Introduction:

DEGEN is a reward token designed for Farcaster users, originating from meme culture. It features a unique tipping system to empower the community and reward high-quality content creators. Additionally, DEGEN serves as the native token for Degen Chain, one of the first Layer 3 blockchains launched on Base, often referred to as the “Las Vegas of blockchains.”

What is DEGEN? All You Need to Know About DEGEN

First introduced in the Degen channel of the decentralized Web3 social protocol Farcaster, DEGEN was created by the community as a meme coin to incentivize participation and content creation. In January 2024, DEGEN was officially launched on the Base chain. Its innovative incentive mechanism and meme culture quickly propelled it to become one of the most prominent memecoins in the Base ecosystem. In February, DEGEN raised 490.5 ETH in seed funding, with 1confirmation leading the round and participation from Farcaster OGs and other investors. Subsequently, Syndicate, a DAO infrastructure provider, leveraged Arbitrum Orbit and AnyTrust technology to launch a Base-based Layer 3 blockchain, Degen Chain, with DEGEN as its native token. DEGEN has since transitioned from a meme coin into a versatile ecosystem token. Now, it has garnered attention and support from many developers, crypto content creators, and enthusiasts. As of December 2024, the number of DEGEN holders has reached nearly 800,000.

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Project Timeline

January 2024: DEGEN was launched on the Base network as a community reward token for the Farcaster platform, designed to reward content creators and foster community engagement.

February 2024: Degen completed its seed funding and raised 490.5 ETH (approximately $1.47 million), with 1confirmation leading the round and participation from Farcaster OGs and others.

March 14, 2024: Dracula, a decentralized short-video platform, went live on the Base chain. It enables users to purchase content or support their favorite creators using DEGEN.

March 29, 2024: Degen partnered with Web3 infrastructure provider Syndicate to launch the L3 chain, Degen Chain, with DEGEN as its native token.

April 1, 2024: After its launch on Gate.io, DEGEN reached an all-time high price of $0.06459. It secured a market capitalization of approximately $735 million, making it the hottest meme coin on the Base network.

June 21, 2024: The subdomain Degen ENS was introduced, which allows users to claim Degen.eth subdomains on the platform, as well as set default wallet names, and customize profile avatars.

June 2024: Degen’s founder, Jacek, announced using OpenRank-based social graph data to assess user activity levels and the increased rewards for badge-holding active users. This disrupted the original fair distribution mechanism, sparking community controversy. As a result, DEGEN’s price plummeted, falling below $0.01 by the end of the month, with its market cap dropping below $100 million.

July–November 2024: As the crypto market recovered, DEGEN was listed on major exchanges, and its price rebounded to around $0.02.

November 7, 2024: Degen announced plans to migrate DEGEN L3 to address challenges with the Conduit rollup deployment platform, potentially requiring the launch of a new chain.

November 26, 2024: Degen announced its deployment on the Ethereum mainnet and Arbitrum.

DEGEN Tokenomics

With a total supply of 37 billion tokens, DEGEN is designed with no pre-mining or private sales to promote fairness. 705 of the supply is allocated to the community, while the remaining 30% is designated for ecosystem development and liquidity support. Of the 15% reserved for ecosystem development, one-third (equivalent to 5% of the total supply) is locked in a two-year vesting contract, set to unlock in July 2026, which ensures transparency and equitable distribution. Beginning in 2028, DEGEN will introduce a controlled annual inflation rate of 1% to sustain long-term ecosystem growth.

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According to DEGEN’s tokenomics model, 70% of the genesis supply is allocated for community distribution. Of this, 60% is distributed through three rounds of airdrops, while the remaining 10% is reserved for liquidity mining rewards.

The first airdrop accounts for 15% of the total supply and is directly tied to user activity on Farcaster. Users earn Degen Points based on their likes, reposts, and follower count on Farcaster. Additionally, holders of Farcaster-related NFTs will receive bonus points. Each point corresponds to one DEGEN token. The first airdrop has now concluded.

The second airdrop was designed in phases to incentivize users to engage deeply in ecosystem building. It has reached Season 11, with each season having independent snapshot dates. The airdrop rules are dynamically adjusted based on user feedback and community needs. Users earn points by receiving tips on the Farcaster platform.
Furthermore, Degen introduced “Raindrops,” a feature that rewards users with DEGEN tokens to encourage replies, thus boosting engagement on Farcaster posts. Creators can set the amount of DEGEN for the airdrop. If the amount exceeds 5,000 DEGEN, Degen founder Jacek will automatically repost the content to increase visibility. Degen has steadily built a vibrant and active community ecosystem through these seasonal airdrops.

It’s worth noting that after Jacek announced the second round of airdrops, the community responded enthusiastically, but the campaign also drew in spammers. To mitigate this, the second round requires users to hold at least 10,000 DEGEN tokens to be eligible for rewards.

Source: warpcast

The third airdrop has not yet commenced.

In addition to the three airdrops, 10% of the genesis supply is allocated for liquidity mining rewards. Users can participate by providing liquidity to the Uniswap V3 DEGEN/WETH pool. In addition to earning trading fees as liquidity providers (LPs), users earn points based on the amount of liquidity provided and its alignment with the current price range. These points can be redeemed for DEGEN rewards.

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Degen Chain

Degen Chain is a community-centered Layer 3 blockchain designed specifically for DEGEN and related meme tokens, with DEGEN serving as its native token. Built on Arbitrum Orbit, Degen Chain uses the Base network as its settlement layer and leverages AnyTrust for data availability services. It supports various applications, including DeFi, GameFi, and NFTs. As of now, the total number of deployed smart contracts on the Degen Chain is approaching 110,000, with over 180,000 unique addresses.

Source: explorer.degen

Here are some key applications within the Degen Chain ecosystem:

1. DegenSwap: DegenSwap is the largest decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Degen Chain. In addition to experiencing standard token swaps and staking features, users can earn trading fees by providing liquidity.

2. NFTdegen: NFTdegen is the first NFT platform on the Degen Chain. Each NFT collection features a built-in liquidity pool, which ensures consistent liquidity and solves the common issue of insufficient liquidity on traditional NFT platforms. Beyond static image NFTs, users can mint music and video NFTs and sell or auction them directly on the platform.

3. Degen Names: Degen Names is a decentralized domain name service on the Degen Chain. They can be used as usernames on NFTdegen.lol and other Degen Chain dApps. Pricing follows a gradient based on name length and rarity, starting at a minimum of 69 DEGEN.

4. DINU: DINU is a meme token created by the developers of DegenSwap. It features a fair launch distribution model with no pre-mining or team allocations. It is driven entirely by its active community, with a capped total supply of 1 billion tokens.

5. Degen Cet: Degen Cet (CET) is a cat-themed meme token built on the Degen Chain, also with a maximum supply of 1 billion tokens.

Users must bridge their DEGEN tokens to the Degen Chain to access these applications. The process is straightforward:

First, add Degen Chain’s network information to your wallet.

Then, visit the Degen Bridge, select the source network and token type, and set DEGEN as the target token.

Finally, connect your wallet and pay the gas fee to complete the bridging process.

Degen chain’s information

The latest official announcements reveal that Degen Chain will soon introduce a range of developer tools to support its expanding ecosystem, including Standardized REST and GraphQL APIs for diverse Web3 operations, high-speed indexing tools to enable custom chain queries, beginner-friendly account abstraction tools to simplify the development process, and a dedicated testnet. All enables developers to build and test applications without engaging with the production environment, providing strong technical support for the ecosystem’s growth.

Degen Chain stands out for its low-cost transactions, community-driven development, and ecosystem support for its native token, DEGEN. Its transaction fees are significantly lower than those of other Layer 2 blockchains, which offers users a cost-effective experience. As a community-oriented project, Degen Chain prioritizes the needs of its members to ensure sustainable growth and vitality within its ecosystem. This positions it as an efficient and user-centric Layer 3 blockchain.

Degen vs. Dogecoin and Shiba Inu

Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are also meme coins that have their own blockchains.

Dogecoin was introduced in December 2013 as a playful and humorous take on existing cryptocurrency technology. Initially developed as a fork of Litecoin, the Dogecoin blockchain uses Scrypt as part of its Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm. In contrast to Degen, which has a fixed supply of 37 billion tokens, Dogecoin operates on an inflationary model with no maximum supply. Around 5 billion new Dogecoins are mined annually and added to the market.

Shiba Inu, in contrast, is an ERC-20 token launched on Ethereum by an anonymous developer known as Ryoshi, inspired by the Japanese Shiba Inu dog breed. The Shiba Inu team is actively expanding its ecosystem by developing new features and layers, including Shibarium—a Layer 2 solution incorporating a unique Proof-of-Participation consensus mechanism and EVM compatibility to lower transaction fees and enhance transaction speeds.

Although both Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have seen notable market success, they remain relatively conservative in technical progress and ecosystem development, with fewer groundbreaking innovations compared to Degen.

Other Use Cases for DEGEN

The utility of DEGEN extends beyond the Degen Chain, encompassing the broader Base ecosystem and the Farcaster platform. On Farcaster, designed to reward quality content creators, DEGEN is used by users to tip their favorite content.

Several Base ecosystem projects have adopted DEGEN as a payment method across various applications, including NFT minting, prediction games, and sports interactions. For instance:

Zora enables users to mint NFTs with DEGEN.

Drakula uses DEGEN as its primary trading token which can be used by users to purchase or support their favorite creators.

Sports prediction and trading platforms like Bracket.Game and prediction game Perl use DEGEN for payments.

The popular anonymous social platform on the Base blockchain, Anoncast, also accepts DEGEN tips.

Additionally, Degen plans to expand DEGEN’s adoption across other blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Binance Smart Chain, and Solana, which positions DEGEN as the “USDC of the meme token space.” As of December 2024, DEGEN has already been deployed on Ethereum and Arbitrum networks, in addition to Base and Degen Chain. Users can leverage Stargate for cross-chain transfers.

How to Acquire DEGEN

You can purchase DEGEN on both centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges. For example, the well-established Gate.io offers the DEGEN/USDT trading pair.

To buy DEGEN on Gate.io, you will need to:

1. Create a Gate.io account and complete the registration process.
2. Deposit funds into your spot trading account.
3. Follow the steps to purchase DEGEN.

Take Action on DEGEN

Check DEGEN’s price today and start trading DEGEN/USDT.