Ronin Treasury Launches $4M RON Token Buyback to Boost Market Confidence

The Ronin Network has announced plans to repurchase more than $4 million worth of its native RON token from the open market in an effort to tighten supply and potentially lift prices. 

The month-long program, set to begin September 29, will see the gaming-focused blockchain convert all of its Ether (ETH) and USD Coin (USDC) reserves into RON.

Strategic Shift to RON Token

According to the team, the buyback aims to “further align our ecosystem, tokenholders, and builders as Ronin evolves into a full-fledged layer-2,” while helping the network grow “as the rest of the world comes back to Web3 gaming.”

Currently, 693 million of the total one billion RON token units are in circulation, giving the asset a market capitalization of about $355.7 million. By removing roughly 1.3% of the circulating supply, the treasury also hopes to strengthen the token’s scarcity without selling any of its holdings.

The Ronin Treasury, valued at around $5.5 million, holds its largest stake in 896 Wrapped Ether (WETH) worth about $3.9 million, alongside 652,000 USDC, 1.2 million RON token and wrapped RON, and a selection of smaller meme tokens. These reserves are result of years of accumulation through fees by the Katana decentralized exchange, Ronin Market, and the Ronin Name Service.

From Setback to Layer-2 Ambitions

Ronin originally spun off from the Ethereum mainnet in 2021 to provide faster transactions and lower fees for Axie Infinity and other Web3 gaming projects. However, the network suffered a major setback when its Ronin Bridge was hacked for $600 million in March 2022, the largest crypto hack at that time. 

Total value locked on the chain plunged from about $1.2 billion in early 2022 to around $56 million today, according to DeFiLlama.

In August, Ronin announced its “homecoming” as a layer-2 network on Ethereum, signaling a renewed focus on scalability and integration with the broader Ethereum ecosystem. The team noted the growing institutional interest in blockchain, stating, “Wall Street is jumping into our industry,” as it seeks to ride Ethereum’s resurgence.

Despite these ambitions, RON token remains down roughly 88% from its March 2024 all-time high of $4.45 and has traded mostly flat for the past six months.