The Ronin Treasury has made headlines with its announcement of a significant buyback program, aiming to purchase over $4 million worth of RON tokens from the open market. This strategic move is designed to decrease the current circulating supply of RON, potentially leading to an increase in its market value.
On Sunday, the Ronin Network, known for its focus on blockchain gaming, revealed that the buyback process will commence on September 29. Over a month, the treasury plans to convert all its Ether (ETH) and USDC (USDC) holdings into RON tokens. As of now, 693 million RON tokens are in circulation out of a total supply of 1 billion, giving the token a market capitalization of approximately $355.7 million.
The purpose of the buyback initiative is to further align the interests of the ecosystem, token holders, and developers as the Ronin platform transitions into a more robust layer-2 solution. The Ronin team expressed optimism that this plan will foster significant growth, particularly as interest in Web3 gaming resurges globally.
The Ronin Treasury currently holds assets worth around $5.5 million, with its largest asset being 896 Wrapped Ether (WETH), valued at roughly $3.9 million. Additionally, the treasury contains 652,000 USDC, approximately 1.2 million RON, wrapped RON, and various memecoins. These funds have been accumulated from transaction fees generated by the Katana decentralized exchange, Ronin Market, and Ronin Name Service over the past few years.
This buyback program amounts to about 1.3% of RON’s current circulating supply. Importantly, the treasury has no intention of selling its RON holdings, reflecting a commitment to the token’s stability and value enhancement.
In recent months, Ronin has been strategizing its return to the Ethereum ecosystem. In August, the network announced its plan to reestablish itself as a layer-2 network on Ethereum, aiming to leverage the Ethereum ecosystem’s growth. Originally launched in 2021 to provide faster and more cost-effective transactions for the Axie Infinity Web3 game, Ronin aims to regain its relevance amidst the expanding Ethereum landscape.
The network’s trust was severely impacted after a significant hack in March 2022, which saw the Ronin Bridge sidechain compromised, resulting in the loss of $600 million—the largest crypto hack to date. Following this incident, the total value locked in the network plummeted from approximately $1.2 billion to around $56 million as per DeFiLlama’s data.
In response to the buyback announcement, the price of RON experienced a notable uptick, climbing 11% to $0.54. However, it has since retracted slightly to $0.51 at the time of this report. Currently, RON remains down over 88% from its all-time high of $4.45, reached in March 2024. Over the past six months, the token’s price has largely remained stable.
The Ronin Treasury’s buyback program represents a bold step toward revitalizing the token’s market prospects and reaffirming the commitment of the Ronin Network to its community of token holders and developers.
