April 2021 Origin Token (OGN) Holder Update
Every month, the Origin team publishes a monthly update to our token holders and broader community. Welcome to the April 2021 edition. We are eager to hear feedback and suggestions from our community. Please email support@originprotocol.com for support requests and info@originprotocol.com for general inquiries/comments. Please email nft@originprotocol.com if you are a creator looking to launch NFTs on Origin.
Summary
It has been another extremely busy month at Origin filled with headline-making NFT drops and the listing of OGN on Coinbase. We have been inundated with interest from the crypto community as well as mainstream attention due to our NFT partnerships with household name celebrities. Now, retail users and people learning about crypto and NFTs for the first time can access OGN on Coinbase. This is an extremely important synergy and crucial to the long term success of Origin.
Product
Origin launched a number of high-profile NFT drops in April. We recently completed the first-ever NFT drop by Grammy Award-winner Lupe Fiasco and announced a drop by another Grammy Award-winner in One Republic’s Ryan Tedder. Origin also completed a viral meme NFT drop by DudeWithSign and a drop by the legendary visual artist and designer behind OBEY and the Obama Hope posters, Shepard Fairey, in collaboration with the award-winning hip hop producer Mike Dean. In addition, we announced another music NFT drop with Bassjackers and completed a huge NFT drop by mega-influencer Jake Paul centered around his super viral knockout of Ben Askren. We were able to get mainstream media coverage in Forbes, Rolling Stone, and Variety.
Origin also saw a spate of exchange listings for OGN, including Coinbase and Coinbase Pro, Crypto.com, and the launch of an OGN perpetual futures contract on Binance. These are all mainstream, globally recognized exchanges. The ability for retail users to easily buy OGN in the US via the Coinbase App or for institutional traders to hedge or trade with OGN derivatives on Binance means that OGN is a rapidly maturing digital asset.
Token economics
This month we saw a modest increase in OGN staking numbers, from nearly 78 million tokens staked to over 79 million tokens staked. Some additional investor tokens and team tokens were unlocked this month but the market absorbed them well. Almost 100 million OGN have been removed from circulation, an amount equivalent to over 35% of the listed circulating supply or 47% of the true circulating supply.
Circulating supply is currently at 284M compared to a projected 299M tokens. The circulating supply number includes the 79M that is currently staked in our staking program, reducing the actual float further.
To date, neither Origin co-founder has sold a single OGN token and they have no plans on selling any tokens anytime soon.
Community
Origin participated in a number of community events this month, including an event with our partner Chainlink for the Korean community. We have been very active on Clubhouse, so please make sure to follow @matthewliu, @joshfraser, and @williamt to connect with us there.
We are also thrilled to announce that Andrew Kang is joining the Origin community as a DeFi and NFT advisor. Andrew is one of the foremost thinkers in the DeFi space and his fund Mechanism Capital are among the most prominent investors in the space.
Hiring
Origin is pleased to welcome two new hires this month, Chase Colman and the aforementioned William Tong! Chase will be bringing her amazing project management and organizational skills and William will be utilizing his incredible networking ability and passion for NFTs to the team. We actually met William in a fairly nontraditional manner while Chase was a referral from our very own VP of Engineering, Franck. William was one of the most consistent and helpful community members of the NFT scene on Clubhouse. Both Chase and William stood out right away due to the energy and professionalism they exude and we made them offers immediately. We are proud to be able to identify talent from all channels from social media to the open source developer community. Origin does not believe in being constrained by only hiring from job postings and based on pedigrees and resumes.
We are still on the lookout for a Talent Relations Manager. If you are interested in NFTs and have worked in the media or entertainment industry before, especially in a client-facing role with top talent, we want to speak to you. We’re also still looking for an experienced Senior Growth / Marketing Engineer and a Senior Solidity Engineer. Check out our job postings, and come join us or refer your friends!
Learn more about Origin:
- Buy Origin Tokens (OGN): Coinbase, Binance, Huobi, Upbit
- Track OGN token metrics: originprotocol.com/dashboard
- Get Origin Dollars (OUSD): ousd.com/mint
- Stake your OGN to earn: ousd.com/stake
- Learn more on our company website: originprotocol.com
