From "Messing Up" to Rule Changes, Why Infinex Public Offering Is Starting Over

Infinex officially admits that the public offering rule design failed. This DeFi project, which raised $67.7 million in funding in 2024, is now facing an extremely cold token public sale: after only 2-3 days, less than $600,000 has been raised, leaving a 90% gap to the $5 million target. The project team admits, “We messed up,” and announces major rule adjustments in an attempt to salvage this “almost no one wants to participate in the sale.”

Why is the public offering so cold

Infinex’s failure is not accidental. According to the latest news, only 304 participants have joined, with less than 12% of the fundraising goal achieved, reflecting systemic issues in the rule design.

The project team summarized three core pain points:

• Retail investors dislike lock-up periods — a mandatory one-year lock-up is too risky for small investors
• Large investors dislike investment caps — the original cap of $2,500 prevented big investors from participating
• Everyone dislikes complexity — the random allocation mechanism is too complicated, leading to poor participation experience

This “trying to balance everyone” design ultimately resulted in “no one being satisfied.” The severity of the problem is evident when comparing: two years ago, the project raised $67.7 million from institutions; now, it can’t even raise $5 million from retail investors.

What can the new rules solve

Infinex announced four adjustments targeting the above pain points:

The two most critical changes are:

Removing the cap — this directly opens the participation space for large investors, letting market forces rather than project team set the price discovery.

Water-filling allocation — simply put, “everyone rises together.” Each participant’s allocation increases evenly until their investment limit is reached or total supply is exhausted. This is much more transparent and easier to understand than random allocation.

The founder’s attitude is crucial

It’s worth noting Infinex founder Kain Warwick’s statement after the cold reception of the public sale. He clearly states that he personally invested in the project for the first 18 months, and “if needed, I will do so again.”

What does this indicate? At least it shows the founder still has confidence in the project and is willing to continue investing. But from another perspective, it also reflects the funding pressure — when the public sale can’t raise enough money, the founder has to put in personal funds.

Polymarket’s forecast data further confirms market apathy: the probability of Infinex’s public sale success is rated at only 25%. That’s not an optimistic figure.

Can the situation turn around after adjustments

From a rule design perspective, the new plan is indeed more reasonable and flexible. Removing caps and improving allocation mechanisms lower participation barriers and understanding costs. But the problem is, market indifference may not only stem from complex rules.

A deeper issue is: in the current market environment, how strong is investor demand and confidence in Infinex itself? No matter how good the rules are, someone has to want to participate.

Summary

Infinex’s public sale adjustments are essentially a “reset.” The project team’s proactive admission of mistakes is commendable, and the new rules are more aligned with market logic. But whether they can reverse the situation ultimately depends on market recognition of the project’s value. During the remaining sale period (expected until around January 6), we will see if these adjustments can truly attract new participants. If there is still no interest, the problem may not be with the rules but with the project’s market positioning and attractiveness.