PoolTogether (POOL) Price

POOL is the governance token of the PoolTogether protocol, used for community management of the protocol rather than as a receipt for user deposits or a right to claim prizes. Holders can exercise voting rights on governance matters such as protocol parameters, treasury allocations, and upgrades, thereby participating in the protocol's long-term decisions. PoolTogether is a prize savings protocol: after users deposit funds, yield generated by deposits can form prizes. POOL's role is to govern this set of protocol rules; holding POOL itself does not mean depositing into the protocol or automatically receiving prizes or deposit yield.

The core use of holding POOL is participating in PoolTogether governance. Voting can affect matters such as protocol parameters, fund allocation, and upgrades; this right is governance over protocol rules, not control over users' deposits in the protocol. Holders may vote themselves or delegate voting power to another address. Delegation grants the delegated address only the weight to vote on the holder's behalf and does not transfer ownership of POOL; therefore, the delegator and delegate respectively retain the token ownership and voting-execution roles.

To participate in PoolTogether's on-chain protocol voting, POOl holders need to use POOL on Ethereum and first delegate voting power to themselves or another address. Voting power is calculated by the amount of POOL delegated to an address; tokens that have not been delegated are not counted in on-chain governance voting. After five days of on-chain voting, a proposal must both receive a majority of votes in favor and at least 100,000 votes in favor to pass; after passing, there is also a two-day timelock before implementation. Creating a proposal requires holding, being delegated, or combining both to reach 10,000 POOL, which is 0.1% of the total supply. On-chain voting requires payment of Ethereum transaction fees. POOL on Polygon and Optimism is not counted for on-chain protocol governance, but it can be used for off-chain signaling votes such as Snapshot. Therefore, the network where tokens are located and whether they have been delegated both affect whether they can be used in a particular on-chain governance process.

POOL has a total supply of 10,000,000 tokens. The official supply page lists 4,800,000 tokens (48%) as not yet allocated and controlled by governance, and 5,200,000 tokens (52%) as already allocated. Major historical categories of the allocated portion include early protocol users, early contributors, PoolTogether Inc. investors, and protocol treasury diversification participants. Different categories have been subject to different claim, lockup, or vesting arrangements; therefore, “total supply” is not equivalent to the amount freely circulating at a particular time. Official materials also state that supply and allocation information may change with subsequent governance votes.

No. PoolTogether is designed to be non-custodial: user funds should not be accessible to PoolTogether developers or POOL holders. POOL holders can influence protocol rules through governance, but this governance power does not mean they can transfer assets that a particular user has deposited. This boundary distinguishes protocol governance from asset custody: governance can decide how the protocol evolves, while user funds are handled by smart-contract mechanisms and users can redeem their own deposits through protocol mechanisms. Smart contracts and associated risks still differ from traditional custodial accounts, and non-custodial does not mean there are no smart-contract, asset, or operational risks.

PoolTogether's prize savings model works as follows: users deposit USDC, yield generated by deposits forms prizes, and prizes are distributed through daily draws; users can redeem their own deposits even if they do not win. The more they deposit, the greater their chance of winning a prize. Here, principal and the source of prizes must be distinguished: official materials state that prizes consist of yield accumulated from all deposits, rather than being directly deducted from the deposit principal of non-winners. POOL does not automatically make its holders depositors, prize recipients, or yield recipients; it is used to govern the protocol supporting this mechanism.