Stable presale explodes with rat trading! Bitfinex advances 500 million, the team insists on launching the second phase of pre-storage.

Layer 1 Blockchain Stable will launch the second phase of its pre-storage activities next week. The $825 million cap for the first phase last week was reached in about 22 minutes after opening, but community members accused of “rat trading” behavior. On-chain analysts monitored that a suspected Bitfinex Address mortgaged 300,000 ETH to borrow 500 million USDT to participate in the Stable pre-deposit.

Stable Pre-sale Phase 1 RATS Trading Full Analysis

(Source: X)

Last week, the $825 million cap for the first phase of Stable was reached about 22 minutes after it was opened. However, several X users accused the first phase of “rat trading” behavior, pointing out that on-chain data showed that most deposits came from a few large wallet clusters, which had completed fund transfers before the official announcement was made. Members of the crypto community reviewed this and complained that such actions limited the space for ordinary retail investors to participate.

The most explosive evidence comes from on-chain data analyst Yu Jin. He pointed out on platform X that on the evening of the 23rd, a suspected Bitfinex address was monitored to have collateralized 300,000 ETH (worth $1.17 billion) on Aave, borrowed 500 million USDT, and transferred it out. After the Stable pre-deposit activities started on the 24th, the flow of these funds was confirmed, revealing that Bitfinex participated in Stable's deposits, effectively pre-allocating a share of 500 million dollars.

Yuzhu also pointed out that the same Address deposited 200 million USDT to sprint the total locked value (TVL) when the Plasma mainnet launched at the end of September, and yesterday redeemed this fund from Plasma to participate in Stable pre-deposit. It is worth noting that both Plasma and Stable are supported by investment from Bitfinex. This movement of funds between related projects has further deepened the community's suspicion of利益輸送.

An even more shocking timeline evidence is that the official announcement from Stable was released at 9:10 AM Taiwan time, but the first deposit appeared as early as 8:48 AM. This 22-minute time difference is the most direct evidence of rat trading. Further tracking shows that about 70% of the funds (approximately 500 million USD) were deposited by 10 wallets directly associated with the owners of Stable Vault before the announcement was made. These addresses are speculated by the community to be insiders or partners who laid out their positions in advance, seizing the early participation opportunity from ordinary users.

Stable Pre-sale Phase One Controversial Data:

Total Amount: 825 million USD | Target Time: 22 minutes

Successful Addresses: Only 274 | Average per Address 3 million USD

Bitfinex Suspected Share: 500 million USD (accounting for 60% of the total)

Advance Deposit Ratio: Approximately 70% (about 500 million USD) completed before the announcement.

Time Difference Evidence: Announcement published at 9:10 | First deposit appeared at 8:48

The huge contrast of 274 addresses has triggered the anger of retail investors

(Source: Arkham)

According to Ai Yi's monitoring, it seems that the quota of 825 million USD is super high, but surprisingly, there were only 274 wallet addresses that successfully participated in this remittance. In other words, it is indeed the whales and institutions that took away the vast majority of the quota, leaving almost no opportunity for retail investors. The 274 addresses sharing 825 million USD means that each address received an average quota of about 3 million USD, a figure that far exceeds the participation capacity of retail investors.

This extreme concentration is extremely rare in the history of cryptocurrency presales. Typically, even popular projects' presales would have thousands or even tens of thousands of addresses participating, showcasing broad community support. However, the 274 addresses participating in Stable's presale indicate that this presale is essentially a private placement aimed at whales and institutions, rather than a public presale genuinely open to the community. This practice severely undermines the project's decentralization narrative and fairness commitment.

The community's anger is understandable. Many retail investors prepared funds in advance and tried to participate immediately after the official announcement, only to find that the quota had already been snatched up. They later discovered that the vast majority of the funds had already been deposited by associated addresses before the announcement was made. This feeling of being deceived and excluded has raised serious doubts within the community about the fairness and transparency of the Stable project.

Members of the crypto community have scrutinized this and complained that it severely limits the space for ordinary retail investors to participate. Several KOLs and analysts expressed critical opinions on platform X, arguing that this practice goes against the decentralized spirit of cryptocurrency and resembles the networking games of traditional finance. If Stable cannot properly address this controversy, it may lose community support even before its official launch.

Second Phase Improvement Measures and Investment Risk Alerts

The second phase of the activity will set a deposit limit for each wallet along with individual participation conditions, which may prevent a few major whale wallets from dominating the overall deposit amount. However, Stable has not directly responded to the controversies of the first phase and has yet to announce any specific improvement measures. Stable stated that more details about the second phase will be published on X.

From a technical perspective, setting a deposit limit for each wallet is a common anti-witch attack measure, but its effectiveness depends on the level of the limit set. If the limit is set too high (e.g., 1 million USD), whales can still dominate through a single address; if set too low (e.g., 10 thousand USD), it may not attract enough large funds. In addition, whales can easily create multiple wallets to bypass the single address restriction, so the actual effect of this measure remains to be seen.

Stable is supported by USDT0 and Bitfinex (a cryptocurrency exchange closely related to Tether), and its team is developing a high-performance network optimized for USDT payments and decentralized applications (dApps). The network will use Tether's USDT as its native token for paying transaction fees and will offer gas-free peer-to-peer USDT transfers. This design is theoretically appealing because it eliminates the friction of users needing to hold the native token to pay gas fees.

Stable completed a $28 million seed round financing in July this year, with leading investors including Hack VC. Its core features include native gas fees paid in USDT, EVM compatibility to facilitate DeFi protocol migration, and application scenarios focusing on payments, DeFi, and real-world assets (RWA). Currently in the private testnet phase, the mainnet is expected to go live in Q4 2025 or Q1 2026. Ecological partners include Morpho Labs, Frax Finance, Pendle, USDT0, and LayerZero.

Risk Warning for Investing in Stable:

Transparency Crisis: The first phase of the rat trading controversy was not properly handled, damaging the project's reputation.

Centralization Concerns: Bitfinex's deep involvement raises worries about conflicts of interest.

Unfriendly to Retail Investors: The presale mechanism is clearly biased towards whales and institutions, leading to a decline in community support.

Mainnet Delay Risk: Currently, only a private testnet is available, and there is still uncertainty regarding the timeline for the official launch.

Although the pre-deposit activities of Stable have demonstrated a strong ability to attract funds, the controversy surrounding rat trading may affect the project's reputation. The community is calling on the official team to increase transparency, such as opening deposits in batches or publicly auditing the process. However, Stable has not yet responded directly to the concerns, only stating that the next phase will be launched soon.