SAN FRANCISCO, March 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Lit Protocol, a decentralized key management and compute network today announces the pre-sale of its native token $LITKEY. The pre-sale is scheduled for March 24th and will be conducted as a crowdsale on the Legion crypto fundraising platform, an alternative to traditional VC funding and a lever for decentralizing ownership in the protocol.
Using cutting-edge cryptography, sealed confidential hardware, and peer-to-peer networking, Lit Protocol empowers developers to perform secure signing, encryption, and compute operations for virtually any use case. This transforms secret management (private keys, API credentials, passwords, sensitive data, and more) into a programmable authentication and orchestration layer for the internet.
With over $150M in total value managed (TVM) Lit secures and automates actions across both traditional internet (Web2) and crypto-native (Web3) applications. As AI becomes the primary mode of interacting with the web, Lit Protocol enables agents to manage assets and credentials securely while bound by users' preferences. Teams building with Lit Protocol are delivering secure applications across DeFi, programmable Bitcoin, chain abstraction, tamper-proof AI agents, on-chain IP management, and beyond.
"We're extremely proud of having built a real product with provable market fit before launching our token," says Co-Founder David Sneider. "Given the traction we have with users, a public sale felt like the natural next step in long-term network sustainability and deepening the aligning our community with the protocol."
$3M of tokens will be included in this initial sale. Prices for the tokens will be available in tiers differentiated by length of lockup, with lower prices proposed to those willing to accept longer lockups. With a 1 year lockup, tokens will be sold at a $100M fully diluted valuation (FDV), with a 12 month linear vesting schedule they'll be priced at $150M FDV, and with no lockup $250M. This novel funding structure offers participants a range of risk profiles and incentivizes those who are aligned with the protocol over the long-term.
The $LITKEY token serves as a multi-faceted work, payment, and governance token, used to secure and pay for services on the Lit network as well as contribute to its growth and development through on-chain governance. Aside from securing Lit through staking and delegation, $LITKEY will be used by end developers to pay for the signing, encryption, and compute services provided by the network. Additionally, token holders will play an important role in helping steer the direction and future development of the protocol through on-chain governance.
Matt O'Connor, Founder of Legion, says "launches like Lit's are why I built Legion. Promoting equal access to early opportunities and allowing teams to connect with their communities realizes the full power and potential of tokenization. It's tokenization done for the right reasons."
Sneider added, "widely available public crowdsales like the ones organized on Legion are also great because by leveling the playing field for participation, decentralizing ownership, and encouraging network participation, they encourage long-term community involvement in the protocol."
