In December’s inaugural blogpost, we introduced DIME as the native token of the Paradex Network, and shared Paradex’s vision to bridge the gap between centralized and decentralized finance. The Paradex ecosystem—anchored by the flagship Paradex Exchange, the native yield-bearing synthetic dollar (XUSD), and the purpose-built Paradex Chain—forms a comprehensive foundation to drive the next wave of on-chain adoption. We introduced DIME as both the native gas token for the Paradex Chain and the binding element that aligns incentives across the growing ecosystem.

Since that announcement, we've refined our tokenomics design to ensure maximum alignment between all ecosystem participants, with an emphasis on team and community interests. Today, we're announcing important updates to the model that further strengthen this alignment and reinforce our long-term commitment to DIME being part of building a sustainable, decentralized financial ecosystem.

1. Revised Paradigm Shareholder Unlocks

After community feedback to the initial plan for 100% token unlock at listing, a more gradual unlock structure has been implemented for Paradigm and its shareholders (13.4% of total token supply).

The Paradigm shareholder allocation consists of three primary groups with the following unlock schedules:

This balanced approach allows tokens to transition to long-term holders while reducing market impact at listing and during the first trading year.

To ensure adherence to these lockups, robust contractual protections have been implemented. Investor and team agreements explicitly prohibit circumventing lockup restrictions through various means, including but not limited to:

• No selling or transferring locked tokens through any means, direct or indirect (any secondary sales require prior approval)
• No using financial instruments that effectively transfer token ownership benefits (i.e. OTC Derivatives or Swaps)
• No short-selling
• No using locked tokens as collateral

2. Performance-Based Team Unlocks

A cornerstone of our tokenomics design is the 80% performance-based unlock mechanism for the team (and common equity shareholders) allocation. This represents a necessary evolution in token distribution models, and we hope to see other teams follow this approach as it creates 100% alignment with the community.

We're already seeing this debate emerge in many crypto communities where concerns about time-based unlocks without corresponding value creation have surfaced. By tying the majority of team unlocks to measurable outcomes, the team succeeds only when the ecosystem thrives.

This isn't just about avoiding "rest and vest" scenarios—it's about setting new standards for accountable tokenomics. We hope this value-creation based approach becomes the industry standard.

Here's a detailed breakdown of how team unlocks will function:

The complete performance milestone framework for the first epoch will be published by Paradex prior to the DIME token listing, providing full transparency to the community.

This unlock schedule exists alongside a four-year performance-based vesting schedule for each team member, with vesting periods extending through the end of 2027 and beyond.

Alignment by Design

The crypto landscape has repeatedly demonstrated the dangers of misaligned incentives. Too often, projects with front-loaded token unlocks reward teams regardless of execution, creating conflicts between team and community interests. This pattern has been particularly damaging in crypto where tokens often serve as the primary adoption incentive before products achieve product-market fit.

Paradex is building for decades to come, not just the years ahead. The performance-based unlock mechanism ensures team commitment during crucial early years while governance structures are established that will evolve independently over time.

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