Celestia Faces Backlash After Unclear OTC Sales Spark Debate

• Celestia community is upset over undisclosed OTC token sales, raising concerns about transparency.
• Celestia’s Lemongrass upgrade introduces 1-click Tia interactions and Interchain accounts, enhancing the network’s capabilities.

Latest reports indicate that the Celestia community is disappointed with the Celestia Foundation’s latest over-the-counter (OTC) token sales.

Critics in the community claim that these transactions were disguised as favorable news regarding funding, misleading regular investors into acquiring, while internal team members and venture capital (VC) investors chose to sell.

It was really easy to make things right for Celestia with this raise. All they had to do was:

>Disclose the valuation and the vesting

>Disclose that it was an OTC (if it actually was) and not a fundraising; the team just sold some tokens (or the fundation, whatever it really… pic.twitter.com/ehftFLbeJM

— Ericonomic (@ericonomic) September 25, 2024

Debate Over Celestia Transparency and Funding Rounds 

The biggest criticism is a lack of transparency, as the Celestia team failed to disclose that the transaction was an OTC sale rather than a true investment round.

This disclosure has created a debate over whether the foundation and its team should be more forthcoming about the valuation and specifics of such deals, ensuring that all stakeholders have a clear picture of the project’s financial activities.

This announcement comes shortly after Bain Capital Crypto led Celestia’s most recent fundraising round, which raised $100 million.

According to CNF, the large infusion of funds has boosted the Celestia Foundation’s overall funding to an astonishing $155 million, signifying a considerable increase in financial support for the project. This has been interpreted as a sign of rising trust and interest in Celestia’s vision and technological advances.

On the other hand, as CNF reported in August, Celestia announced its first significant upgrade, “Lemongrass,” which aims to bring a slew of new features and advancements to the network. The Lemongrass upgrade introduces 1-click Tia interactions, Interchain accounts, and a new upgrading method.

These additions are expected to considerably improve the general usefulness and interoperability of the Celestia network, hence contributing to its developing ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Celestia’s native token, TIA, is now trading at $6.37, up 9.22% over the last seven days. The latest price jump has increased its market cap to be more than $1.3 billion.