In line with this powerful shift in market sentiment, we at Hyperbridge have made a deliberate choice to launch our token through an Initial Relayer Offering, offering everyone¹ a fair, early opportunity to participate. Our decision reflects a commitment to decentralization, financial inclusion, and a vision of crypto where wealth and opportunity are not monopolized by a select few but shared with the community that supports it.

To uphold our commitment to transparency and equitable access, we are openly disclosing all previous funding rounds and investment details to date. We believe that providing this information is essential to building trust within our community and empowering every participant to make informed decisions before choosing to invest. Unlike traditional launches that often obscure early financial dealings, we want our community to see exactly how Hyperbridge has been funded, who our supporters are, and how we plan to drive future growth.

Pre-seed Round

We completed the Hyperbridge pre-seed round with a select group of infrastructure providers and node runners. This opportunity was extended specifically to relayers, who were among the initial participants in the Hyperbridge testnet. Their contributions — from testing early versions of the protocol to providing valuable feedback and detailed bug reports — were instrumental in shaping Hyperbridge into the robust, production-ready protocol it is today.

Seed Round

We've (so far) received a commitment from the Polkadot Ecosystem Fund, an initiative by the Web3 Foundation and Scytale Digital for a total of $2.5 million in the Hyperbridge Seed Round.

Full details of the round are provided below.

Initial Relayer Offering

This is the first public offering for the Hyperbridge token: BRIDGE. It is available to anyone¹.

Vesting

The BRIDGE token will begin vesting on a block-by-block basis immediately upon the Token Generation Event (TGE).

KYC

KYC verification will be conducted at the point of token claiming to ensure compliance with regulatory standards and to prevent participation by individuals or entities categorized as prohibited persons¹. This approach allows for a streamlined initial participation process while ensuring that all participants meet the necessary legal requirements before receiving their tokens.

Sale Bonuses

Paying homage to the token sale structure established during the original Ether sale, we’re offering tiered bonuses to reward early participants and foster strong initial engagement. These bonuses are designed to benefit those who join early, rewarding community loyalty.

Bonus Structure:

• 50% Bonus: The first 50 million tokens sold will include a 50% bonus, offering the most significant reward for initial backers and signaling our appreciation for early supporters. This level incentivizes rapid early participation and helps build momentum for the sale.
• 15% Bonus: The next 25 million tokens sold will receive a 15% bonus, still rewarding later participants with a meaningful incentive, though less than the initial tier, to reflect the advancing stage of the sale.
• 0% Bonus: The final 25 million tokens are offered without a bonus, marking the sale's final stage, where tokens are sold at their base rate as our fundraising goals near completion.

This structure is designed to reward those who take on the most risk by participating early, providing them with a commensurate level of reward for their commitment and confidence in our vision.

Token Utility

The BRIDGE token serves as a crucial spam-prevention mechanism within the Hyperbridge ecosystem. Much like Ether’s original role in the Ethereum network as "gas", BRIDGE acts as a deterrent against potential spam and abuse by assigning a real cost to network usage. Without this mechanism, the network would be highly susceptible to transaction congestion and operational downtimes from inevitable abuse and misuse.

By requiring a minimal BRIDGE token fee for transactions and operations, we ensure that the system remains efficient, sustainable, and resistant to overload. This design is fundamental to maintaining network integrity and performance as Hyperbridge scales, incentivizing responsible use and preserving access for legitimate participants.

BRIDGE tokens collected as transaction fees are directed to an on-chain treasury, where they are strategically utilized to sustain and grow the network. These accrued tokens are recycled back into the ecosystem, funding incentives and rewards for both relayers and block producers who play a critical role in maintaining network decentralization. This also means the Hyperbridge token will have zero inflation.

Cross Chain Messages

Every cross-chain message verified and aggregated by Hyperbridge effectively requires payment in the BRIDGE token. Recall that the Hyperbridge contracts on connected chains charges cross-chain messaging fees in stablecoins—currently configured to be DAI. However, to channel these stablecoin fees into the on-chain treasury, Relayers play a key role. Relayers cover the cost of verifying and aggregating cross-chain transactions on Hyperbridge using BRIDGE tokens, in exchange for redeeming the stablecoins from the source chain as compensation for their service. This "exchange-rate" will be discounted, and will serve as one of many incentives provided to Relayers.

Storage Queries

Hyperbridge empowers developers with two key cross-chain primitives: cross-chain messaging, a well-known capability, and a groundbreaking feature—cross-chain storage queries. This innovative functionality is unique to Hyperbridge and is not available in any other interoperability protocol, and opens the door to new possibilities for on-chain applications.

Through cross-chain storage queries, on-chain applications gain the ability to read the state of accounts and applications that reside on entirely different chains. This capability unlocks a host of novel applications, such as decentralized intent protocols, atomic swaps, and more, by allowing seamless access to data across chains without the need for trust-heavy intermediaries.

These storage queries are processed directly on the Hyperbridge blockchain. By aggregating the finalized states of all blockchains, Hyperbridge is able to access the state of any chain and retrieve the specific data requested by applications. Since these queries are processed on the Hyperbridge network, they require payment in BRIDGE tokens, creating an intrinsic demand for the token and further strengthening its role in powering advanced cross-chain functionalities.

Priority Fees

Hyperbridge functions fundamentally, as a multi-chain transaction sequencer, meaning it orders transactions to ensure a deterministic state transition, just like any blockchain. Consequently, Hyperbridge delegates cross-chain transaction ordering to it's relayers. This structure grants relayers the ability to influence the order in which cross-chain transactions arrive at their destination chains, creating a layer of potential value in transaction ordering.

With the rise of MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) and its increasing impact on DeFi efficiency, we anticipate that relayers may choose to pay priority fees to Hyperbridge to secure optimal positioning for cross-chain transactions. This effectively creates a new frontier for cross-chain MEV. While not a deliberate feature of Hyperbridge, this phenomenon is an emergent property of its fully permissionless design.

Token Holder Governance

Hyperbridge is deeply committed to the ethos of decentralization, ensuring that the future of the network is guided by the community. To achieve this, the BRIDGE token will serve as the foundation for a robust on-chain governance system, empowering token holders to propose and vote on critical changes to the Hyperbridge protocol. This governance framework will oversee decisions related to the Hyperbridge code, protocol parameters, fees, rewards, and other fundamental aspects of the network’s evolution.

By implementing a decentralized governance structure, Hyperbridge progressively transitions control from Polytope Labs to the community, thereby reducing risks associated with centralized oversight and enhancing trust and resilience within the network. This governance system, launching immediately at Token Generation Event (TGE), will offer token holders a direct role in shaping the future of Hyperbridge and fostering a truly decentralized ecosystem.

Initial Token Distribution

The initial token distribution is as follows

To ensure long-term commitment and alignment with the project's goals, tokens allocated to the team and foundation will incur a vesting schedule. Team tokens will vest linearly over a 2-year period, while foundation tokens will have a 3-year linear vesting schedule. This approach is designed to promote sustained involvement from core contributors and ensure that both the team and foundation remain incentivized to support Hyperbridge’s growth and success over the long term.

Participate

The sale is live at https://app.hyperbridge.network/sale and closes at exactly 12AM CET January 1, 2025.

Disclosures

¹ See the Prohibited Persons clause in the terms of the sale.