It looks like @As_Hatom, the CEO of Soul Protocol, had an insightful conversation with the @DefiantNews team about all things Soul. Don’t miss the full podcast to explore how Soul fits into the current DeFi landscape and the unique solutions it brings to the ecosystem. ( )

A new DeFi era needs a return to fundamental primitives. Announcing Soul Public Sale! DeFi is entering a new era, led by protocols that bring real innovation, but to live up to its full potential, it needs to re-embrace its founding ethos with broad distribution and fair allocation. Soul is part of this: a 0-to-1 DeFi primitive that reimagines and unites crypto lending, built to unlock a new category of opportunities for users and enabling new DeFi economies led by increased efficiency and new on-chain dynamics. The launch of our Testnet has been a significant initial milestone in our journey, and we are beyond grateful to see such a warm welcome from our early community members! With this being just the first step of a long path ahead, we are excited to announce another significant milestone we are gearing up towards. Introducing the $SO Token Fair Public Round on May 16th! As a fully decentralized protocol, our goal is not to lead a community, but to lead together with the community! We are big believers that a united goal to create a change in the world will bring the strongest foundations for long-term success. We are excited to share with you that Soul successfully raised $4M in a private round from valuable partners such as @XVentures_Fund, @tpcventures, and @rv_inc alongside angels from @coinbase, @LayerZero_Core, @flowdesk_co, and @pisquared. This was an important step to support the early development of the protocol and bring the initial vision to life. However, we believe that the true value of Soul should be established transparently, through broad community participation, rather than being set by private market dynamics. To support this, we are introducing the Fair Public Round for the $SO Token. A process designed to ensure equal access, fair valuation, and eliminate preferential terms for early participants. // The problem Over the past few years, a familiar pattern has emerged across the crypto sector. Projects often raise substantial capital through private rounds, securing early valuations and preferential terms for a limited group of participants. When a public round is eventually offered, it typically comes at a significantly higher valuation, offering fewer opportunities and limited upside for retail investors. This approach creates a fundamental imbalance, restricting participation and disconnecting value creation from important groups who also contribute to a project's success: users, supporters, and builders. At Soul, we believe there is a better model, one that aligns incentives from the beginning and builds stronger foundations for long-term growth. By giving the community the opportunity to participate early and on fair terms, we enable those who contribute to Soul’s success to directly benefit from the value they help create. // A new ICO era emerges An era in which initial valuations are not decided around a table of early private participants, but by the open and public participation itself. In 2017–2018, we witnessed one of the most dynamic periods in crypto history: the ICO era. A time when anyone, anywhere in the world, could participate meaningfully in the early growth of projects they believed in. Access was open, participation was broad, and innovation was funded directly by the community. Over time, however, that spirit of openness faded. The rise of private rounds and exclusive allocations shifted the landscape toward more traditional fundraising models, limiting access and weakening the connection between projects and their communities. We believe it's time to restore that original spirit, to rebuild a model where openness, fairness, and community participation are at the core of crypto startup innovation. // Pushing for an ICO 2.0 Era At Soul, we are committed to building a foundation that prioritizes fair participation and long-term alignment. 25% of the total token supply will be allocated to the community through this Public Round, establishing the basis for strong, decentralized governance as the protocol launches. Soul’s valuation will be determined upon the conclusion of the Public Sale, based solely on the capital raised during the round. We are equally committed to avoiding the common pitfalls of low circulating supply and artificially high FDV. All tokens offered in the public round will be fully unlocked at TGE, allowing for a transparent, market-driven valuation from the outset. // $SO Utility The $SO token is an essential component of the Soul Protocol, designed to drive governance, gauge voting, yield boosting, and value sharing. Rather than existing as a speculative asset, $SO is structured to reward participation, align incentives across stakeholders, and strengthen long-term protocol sustainability. Its utility is directly tied to protocol adoption and engagement, ensuring that value creation flows to those who contribute meaningfully to the protocol. Soul rejects short-term incentive models such as liquidity mining, which often generate unsustainable growth. Instead, prioritizes product-driven revenue and long-term value accrual, distributing rewards to $SO stakers and active participants in proportion to their contributions. Governance & Emissions Control $SO is the governance token of the Soul Protocol, enabling holders to participate in critical decision-making processes. Through governance proposals and emission gauge voting, $SO holders directly influence the allocation of incentives across Soul’s integrated Money Markets, ensuring that ecosystem growth is aligned with stakeholder interests. Boosted Yields Through Staking Staking $SO enhances users' lending positions by granting access to additional yield opportunities on top of base APYs. This mechanism directly links token utility to core protocol activity, ensuring that demand for $SO is driven by real usage rather than speculative behavior. Revenue Sharing & Buyback Mechanism The protocol’s fee switch will direct a portion of collected revenue to purchase $SO tokens from the open market, which will then be redistributed to stakers through emissions and reward mechanisms. This model will directly link protocol revenue to tokenholder rewards, ensuring that $SO ownership is economically tied to the protocol’s activity and long-term growth. For full details on tokenomics, please visit our dedicated page: app.soul.io/buy