First off, what is Stride?

1. Stride is the largest LST provider in Cosmos, with $34M TVL, offering LSTs such as stATOM, stTIA, stOSMO, stdYdX, and more.

   
   

2. Just a few weeks ago, the team announced Stride Swap, the first IBC Eureka native DEX built on the Cosmos Hub.

Stride's History

• June 2022: Stride Labs founded by Vishal, Aidan, and Riley

• Aug 2022: $6.7M raised in seed round

• Sept 2022: Mainnet launch, first LST provider in Cosmos with stATOM

• July 2023: Stride becomes the 2nd ICS consumer chain on the Hub

• Feb 2024: stTIA launch

• April 2024: TVL on Stride exceeds $200M

• April 2025: ICF investment to build Stride Swap on the Cosmos Hub

Token Overview

• Max supply: 100M

• Circulating supply: 92.4M

• Market Cap: $38M

• FDV: $41M

• Token Price: $0.41 / ATH $7.06

• Rank: #795

Token Distribution: Terminal Supply

• 31% Community incentives

• 24.2% Dev Team

• 16.7% Partners/Investors

• 10.9% Strategic Reserve

• 6.3% Airdrop

• 5.2% Staking rewards

Token Vesting Schedule

• As of June 2025, 91% of the $STRD supply is unlocked.

• By Oct. 1st, 2025, 100% of the supply will be unlocked and circulating.

Except for a few tokens sold in later funding rounds that are vesting until March 2026 (see next slides).

Supply Schedule

• 8.9M $STRD are still vesting (team & investors allocation).

• By October 2025, these tokens will be fully unlocked and circulating.

Investors and Funding

Seed Sale (Partners bucket):

• Amount Raised: $6.7M

• Tokens sold: 16.7M

• Price: $0.4/STRD

• Date: May 2022

Incentive Diversification Sale (Prop #153):

• Amount Raised: $1.5M

• Tokens sold: 3M

• Price: $0.5/STRD

• Date: March 2023

Strategic Celestia Fundraise:

• Amount Raised: $4M

• Tokens sold: 4M

• Price: $1/STRD

• Date: Jan 2024

Interchain Foundation Fundraise:

• Amount Raised: Undisclosed

• Tokens sold: Undisclosed (equity-token mix)

• Date: April 2025

Total amount raised: $12.2M + ICF funds
Total tokens sold: 23.7M STRD + tokens sold to ICF

Investors Vesting (all funding rounds)

• Team & seed unlocks end by October 2025.

• Incentive diversification unlocks end by March 2026 (3M STRD).

• Strategic Celestia sale unlocks end by January 2026 (4M STRD).

STRD Inflation

• Current inflation: 2.2%

• Staking APR: 1.52%

• Bonded tokens: 22.1% / 20.4M $STRD

• Unstaking period: 14 days

Notes:

• 5.2% of the total supply was earmarked for staking rewards.

• 1-year halvenings: Next halvening will occur in Sept. 2025 (2.2% → 1.1%)

• Interchain Security (ICS) means Stride no longer needs high inflation to pay for security.

• Vesting tokens can be staked, but are not eligible for staking rewards.

STRD Burn

• Governance Prop #252 redirected all protocol fees to buyback and burn.

• First burn batch was executed in March 2025; 300K $STRD burned

• Total burn: 417,879 $STRD

At the current burn rate, 1.2M $STRD would be burned yearly — that’s 1.2% of the total supply.

*This does not include additional revenue from Stride DEX swap fees, which could further accelerate the buyback and burn mechanism.

Follow the STRD Burn Bot on X.

STRD Token Utility

1) Governance: Participation in on-chain governance.

2) Protocol Fees: STRD token holders benefit from fees generated by the protocol. 80% of these fees are used to buy back and burn STRD.

15% of the fees benefit $ATOM in exchange for providing security via Interchain Security (ICS).

*The disposition of protocol fees is subject to change based on STRD governance.

STRD Value Accrual

Revenues from LSTs and the upcoming Stride DEX support $STRD.

1. LST Fees: Stride charges a 10% fee on all staking rewards accumulated by its LSTs (stATOM, stTIA, stDYDX, etc).

2. Swap Fees: Most likely, a 0.1% taker fee will be charged on swaps.

Revenue share with the Cosmos Hub

As the Stride chain uses ICS 1.0 and Stride DEX is built and operates on the Cosmos Hub, 15% of Stride's revenue goes to $ATOM holders.

Currently, these fees are used to buy back and burn both STRD (80%) and ATOM (15%).

With the launch of the DEX, a proposal will be made to increase the Hub's revenue share from 15% to 20%.

Protocol Revenue

A) Liquid Staking (LSTs):

• Weekly fees: $70K–$150K

• Weekly revenue: $7K–$15K

Stride charges a 10% fee on all LST staking rewards.

B) Stride Swap (DEX): Not live yet!

Forecast with 3 scenarios based on a 0.1% taker fee on swaps:
a) 50% of Osmosis volume
b) On par with Osmosis
c) 2x Osmosis

If Stride Swap facilitates 50% of Osmosis' volume, the protocol could generate an additional $40K to $120K in weekly revenue.

Unrealized Profits/Market Cap

• VCs sit on negative unrealized profits (current price < investment price)

• As a result, the UP/MC ratio is also negative

• Therefore, VC sell pressure should be close to zero as their final tokens unlock

• Some coins have a UP/MC ratio of over 100% — a concerning sign

CEX and DEX listings

CEX: Kraken, MEXC

DEX: Osmosis, Astroport, Shade, Kujira, Helix

Roadmap

• Summer 2025: Launch of Stride DEX

• Q3 2025: Advanced trading features (DCA, limit orders, hooks)

• Q3 2025: Integrate liquid staking and lending

• Q4 2025: Solana support (Swap from/to Solana; SOL and SPL-20 tokens)

• 2026: Integration of more ecosystems

To sum it up: The Good

• Low inflation: 2.2%

• Token almost fully unlocked: 91%

• Buyback and burn mechanism

• Real protocol revenue (LST fees and soon swap fees)

• Experienced team of OG Cosmos builders with a solid runway

• Token price is below previous funding rounds

• Major catalyst on the horizon with the launch of Stride Swap

Risks

• Low token liquidity, only listed on one major CEX

• Rising competition in the LST market

• LSTs are no longer the market's main focus

• Execution risk associated with launching a new DEX

• Uncertainty around IBC Eureka finding product-market fit and adoption

• The launch of Stride DEX depends on EVM readiness on the Cosmos Hub, which could delay the launch by several months

Conclusion

Stride is in a uniquely strong position with its proximity to the Cosmos Hub, the upcoming launch of Stride Swap, and its role in taking IBC Eureka to market.

If executed well, this could significantly boost protocol revenue beyond just LST fees, further fueling the token buyback and burn mechanism.

Liquid markets rarely offer opportunities like this. Currently, $STRD is trading below the price of any previous fundraising round — with no lockups and fully liquid.

The main risks at this point are:

• Stride Swap failing to gain traction

• Limited market demand for IBC Eureka transfers and swaps

• Delays in the Cosmos Hub shipping a permissionless EVM, which could postpone the DEX launch

Stride loves Bad Kids

• Stride contributors all rock Bad Kids as their PFP

• The Stride community treasury bought around 35 Bad Kids in 2023

• Endow your Bad Kid with a Stride bucket hat now!

#BadKidsBuild #Hatstayson

Thanks for reading folks!

We hope this article helped you stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the Cosmos ecosystem.

Disclaimer

This article is intended to educate readers about certain topics and should not be considered financial advice in any way.