Rainbow, a self-custodial Ethereum wallet, debuted its native token RNBW yesterday, February 5th. However, the project’s Token Generation Event (TGE) on Base and the token’s trading debut among exchanges followed reports of delays in distribution to ICO participants, which contributed to the token’s poor first-day performance.
RNBW/USD 15-minute chart, February 5th-6th. Source: Coinbase
According to Coinbase data, RNBW hit a high of $0.05 on its first day of trading, but quickly fell, dropping more than 30% to close at around $0.034, giving it a fully diluted valuation of approximately $34 million.
As a result, most bettors on Polymarket were panicking, expecting FDV to reach around $100 million just one day after the TGE.
Today, RNBW has fallen further and is trading at around $0.032 at the time of writing, giving it an FDV of around $32.17 million.
Investors losing money in ICO
Prices are well below what initial buyers paid. Rainbow conducted an initial coin offering (ICO) via CoinList in mid-December 2025, offering RNBW to investors at $0.1 per token. The sale saw 30 million RNBW tokens, representing 3% of the total supply, sold at an FDV of $100 million, meaning participants in the sale have now lost more than 65% of their investment.
The situation could get even worse for US investors, as full token unlocking will not occur until December of this year, according to CoinList’s terms of service.
Back in 2022, Rainbow raised $18 million in a Series A funding round led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, bringing its total funding to $21 million. Multichain wallets are known for their rewards programs and gamification that allow users to earn points for on-chain activities.
When the company first announced the token in September, it explicitly linked RNBW to its points system.
“There could not be a better day for TGE.”
The token fall came amid a broader market catastrophe that wiped out $2.6 billion in liquidations in a single day. The cryptocurrency’s market capitalization fell to $2.3 trillion as Bitcoin fell towards $60,000, about 50% below its all-time high of $126,080 set in October.
Shortly after the TGE, Rainbow co-founder Mike Demarais noted in a post on
Amid growing frustration over the chaotic launch, Rainbow CEO Alex Laprade told X on Thursday night ET that he still believes “there has never been a better day for TGE than today,” noting that the project had planned to launch its token on February 5 in December. Laprado added:
“TGE is not the goal. With the token circulating in the market, there will be more scrutiny, both positive and negative.”
However, the CEO’s public statements did not succeed in calming all investors. Some were quick to hit back at the CEO, criticizing the project for the delay in distributing tokens to ICO participants and demanding refunds, calling it a scam.
Last year, MetaMask confirmed that it had plans to launch its own token after years of hints and speculation.
