Plasma

Plasma is a high-performance layer 1 blockchain purpose-built for stablecoins, designed from the ground up to power near-instant, fee-free payments with institutional-grade security. It offers stablecoin-native features including zero-fee USD₮ transfers (gas sponsored by a protocol-managed paymaster), custom gas tokens (fees payable in USD₮ or BTC), and confidential payments, while maintaining full EVM compatibility. The protocol also includes Plasma One, a consumer-facing app and Visa card that lets users spend directly from their stablecoin balance, earn cashback in XPL tokens, and access onchain yield opportunities.

Plasma produces yield from two main sources.

1. Validator staking on the Plasma network itself

Plasma runs on Proof-of-Stake (a system where participants lock up tokens to help secure the network). People who run validator nodes stake XPL tokens and in return receive rewards. These rewards start at 5% new XPL created each year, then drop by 0.5% per year until they reach a long-term floor of 3%.

A few important points about staking:

• This inflation (new token creation) only kicks in once outside validators and delegated staking are live.
• In the future, ordinary XPL holders who don't want to run their own infrastructure will be able to delegate their tokens to a validator and earn a share of the rewards.
• Locked team and investor XPL cannot earn staking rewards.
• To balance out the inflation, Plasma uses an EIP-1559 fee-burning mechanism: base fees from any transaction that is not a simple USD₮ transfer get permanently destroyed (burned). Only plain USD₮ transfers are gas-free, so most network activity helps shrink supply over time.

2. Plasma One — the consumer app and card

When users deposit stablecoins into Plasma One, those funds earn yield through opportunities inside the Plasma onchain ecosystem (for instance, DeFi lending pools, staking programs, or protocol incentives).

Additionally, the Plasma One Visa card offers cashback on spending, paid in XPL tokens (up to 3% at the highest tier). These rewards are funded by the protocol's own ecosystem and growth allocation.

How fees work

• Simple USD₮ transfers are completely free (gasless) thanks to a protocol-managed paymaster that covers the cost.
• All other transactions pay fees to validators in XPL — or in whitelisted "custom gas tokens" such as USD₮ or bridged BTC. There is no added markup on the paymaster conversion.

Plasma raised $24M across Seed and Series A rounds, led by Framework and Bitfinex/USD₮0, as announced on February 13, 2025. Other institutional participants included DRW/Cumberland, Bybit, Flow Traders, 6th Man Ventures, IMC, Nomura, and Karatage. Notable angel investors and advisors included Paolo Ardoino (CTO of Bitfinex/Tether), Peter Thiel, Cobie, and Zaheer Ebtikar. On May 22, 2025, Plasma announced a strategic investment from Founders Fund (Peter Thiel's firm). The homepage lists the project as "Backed by" Bitfinex, Founders Fund, Framework, Flow Traders, DRW, and USDT (Tether). No specific round amounts were disclosed for the Founders Fund investment.