Arena token surges 90% amid Paradigm’s $6m investment proposal
ArenaDAO’s governance token, arena (ARENA), experienced a significant surge in value, jumping 90% in the past 24 hours. This follows the opening of ArenaDAO’s vote to authorize Paradigm, a crypto native investment firm, to purchase 150 million tokens or 15% of the total supply for $6 million USDC.
As of March 17, the fully diluted valuation of ARENA sits at $101.6 million, but at Paradigm’s purchase price, the token had a fully diluted valuation of $40 million. The token’s 24-hour volume is currently at roughly $100,100.
The proposed sale of $6 million to Paradigm will be used as working capital for the DAO to grow Code4rena. This audit platform organizes security contests for smart contracts and offers guaranteed payouts for audit contests. The vote will end on March 23.
The author of the governance proposal expressed excitement about having Paradigm’s expertise in helping Code4rena achieve its shared mission of making the web3 ecosystem more secure. In 2022, $3.8 billion was stolen from DeFi protocols in hacks, highlighting the importance of improving security measures.
In the past 24 hours, a Code4rena token lock-up contract sent 55 million tokens to five addresses, two of which participated in the ongoing vote. Code4rena’s leaderboard shows that 46 users earned more than $40,000 for uncovering vulnerabilities last year.
Since ArenaDAO’s on-chain voting period, thirteen addresses have voted unanimously to allow the DAO to sell its tokens to Paradigm. According to data from blockchain analytics company Nansen, the number of unique addresses holding ARENA has increased by 10% since Monday.
Paradigm’s hands-on approach to blockchain safety is highlighted through its involvement with Code4rena and its web3-focused security competition, Paradigm CTF.
Last week, reports indicated that Paradigm, Pantera Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), three crypto venture capital firms, had potentially over $5 billion in funds held in custody by collapsed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
