Research Report | Detailed Analysis and Market Capitalization of Plasma (XPL) Project

Bitget App

Trade smarter

Bitget

News

Bitget2025/09/19 08:08

Show original

By:远山洞见

1. Project Introduction

Plasma is a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain specifically designed for stablecoin payments, aiming to solve four major issues currently present in stablecoin transfers: high transaction fees, poor user experience, low degree of functional abstraction, and slow settlement speed. Its core goal is to provide low-latency, high-throughput transaction capabilities to meet the stringent performance and reliability requirements of financial infrastructure.

Plasma uses a customized PlasmaBFT consensus protocol based on Fast HotStuff to achieve rapid transaction finality, and achieves full EVM compatibility through the Reth execution engine, enabling smooth migration and deployment of smart contracts and decentralized applications.

One of the project's major technical highlights is its built-in minimal trust Bitcoin bridge, enabling trustless cross-chain asset transfers with the Bitcoin mainnet. In addition, Plasma is deeply optimized for stablecoin applications, supporting custom gas tokens and zero-fee USDT transfers, significantly reducing user transaction costs.

According to ARK Invest's "BIG IDEAS 2025" report released earlier this year, the annualized stablecoin transaction volume in 2024 reached 15.6 trillion USD, accounting for 119% and 200% of Visa and Mastercard's transaction volumes, respectively. As the true "killer app" in the crypto space, stablecoins play a key role in payments, cross-border settlements, DeFi, and on-chain transactions, attracting an increasing number of emerging projects and traditional enterprises to accelerate their deployment and build new product ecosystems around them.

The Plasma team is taking stablecoin infrastructure as its entry point, dedicated to building a high-throughput, scalable blockchain designed specifically for stablecoins, with the goal of becoming the global settlement and issuance layer for digital dollars. The team believes that current mainstream public chains have obvious limitations in stablecoin applications: Ethereum was the first to support stablecoins, but due to high gas fees, it is difficult to meet the needs of payment scenarios; Tron has won the market with low fees and fast transactions, but the limited number of nodes and control by a single entity make the network overly centralized.

To address the issues of high cost and centralization, Plasma proposes a new blockchain solution designed specifically for stablecoins: it plans to build on a sidechain of the Bitcoin mainnet, while being fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This design aims to ensure the foundation of decentralized financial activities, fully leverage Bitcoin's security, and achieve zero-fee USDT transactions, thereby unlocking the potential of the multi-trillion-dollar stablecoin market.

II. Project Highlights

High-Performance Blockchain Optimized for Stablecoins

Plasma is tailored for stablecoin use cases, with optimized features such as custom gas tokens and zero-fee USDT transfers, significantly lowering user costs, improving transfer efficiency, and supporting large-scale stablecoin circulation.

Customized Efficient Consensus & EVM Compatibility

The PlasmaBFT consensus protocol, modified from Fast HotStuff, enables two-phase rapid transaction commitment and high-efficiency finality. With Byzantine nodes below 33%, the network maintains strong security. The Reth-based execution engine ensures Ethereum-level smart contract and dApp compatibility, guaranteeing developer ecosystem consistency and platform openness.

Built-in Trust-Minimized Bitcoin Bridge

The native Bitcoin bridge, using its own consensus and cryptographic state submission mechanism, functions as a sidechain and allows direct asset anchoring and cross-chain transfers with the Bitcoin network without traditional intermediaries. This enhances cross-chain security and asset liquidity, further enriching ecosystem scenarios.

Energy Efficiency and Environmental Benefits

Plasma operates on a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) driven PlasmaBFT consensus mechanism, significantly reducing energy consumption. Estimated first-year energy use is ~200,000 kWh, with CO₂ emissions of only 91.8 tons—1/761 of SWIFT’s and 1/16 of Visa’s—demonstrating significant environmental advantages.

3. Economic Model

Token Allocation

The initial supply will be set at 10,000,000,000 XPL when the mainnet test version goes live. Subsequent programmed issuance will be further explained in the “Validator Network” section below. The allocation and unlocking plan for XPL is as follows.

Research Report | Detailed Analysis and Market Capitalization of Plasma (XPL) Project image 0

Public sale accounts for 10% (1,000,000,000 XPL), with the following unlocking rules:

XPL purchased by non-US buyers will be fully unlocked when the Plasma public chain testnet goes live.
XPL purchased by US buyers is subject to a 12-month lock-up period and will be fully unlocked on July 28, 2026.

Ecology and Growth account for 40% (4,000,000,000 XPL), with the following unlocking rules:

800,000,000 XPL (8% of total supply) will be unlocked immediately when the Plasma mainnet test version goes live, to be used for partial DeFi incentives with strategic partners, liquidity needs, supporting exchange integration, and early ecosystem growth activities.
3,200,000,000 XPL (32% of total supply) will be unlocked monthly on a pro-rata basis over the next three years.

Team accounts for 25% (2,500,000,000 XPL), with the following unlocking rules for team allocation:

One third of the team tokens will have a one-year cliff from the date of the Plasma public chain testnet public sale.
The remaining two thirds will be unlocked monthly on a pro-rata basis over the following two years.

Investors account for 25% (2,500,000,000 XPL), with the following unlocking rules: 25% (2,500,000,000 XPL), the unlocking rules for XPL purchased by investors are the same as those for team allocation.

Research Report | Detailed Analysis and Market Capitalization of Plasma (XPL) Project image 1

XPL inflation rules: The initial annual inflation rate for validator rewards is 5%, decreasing by 0.5% per year until the long-term benchmark of 3%, while the base transaction fees are permanently burned to counteract inflation.

Token Functions

- Network Security: Participate in validator node staking to ensure long-term security and reliability of the network; stakers will be penalized for improper behavior;

- Transaction Fee Payment: XPL serves as the mainnet fee payment method, with native support for custom gas tokens; in the future, stablecoins (such as USDT) will be allowed to pay part of the fees;

- Governance Rights: XPL holders can participate in protocol governance, including parameter adjustments, protocol upgrades, and ecosystem proposals; specific governance methods will be gradually implemented with the mainnet launch;

- Stablecoin Exclusive Tools: Such as the planned zero-fee USDT transfer and block incentive mechanism, continuously optimizing the stablecoin user experience.

4. Team and Fundraising Information

Team Information

Paul Faecks (CEO & Co-founder): Former CEO and Co-founder of Alloy (institutional investment platform);

Arian Soumeh (COO): Participated in the development of multiple crypto projects, including Blast and Blur;

Zaheer Ebtikar (CSO): Founder of Split Capital, former portfolio manager at LedgerPrime, and research partner at Deribit.

Fundraising

Research Report | Detailed Analysis and Market Capitalization of Plasma (XPL) Project image 2

Seed and Series A: Raised $24 million, led by Framework Ventures and Bitfinex/USD₮0, with top institutions such as DRW/Cumberland, Flow Traders, 6th Man Ventures, IMC, Nomura, and Karatage participating. Strategic angel investors include Paolo Ardoino (Bitfinex CTO), Peter Thiel, Cobie, and Zaheer Ebtikar. Founders Fund (founded by Peter Thiel) is also an important strategic supporter.

Public sale fundraising target was $50 million, with a valuation of $500 million, oversubscribed by 7.46 times, and 3,108 addresses participated.

5. Potential Risk Warning

1. Selling Pressure Risk

Short-term (mainnet launch to 12 months): Selling pressure is relatively limited and controllable.

Medium to long term (12 months to 3 years): There will be a peak in selling pressure as US public sale, team, and investor tokens are unlocked in concentration; the market needs to pay attention to liquidity and demand matching.

Long-term (after 3 years): Overall release is complete, selling pressure risk is eliminated, and the supply and demand of XPL in the market gradually stabilizes.

Research Report | Detailed Analysis and Market Capitalization of Plasma (XPL) Project image 4

6. Official Links

Website: https://www.plasma.to/

Twitter: https://x.com/PlasmaFDN

Disclaimer: This report is AI-generated and only manually verified for information. It does not constitute any investment advice.

Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.

PoolX: Earn new token airdrops

Lock your assets and earn 10%+ APR

Lock now!