Student Coin announced the launch of the Student Coin Redemption program on Apr. 9 to buy back all STC tokens from holders across the project’s platforms.
This initiative follows careful consideration by the team and marks the end of the Web3-focused development and education project. According to the official announcement by the project's team, each Student Coin refund has been calculated on an individual basis. The calculations took into account factors such as the respective purchase prices of all the tokens and whether the STC coins were received via an airdrop or not.
During the Student Coin Redemption, tokens will be purchased at a price much higher than the current market rate, wrote the team. All of the project’s available funds, which were initially set aside to develop Student Coin, will also be put towards the redemption process.
Student Coin Background
Founded by a group of students from Warsaw, Poland, Student Coin was initially named“ALK Token.” The crypto quickly gained traction following a series of airdrops to students at Kozminski University and other Polish institutions. This heightened interest was enough to earn the crypto a spot on the Waves Exchange, setting the stage for international airdrop campaigns. By the end of 2020, STC reached 15,000 students from over 500 universities across the globe.
The Team Pushed to Bring More Value to the Token
The team sought to keep the positive momentum going by introducing more value into the Student Coin community. This led to the establishment of the STC Academy - a comprehensive online resource that covers topics such as blockchain, crypto, and personal security within the Web3 space.
Additional funding sourced by the team was then utilized to develop more sophisticated products such as the STC Wallet, an exchange and a terminal that students could make use of to deploy their own tokens. The years that followed saw the continued enhancement of these products, as well as the launch of Coinpaper, a fast-growing news outlet that has achieved an average monthly growth rate of around 19.75%.
Build up to the Student Coin Redemption
Several factors influenced the final decision to bring an end to the Student Coin project. Together with how difficult it has become to allocate capital towards growing the token’s fundamental value, other hurdles, such as the legal uncertainty surrounding the crypto space, as well as the mounting pressure on the team, were the main reasons that led to the decision to launch the Student Coin Redemption.
The crypto community’s prioritization of a crypto’s speculative performance over its overall development has exerted additional pressure on the Student Coin team, the team said in the announcement. This is especially true following STC’s meteoric 13,000% rise to an all-time high of $0.06599 per token after its listing in 2019. According to the team, this rapid ascent has resulted in unrealistic expectations from some in the community.
Realizing That the Expectations Were Too High
It quickly became clear to the Student Coin team that delivering on these high expectations would prove to be extremely difficult. Products, including the STC University, STC Academy, Coinpaper, STC Wallet, and the STC Terminal, were not enough to meet the community’s expectations. Increased spending for the development of the Student Coin ecosystem also did not have the desired effect, prompting the team to re-evaluate the project’s future direction.
Regulators have turned their attention to the burgeoning crypto space following the collapses of FTX, Celsius, and Luna as well. With the crypto space continuously evolving and the regulatory uncertainty that still clouds the digital asset sector, the Student Coin team said it has been restricted in terms of developing STC and the Student Coin offering. This is the reason planned initiatives such as converting the STC Wallet into an exchange and the expansion of the STC Terminal for partner startup crowdfunding were put on hold, according to the announcement.
With all of these factors considered, the team decided it would be best to buy back and then burn all STC tokens across the ecosystem through the Student Coin Redemption. This buyback initiative will be performed simultaneously across the STC Wallet and various open-market platforms such as the centralized exchange KuCoin and the decentralized Uniswap. Holders trading in the open market will also be able to sell their STC tokens on other platforms that support the crypto. The whole process of $STC token redemption is very complex and seems to take care of every token holder, which is outstanding in the cryptocurrency world. The Student Coin community expresses its support for the team in project chats and on social media.
The 5.1 billion tokens held by the Student Coin team will also not be redeemed and will instead be burned immediately with the aim of maintaining a high level of transparency during the Student Coin Redemption process.
Certain Holders Will Be Prioritized During the Student Coin Redemption
The Student Coin Redemption is a massive undertaking, given the varying backgrounds of all of the STC token holders. These token holders range from airdrop recipients to people who purchased STC tokens at different market prices throughout the project’s 5-year existence. In an effort to accommodate all holders fairly, certain groups will be prioritized by the Student Coin refund.
Tailored strategies have been designed for each group of holders to streamline the entire process. Participants of the STC launchpad will receive preferential treatment, said the announcement. Meanwhile, members in the Premium Holder Program will receive enhanced rewards during the Student Coin Redemption.
STC Wallet users will also be prioritized, with an “Aggregated Redemption Price” already calculated for all tokens housed in the project’s official wallet. This price was calculated based on each user’s transaction history and activity level within the STC Wallet.
Student Coin Redemption Deadlines
The Student Coin Redemption commenced on Apr. 9 at 4:00 PM (UTC). Due to time sensitivity, the project’s team has opted for a phased approach.
Tokens within the STC wallet will need to be redeemed by Jun. 9, 2024. Meanwhile, anyone who submits a redemption request will have the deadline extended to Oct. 9, 2024. Holders holding their tokens outside of the STC Wallet will also have until Oct. 9, 2024 to exchange their STC holdings on centralized platforms. Meanwhile, the Student Coin Redemption cut-off date for holders using the decentralized exchange Uniswap V3 is Apr. 9, 2029.
Tokens that are not redeemed by the above dates and are kept in the STC Wallet will automatically be burned. The funds that were reserved for the redemption of these STC coins will then be utilized as liquidity in the open market. More specifically, the capital will be used to enhance the pricing of STC on the open market to ensure the economic stability and value retention of the crypto over time, the announcement said.
Several Options Have Been Made Available for Holders
Token holders have several avenues to exchange their tokens during the Student Coin Redemption. For anyone who has tokens in the STC Wallet, the process can be completed directly within the application. Tokens on centralized exchanges or platforms other than the STC Wallet will need to be sold on the open market. For more information regarding the different ways STC can be redeemed.
The Student Coin team also emphasized that it will no longer be possible to deposit or withdraw STC tokens with the STC Wallet after Apr. 4, 2024. This is because prices for these tokens have already been locked in based on a snapshot taken that day.
