Cap Labs has closed its public CAP token auction with 1,002 unique bids, $16.4 million in total commitments, and a 5.5x oversubscription rate, the EigenLayer-backed stablecoin protocol announced Wednesday night.
The auction opened June 8 and drew a final clearing price of $0.011 across a total supply of 10 billion CAP tokens, yielding the $106 million FDV figure. Per Cap’s published tokenomics, the ICO allocation represents 5% of total supply, or 500 million tokens. At the clearing price, that tranche raised approximately $5.5 million.
Cap is a covered credit protocol that issues cUSD, a synthetic dollar backed by a basket of regulated stablecoins including $USDC, PYUSD, BlackRock’s BUIDL, and Franklin Templeton’s BENJI. Users who stake cUSD receive stcUSD, a yield-bearing version that earns returns from Cap’s operator network.
The protocol separates yield generation from risk management through three participant groups. Operators, typically institutional trading firms and market makers, borrow from Cap’s reserve to deploy yield strategies. Restakers, who lock capital via EigenLayer or Symbiotic, underwrite those operators and face slashing if an operator defaults. cUSD and stcUSD holders sit above the risk stack, insulated from losses by the restaker layer.
In the event of an operator default, Cap runs a Dutch auction on the restaker’s slashed collateral to replenish the reserve. Idle reserve capital not borrowed by operators is deployed into Aave or Morpho to generate a base yield floor for stcUSD holders.
Backing and Traction
Cap raised $11 million in seed funding in April 2025 from Franklin Templeton, Susquehanna, Triton Capital, and market makers Flow Traders, Nomura’s Laser Digital, GSR, and IMC Trading.
In its Q1 2026 investor update, Cap reported originating a $100 million revolving credit facility to Susquehanna Crypto, which it described as the largest onchain credit facility of its kind. Borrower adoption rose 175% over the quarter, with total loans outstanding up more than 300%.
The team had initially planned the token auction for Q1 2026 but postponed as ETH fell more than 30% in the past year.
Cap’s cUSD is deployed on Ethereum mainnet and on MegaETH. The protocol has also integrated with Pendle and Morpho, allowing yield-bearing stcUSD positions to be traded as term instruments or used as collateral.
The total stablecoin market stands at approximately $270 billion in combined supply, with USDT at $185.9 billion and $USDC at $74.6 billion, per DefiLlama. Ethena’s USDe, the largest yield-bearing stablecoin by circulation, holds $4.51 billion.
Token Structure
The CAP token gives holders governance rights over core protocol parameters: reserve asset composition, eligible operator collateral, liquidation thresholds, minting fees, borrower whitelisting, and maximum coverage limits. Per Cap’s tokenomics, 47.97% of supply goes to the ecosystem and community, with private investors and the project team each capped at 20%. The ICO tranche was 5%. Cliff-gated allocations for private investors, the team, and the Echo community sale begin unlocking 12 months post-TGE.
A 5.5x oversubscription means committed capital exceeded the available supply by more than five times. The $16.4 million in total commitments against the approximately $5.5 million raised implies the clearing mechanism returned the majority of committed capital to losing bidders. The batch-auction format, which clears all winning bids at a single price, concentrates genuine demand and avoids the gas-war dynamics of first-come-first-served sales.
