Liquid staking tokens (LST) have been one of the hottest topics on Solana.
One of the main reasons for this is Sanctum, Solana’s liquid staking layer.
And recently, Sanctum announced its governance token: $CLOUD.
In this guide, you’ll get you caught up on what Sanctum does, how $CLOUD will be launched, and how you can take part in the $CLOUD airdrop.
Now, let's get into it!
Overview
- Project: Sanctum
- Token ticker: $CLOUD
- Blockchain: Solana
- Sector: Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
- Business Model: Liquid Staking
What does Sanctum do?
Apart from traditional and liquid staking, customized staking—powered by Sanctum—is another option available on Solana.
Sanctum allows for the creation of custom LSTs, enabling projects to use LSTs as a delivery mechanism for extra yields (e.g. laineSOL), for NFT whitelist spots (e.g. pathSOL), or for subscription services (e.g. alphaSOL).
The main use case of Sanctum, however, is the creation of validator LSTs such as laineSOL, bonkSOL, jucySOL, compassSOL, and many more. At their core, validator LSTs combine all the benefits of native staking (e.g. zero fees; choosing your preferred validator) and the benefits of liquid staking (e.g. instant liquidity; usage throughout Solana DeFi).
Additionally, Sanctum has built a router that allows anyone to buy, sell, and trade Solana LSTs instantly and with limited slippage—regardless if they’re established ones, such as mSOL and jitoSOL, or lesser known ones, such as pathSOL and alphaSOL.
Also, this means you don't necessarily need to liquid stake your native SOL manually with an LST provider; you can simply swap crypto, such as SOL and USDC, for the LST you'd like to hold.
By making the creation of Solana LSTs effortless and creating a unified liquidity layer for Solana LSTs, Sanctum is attracting more SOL to be stacked—ultimately propelling the decentralization of the entire Solana network forward.
What is the $CLOUD token?
Recently, Sanctum announced its governance token: $CLOUD.
The sentiment around the announcement has been overwhelmingly positive, as the tokenomics of $CLOUD seem well-designed and include a lot of community feedback and ideas.
Most importantly, $CLOUD will avoid the “low float, high FDV” issue by launching on Jupiter's LFG Launchpad with a total supply of 1,000,000,000 (1B) and an initial circulating supply of 20%. Of these 20%, 10% are reserved for the initial airdrop, and 10% will be used to seed liquidity in Jupiter's LFG launch pool.
What's interesting is that Sanctum turned down overwhelming VC interest in the last couple months to give everyone the same opportunity to purchase $CLOUD. Also, the curve on the LFG launch pool will start low; basically at the price of Sanctum's 2020/2021 funding round (50M FDV). Additionally, Sanctum refuses to pay any CEX listing fees—making the launch of $CLOUD a truly on-chain token generation event (TGE).
The TGE of $CLOUD will unfold as follows:
- Long-Term-Aligned: You can wait to claim your airdrop. The longer you wait, the more $CLOUD you get, maxing out at a 100% bonus.
- Sanctum-Curious: You can claim your airdrop at any time, giving up bonuses.
Regarding utility, $CLOUD will be used for the Sanctum Verified Partner program, Wonderland S2, and protocol governance.
How to qualify for the $CLOUD airdrop?
To qualify for the $CLOUD airdrop, you need to participate in Sanctum Wonderland.
In Sanctum Wonderland you can collect pets and help them level up by earning EXP. You can also take part in community quests to earn multipliers for the EXP of your pets. Learn more.
Similar to previous airdrops, the more EXP you earn, the higher your $CLOUD allocation will be.
Wonderland Season 1 just came to an end, and Wonderland Season 2 will be announced shortly—so stay on the lookout!
How to check your $CLOUD eligibility?
Sanctum opened the $CLOUD airdrop checker on Tuesday, July 16th, 2024. Check your allocation using only official links from our banners and Explore tab or Sanctum’s official website.
When will the $CLOUD airdrop take place?
The $CLOUD airdrop checker went live on Tuesday, July 16th, 2024.
The $CLOUD airdrop will take place on Thursday, July 18th, 2024.
The airdrop functions like other ones on Solana. Generally, token rewards aren’t sent directly to your wallet; You must go to a to claim them.
⚠️ Beware: During airdrop season, scammers create imitation accounts to trick you into clicking phishing links and wallet drainers. Please exercise caution. Only click on, and visit, links from Sanctum’s official 𝕏 account, and do not respond to direct messages from unknown parties related to the $ClOUD airdrop—regardless if you’re on 𝕏, Discord, Telegram, or other platforms.
For more on this, read our Solana Airdrops guide.
How to trade $CLOUD with Phantom?
Note: You need to hold SOL in your Phantom wallet to complete this process.
- Log-in to your Phantom wallet on the browser extension or mobile app
- Select the tokens you’d like to trade
- Click the swap icon (arrow) at the bottom
- Review the order
- Submit!
How to set up a Phantom wallet?
If you’d like a friendly multichain wallet for crypto, DeFi, and NFTs, try us out. We offer browser extensions for Firefox, Chrome, Brave, and Edge, as well as apps for iOS and Android.
First, download Phantom. Then, create a new wallet.
If you’d like to fund, or send funds to, your Phantom wallet, you can do so via the “Buy” button on your asset tab. We offer various funding options, such as MoonPay, PayPal, and Robinhood to make it easy for you to fund your wallet.
Once you do that, you're ready to go.
How to bridge tokens to Solana with Phantom?
If this is your first time using Solana, you might have most of your assets on other blockchains, such as Ethereum and Polygon. With our Cross-Chain Swapper, you can bridge tokens across Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon right in your Phantom wallet.
Here’s how:
Disclaimer: This guide is strictly for educational purposes only and doesn’t constitute financial or legal advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.
