The release today of the MOCA token from Animoca Brands heralds the most anticipated token drop since the launch of PIRATE, and one that will affect a much wider audience and ecosystem!
Claims are open for the first round of the MOCA token airdrop, and Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands released a lengthy statement on his thoughts about tokens, network effects, and the future of the Mocaverse.
It's too long to post the entire thing here, but this part felt especially relevant.
We will continue to invest to grow our network and its related network effects, both economic and cultural, which in turn will provide the framework to expand the Moca Network, the interoperable economy of partner “subnets” and users connected to Mocaverse. At the same time, we will use the omni-chain token MOCA Coin, the utility and governance token that powers the Moca Network, to expand Animoca Brands' network and boost our growth.
So what exactly is Mocaverse? It is an interoperable infrastructure stack created to enhance network effects and bring together various cultural economies for maximum mutual benefit. It integrates diverse sectors including gaming, music, sports, anime, NFTs, digital identifiers (DID), and many more into a cohesive ecosystem where the success of one segment translates into benefits for the broader ecosystem.
Mocaverse is building Moca ID, an omnichain identity reputation layer that will bridge network effects across ecosystems and – since Animoca Brands is already one of the biggest investors in Web3 – help to drive the growth of the entire Web3 industry. Mocaverse and MOCA Coin represent cultural capital that today may appear objectified (like most NFTs) but will become more social and symbolic in meaning and purpose as Mocaverse's reputation layer grows and increasingly rewards and incentivizes the creation of cultural capital. This begins through a proof-of-loyalty mechanism and assessing how much value users contribute to the network.
Building in the Mocaverse will lay the foundation for anyone to benefit from the Animoca Brands ecosystem, emphasizing engagement and loyalty to the network. Through Moca ID and the attached reputation system, we aim to usher the most engaged and loyal users, builders, developers, dreamers, and entrepreneurs into our growing investment portfolio.
This statement just reinforces the fact that Animoca Brands is leaning heavily into the Mocaverse ecosystem, with Moca IDs, Realm Points and the Realm Network, and in particular, their MOCA token, which will function as both a utility and governance token.
MOCA has a fixed supply of 8,888,888,888 tokens with about 1.13T released with the TGE (token generation event). With vesting, it's expected that full MOCA distribution will occur over about 60 months.
MOCA will be the token for the Mocaverse ecosystem. It will be used as a payment currency for services and abstracted gas fees, as a “proof of loyalty” through staking and holding tokens, for governance voting, and more!
You can read more about the MOCA token on the Moca Foundation website, though oddly, the website is restricted in the U.S. (among other regions).
Anyone who was holding a Moca NFT, a Lucky Nekoverse NFT, or had a MOCA ID and had accumulated more than 1500 Rp (Realm Points), can claim their allocation of the MOCA token airdrop at https://claim.mocaverse.xyz/ (note: some region restrictions apply).
Claims will need to be done on a per-NFT basis, though luckily, gas fees has been pretty low lately.
MOCA token holders also have the option of staking their tokens to gain Staking Power. Staking Power will unlock benefits in the Moca ecosystem including access to token sales and staking pool rewards from various partners. Additionally, for the first 14 days (until July 25th), token stakers receive a 50% boost to their Staking Power earnings.
Moca NFT holders can soft stake their NFTs for an additional boost. However, if you list, sell, or transfer your Moca NFT, you will lose that boost. On top of that, those with Mocas who chose to claim later, the unclaimed 65% will still passively earn Staking Power as long as you soft stake the associated Moca NFT.
Unlike most token launches, so far, the value of MOCA has remained pretty steady. Supposedly, nearly 75% of those with airdrop allocations chose the ‘claim later’ option, deferring part of the claims during this first period in order to receive bonus tokens later on. This, plus many users staking their tokens for Staking Power seems to have kept MOCA from falling in value significantly.
MOCA token is currently tradeable on a number of centralized exchanges, and some of the decentralized exchanges are starting to see liquidity added as well. With the long reach of Animoca Brands, expect to see MOCA token available on more exchanges over the coming days!