BlockProtocol (BLOCK)

Yesterday, @jean_deblock, the head of @DeblockApp, was a guest on @GRM_Web3 for a very interesting interview.

It contains some alphas (and I, your servant, dropped by at the end to say hello and talk about Fenua and service development on our islands).

I posted the YouTube replay link in the first comment, but here are some interesting pieces of information, in no particular order.

- Deblock has raised €56 million in three funding rounds since 2024.

- @Revolut's crypto cash‑out and bank withdrawal limits are €10,000 per month. Deblock imposes no limit.

- Card payments are now possible up to €30,000 (previously €10,000).

- Token $BLOCK: Jean was the crypto director at Revolut in 2021 when the British neobank was considering issuing a token. That shows he knows the subject (and associated risks).

- Deblock chose to announce the launch of $BLOCK AFTER its latest €30 million funding round. The message is that Deblock does NOT NEED an opportunistic token to raise money.

- That is also why $BLOCK was not pre‑sold (seed or pre‑sale) to any investment fund or other entity: the token will be distributed exclusively to the community.

- Team tokens are vested and cliffed, meaning they are locked for 1–2 years, then released gradually over 36 months.

- Additional constraint: Deblock members are not authorized to sell $BLOCK tokens while they are employed by the company. The same rule applies to the project’s NFTs (a mechanism typical of traditional business).

- Deblock plans to allocate €4 million for the $BLOCK launch: €2 million for CEX listings + €2 million for market makers and liquidity pools on DEXs.

- A TVL of €250–500 million is considered a realistic scenario for the launch.

- Among other mechanisms, Deblock intends to conduct token buybacks using the “inter‑bank rate” (0.1 % in France, 1 % elsewhere). This currently enables cashback; later it will be used to repurchase tokens, which will then be burned.

- The $BLOCK token is intended to be staked in order to earn cashback of up to 10 % of purchases (no cap).

- In its conservative scenario, Deblock hopes to have at least 1,000 staking users (out of roughly 300,000 currently).

- Token reserves (especially those redistributed via cashback) are meant to last about three years. After that, Deblock is considering deploying its own blockchain (the $BLOCK will be issued on Arbitrum).

- This initiative would also allow Deblock to control its own “Vaults” that generate yields, rather than relying on a third‑party service (currently Morpho).

- Airdrop and season 1: a $BLOCK bonus is planned for Vault users.

- Airdrop and the TGE are expected to occur simultaneously (exact date still unknown).

- BTC in Deblock’s treasury? It already exists for operational reasons, but there is no plan to become a “BTC Treasury.”

- Upcoming opening of L2 Bitcoin Spark.

- The “LED Card” has become a bit of a private joke… the team is disappointed with the provider’s work, refuses to ship anything imperfect, and is waiting for the new version with as much impatience as the customers.

- Imminent opening of the app’s Web version.

- Work on an account for miners (but a proper regulatory obligation takes time).

- Personal note: the 2,500 NFTs from the two official collections have reached over 1,100 ETH, i.e., €3.4 million on the secondary market. Remember these NFTs were airdropped for free to the community in 2023… similar to what will happen with the $BLOCK token (but we also recall that past performance does not guarantee future results).

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Link to the episode replay: https://t.co/he5sXb3FFp