Proposal to close down X Marketplace and return the treasury to token holders
What is happening:
It’s with sadness to announce our intention to close down X Marketplace and return the treasury to the X token holders. This is not a decision we took lightly, and is wholly subject to the final vote by veX holders; we feel it’s in the best interest of the community. We will further open source the code for the community which will allow anyone wishing to build upon what we started with X Marketplace.
Why is this happening
We are proud of the accomplishments we’ve built; a history of firsts within the NFT space and for the Yuga & Apecoin communities. Despite this, we failed to find the right product/market fit. More specifically we were unable to attract the necessary liquidity for the marketplace to function organically. This was made more difficult without a long term reward program and our unbroken support of creator royalties which made X Marketplace more expensive. We believe using the balance of the treasury for one last reward program would not be effective, especially when competing against marketplaces where creator royalties either do not exist or are optional.
What this means for you
As the first step within the closure process, a proposal has been posted on Snapshot (Link). Should this proposal pass, the remaining treasury (approx. USD value of $950k) will be distributed to all X token holders, less approximately $60k USD which will be set aside for final operating costs & expenses incurred but not yet paid (i.e. Google services, basic web hosting, salaries, etc…). We will be calculating the X token balance to ensure tokens locked in contracts, or that are unclaimed, are accounted for correctly. Users who have a total X token balance of 5,000 tokens or more (approx. $1 USD in value) will receive their treasury allocation as an air drop. Those who have less than 5,000 tokens will be able to claim their treasury allocation directly on x.xyz. The website & claim function will be maintained until the domain is sold or expires. After which users will be able to claim through direct interaction with the smart contract for a period of 12 months from the date of the proposal passing. Any funds remaining after 12 months will be donated to The Giving Block. A tutorial on how to interact with the smart contract will be provided at a later date.
We will be taking a snapshot of all wallets at the conclusion of the voting proposal, should it pass.
There are 9 user groups who are impacted through the proposed closure of X Marketplace. There is no action required however, the impact to each group is slightly different:
- X token holders
- veX token holders
- Users with unclaimed listing rewards in X and/or veX tokens
- veX token holders with unclaimed WETH emissions
- Users with unclaimed listing rewards in ApeCoin tokens
- Users who have X tokens staked, escrowed and/or unclaimed X tokens in the X Staking Vault (https://x.vault.inc)
- Users who received X tokens on Fantom as part of our first airdrop
- Users with current offers on X Marketplace
- Users with NFTs listed on X Marketplace
The balance of the treasury will be allocated based on a user’s total X token balance along with any additional unclaimed rewards for that user.
A user’s total X token balance will be calculated as follows:
- Actual X token balance within the wallet (Ethereum + Fantom)
- Amount of X tokens locked for veX for that wallet. This is NOT the same as the user’s veX balance. The veX balance decays over time while the underlying X tokens locked remain consistent. Please refer to our medium post for more detail on how veX tokens work (https://medium.com/@x.xyz/update-vex-tokens-and-x-marketplace-c5ab669b5ae3).
- Amount of total X tokens locked within the X Vault contract. This will include the staked, escrowed and unclaimed X tokens. Not all users are currently able to unlock and the current price of the X token limits which users can withdraw/claim both their balance and rewards. While tokens will not move from the contract, the balance will be accounted for within the total X token balance for the user.
- Amount of X or veX tokens earned by the user in prior X Rewards campaigns but not claimed by the user. The X token balance for the veX earned will be based on the underlying amount of X tokens locked and not the veX balance.
Users who have unclaimed WETH emissions or unclaimed ApeCoin will receive the actual amount earned. These balances will not be folded into the treasury for disbursement.
- A small number of veX holders still have unclaimed WETH emissions. Users will receive these as an addition to the final ETH calculation for users.
- Users who have unclaimed ApeCoin token rewards from our prior X Reward campaign will receive those rewards in ApeCoin.
The distribution will be in ETH (non-ETH tokens within the treasury will be swapped to ETH first) except for the few accounts who have unclaimed ApeCoin.
What you need to do
While voting is entirely optional, we encourage all veX holders to vote on the current wind-down proposal. While users with X tokens staked within the Vault contract or with unclaimed X/veX token rewards are certainly allowed to claim their tokens, it’s not needed as we will be including these balances within the final X token allocation.
While we encourage any user with current listings and/or offers on X Marketplace to cancel those positions, otherwise we will close these manually when X Marketplace closes.
When the treasury will be allocated
Should the current wind-down proposal pass, a snapshot will be taken and the treasury will be allocated within 48–72 hours based on the X token calculations. Any X token movements post the closure of the vote will NOT be included in the final allocations.
How X team member token allocations are being handled
Core team members are allocated a certain amount of X tokens as part of their compensation. The amount varies by individual. This was subject to a 6 month cliff and a flat distribution per month over a 48 month vesting period (https://medium.com/@x.xyz/x-marketplace-token-launch-thursday-30-december-2021-47bfc03569c7). All unvested X tokens will be forfeited by the core team and will NOT be included within the treasury allocation calculation.
How X tokens currently held within the treasury will be handled
X tokens held in the treasury will be excluded from calculation of the treasury allocation to X token holders.
What happens to the current X token liquidity pool on Sushi Swap
X Marketplace currently provides the overwhelming majority of the liquidity currently on Sushi Swap (https://app.sushi.com/swap?inputCurrency=0x7f3141c4D6b047fb930991b450f1eD996a51CB26&outputCurrency=ETH&chainId=1). This LP has been removed with the posting of this proposal. Should the proposal not pass, the liquidity will be resupplied on Sushi Swap.
What happens to the additional assets of X Marketplace
There are three primary assets of X Marketplace that have potential value: The smart contract code, the x.xyz website domain and the apecoinmarketplace.xyz website domain. The smart contract code, as per the proposal, will be open sourced for the community. We will attempt to sell the two websites however, we do not anticipate this will be a quick process. Therefore, should we be successful in selling the domains at a later date, we will allocate those proceeds on the same basis and snapshot as the primary treasury. Should we not be successful, we will let them expire and not renew.
