OHM forks
Most forks collapsed within a year of their 2021 launch.
Monthly price curve from launch
Each token's peak price is normalized to 100, with monthly closes from launch plotted as percent of peak. X-axis is months from launch, Y-axis is percent of peak. The diamond marks each token's peak, and time to peak differs per token.
Monthly closes are approximations based on CoinGecko and CMC public data, and may differ from intraday prices.
From launch to ending
Most forks broke in Q1 2022, less than a year after launching in 2021. The few survivors are pivots more than mechanism wins.
Per-project case files
Click headers to sort. Click a row to open the normalized curve and detail.
| Ticker◇ | Chain | Status | Launch◇ | to Peak▲ | Peak◇ | Recent◇ | vs Launch◇ | vs Peak◇ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
KLIMAKlima DAO | Polygon | Moribund | 2021-10 | 0d | $3,700 | $1.5 | -97.9% | -100.0% |
OHMOlympusDAO | Ethereum | Alive | 2021-03 | 30d | $1,330 | $19 | +375.0% | -98.6% |
Normalized price curve Launch $4 2021-03 Peak $1,330 2021-04, 30d Recent $19 Alive Hook The original protocol that created the bond, (3,3) staking, and DAO treasury paradigm. Why it grew High-APY rebase, DAO treasury, and (3,3) Schelling combined to push the treasury past $4B in six months. Became the symbol of DeFi Summer 2. Why it broke (3,3) rested on the assumption that everyone stakes. A single sell triggered accelerated dilution, the death spiral started, and price went from 100× RFV down to near RFV, dropping 98%. Ending The protocol survived. Transitioned to V2 and gOHM, the treasury still holds value, and the token price stabilized near RFV. Backing eventually held at RFV. The mechanism itself worked, the market price simply started at an irrational level. Note Alive cohort is down -98.6% from peak but +375.0% versus launch. The average user entry sits somewhere between the two. | ||||||||
BTRFLYRedacted Cartel | Ethereum | Alive, Pivoted | 2021-12 | 30d | $3,500 | $180 | -88.0% | -94.9% |
TIMEWonderland | Avalanche | Rugged | 2021-09 | 60d | $10,000 | $5 | -96.2% | -100.0% |
SBSnowbank | Avalanche | Abandoned | 2021-09 | 60d | $1,500 | $1 | -98.8% | -99.9% |
FHMFantOHM | Fantom | Abandoned | 2021-09 | 60d | $60 | $0.05 | -98.3% | -99.9% |
HECHector Network | Fantom | Wound-down | 2021-09 | 90d | $155 | $0.4 | -93.3% | -99.7% |
Seven common failure patterns
Each fork broke for slightly different reasons, but almost all hit two or three of these seven at the same time.
(3,3) game-theory ponzi shape
The Schelling point is that if everyone stakes, everyone wins. One large sell triggers accelerated dilution, which itself becomes the next sell trigger, starting the death spiral.
Price runs detached from backing
Market starts 50 to 100× above backing and goes straight to near-backing. Backing held, but the average user entry sat far higher, so users still ended up with 99% losses.
Unbounded rebase inflation
Sustaining 7,000%+ APY requires runaway issuance. The moment price stops keeping up with inflation, real return turns negative.
One token doubles as asset and governance
OHM was both treasury asset and governance token. If trust collapses, both go to zero, and the incentive to use governance to protect the asset disappears as well.
Volatile backing assets
When backing assets like ETH, AVAX, MATIC, or carbon credits crash with the market cycle, backing itself collapses and stops acting as a floor.
Inverse bonds came too late
OHM only introduced the buy-and-burn-below-backing mechanism manually, late in the cycle. With no automatic, real-time operation, it could not stop the price runup.
People risk
Identity reveals of anonymous operators, key-person departures, and concentration of authority. The mechanism can work fine, but if trust in operations breaks, it is over.
What Blackhaven does differently from these failures
Every item below is a real mechanism documented on docs.blackhaven.xyz. Not marketing, but design implemented in contracts and the TOS.
- Blocks P1, P3Lock distribution cap (set by governance, first-come-first-served)No rebase-style unbounded issuance. Distribution stays inside a cap set by governance, and new locks pause once it is hit. The infinite dilution that fuels the death spiral is blocked.
- Blocks P2, P6BAM: automatic, two-sided, deviation-proportional, with cooldownExtends OHM's manual inverse bond into an automatic, two-sided version. When price runs above NAV, it immediately sells back to treasury; when it falls below, it buys and burns. Absorbs the runup before it starts.
- Blocks P5USDm stablecoin as the single backing assetBacking is a USDm stablecoin, not a volatile asset. Avoids the death spiral where backing collapses together with an ETH or AVAX cycle.
- Reinforces P1, P290% of bond capital to treasury, 10% to ops, hardcodedBlocks the pattern where OHM forks tapped the treasury at will under the banner of DAO ops funding. During bootstrap, the split is explicitly 100% to POL and ops.
- Reinforces P2No redemption right stated in the TOSStops users from expecting direct RFV redemption. Removes upfront the OHM-fork illusion that backing equals redemption price.
- Reinforces P7Zellic audit and time-locked adminOperator authority is time-locked and the audit is public. Shrinks the channels through which anonymous operators can make unilateral decisions.
OHM's mechanism itself defended user capital down to backing. What broke was not the mechanism but the game-theory shell, runaway inflation, the asset-and-governance combo, and people risk. Blackhaven strips those shells one by one and keeps only the core (treasury, bonds, POL), structurally reducing the incentive to enter far above backing.