DeFi trader Mercurial rebrands to distance itself from FTX collapse
TL;DR Mercurial is rebranding to Meteora in response to the FTX/Alameda scandal, and will be replacing MER tokens with Meteora tokens. 80% of these tokens will be managed by a DAO, while 20% will be liquid.
Mercurial, which provides liquidity for major stable and pegged assets on Solana, said it will replace its MER tokens with Meteora tokens. Out of a supply of 100 million Meteora tokens, 20% will circulate and be and fully liquid, while 80% will be given to the DAO to manage.
There were "vast amounts of MER involved in FTX," Mercurial Fi said in a blog post, noting FTX had hosted Mercurial's token sale in 2021. "In light of the events around FTX/Alameda, we need a token reset to ignite user interest, build up market confidence and set the foundations, community & ecosystem-wise, for our project to succeed long-term," it said on Twitter.
MER had fallen more than 46% to $0.0077 cents since the early November implosion of FTX, according to price data from CoinMarketCap.
FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Nov. 11. Its founder Sam Bankman-Fried has since been extradited from the Bahamas to the U.S.
Disclaimer: Beginning in 2021, Michael McCaffrey, the former CEO and majority owner of The Block, took a series of loans from founder and former FTX and Alameda CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. McCaffrey resigned from the company in December 2022 after failing to disclose those transactions.