Stride: Stride Split: STRD & STRD-R

Full discussion here: https://common.xyz/stride/discussion/1308838-stride-split-strd-strdr

Framing

Stride is entrenched and indexed to Cosmos’ growth; the product is complete. Stride launched in 2022 as the first trustless LST, and ramped up from $0 -> $200M in TVL over 2 years. Recently, we’ve tried branching out of core Cosmos LSTs into stBGT and a Cosmos DEX. However, these products didn’t gain significant traction. At this point, the team is confident that liquid staking is a simple product that benefits from lindiness and trust - there’s little room for us to extend the product. Stride has solidified its place in Cosmos, and will benefit from Cosmos’ growth, and we think the upside from here is tied to the growth of Cosmos, not product iteration from the team.

Liquid staking will be maintained at the high quality bar we’ve held at Stride for the past 3 years. We will attend to Stride technically (10-20% time internally), answer support questions, and manage liquidity through Hydro. Moonz at Stride manages the latter two areas fulltime.

We’ve decided we want to build consumer crypto products outside of Cosmos. We have over 18 months of runway, and have internally committed to at least 6 months of building entirely new products. We will build where users are today and where we can win by shipping excellent products - Solana, Hyperliquid, Base, Polymarket, etc.

We would like for this new endeavor to benefit our stakeholders (community, investors, team), but using the existing STRD token would be messy. The new product will have very little overlap with the existing Stride user/tokenholder base.

Below we propose a next step for Stride.

Proposal

We propose splitting STRD into STRD and STRD-R. STRD would function exactly as it does today - it’s the network token for STRD, and all liquid staking revenue is used to buyback and burn STRD. STRD-R would represent a share of a future new token launched by the Stride team, if we find product-market fit. STRD-R wouldn’t be launched immediately - we don’t have a timeline for it because we’d only launch it if we find PMF.

STRD and STRD-R provide two clear bets with holder choice (you can choose both!). For those who want to bet on Cosmos DeFi and the existing Stride protocol, STRD exists. For those who want to bet on a new product outside of Comos, STRD-R gives exposure. Holders can bet, 0-100%, on either.

STRD will not be taxed for this endeavor. The new product will operate independently. Current liquid staking revenues will continue to be used to buyback and burn STRD.

Founders are aligned with STRD-R. We will keep the lights on at STRD, but plan on burning 90% of our own allocation. Association will burn 100%. We are recommending to our investors to do the same.

Importantly, Stride liquid staking is still a real, valuable product with upside. Stride liquid staking earns $400k annually in revenue, down from a peak of $2M due to declining Cosmos token prices. Liquidity for stTokens remains strong. Stride has numerous integrations throughout Cosmos with all major liquidity and lending venues. For anyone wanting to liquid stake, Stride remains the market leader and the clear choice. Within Cosmos, Stride will continue to integrate with the best DEXs and lending protocols, as these opportunities present themselves.

This is the best path for value accrual to STRD. This could represent a one time burn of STRD, between 50-80% of supply. Even at 50%, this would be equivalent to years of buyback and burn. Importantly, Stride will still be maintained, and grow in line with the Cosmos ecosystem. If you’re bullish on Cosmos, holding STRD still makes sense.

Mechanics

Burn mechanics

You can burn your Stride at app.stride.zone/burn (not yet live). You will approximately 6 weeks, until 11:59pm on Dec 4, 2025 (final date TBD). You can choose to burn 0-100% of your STRD. Founders will burn 90%. Investors will be encouraged to burn 90%.

STRD-R details

STRD-R is not fungible, the wallet used to burn STRD can claim token allocations at a later date. You can always view how much STRD you burned at app.stride.zone/burn.

The burn is pro-rata, meaning if you burn 1% of STRD, you get 1% of STRD-R at genesis. The supply of a potential new STRD-R is uncapped, but a supply increase would need to go through a governance vote (exactly how Stride works today). Any STRD that is not burned will be used to recapitalize the Stride Association - we expect this number to be between 20-30% of FDV.

If a new token launches, holders will be subject to a lockup, as follows:

Stakeholder	Vesting terms
Team	Re-vest tokens; linear unlock and vesting from 0 → 3 years
VC investors	Linear unlock from 0 → 3 years
Stride Association	No lock (keeps flexibility for incentives, airdrops, operations, etc.)
Everyone else	20% unlocked on day 1; 80% linear over the first year

Any revenues earned by the new product after the new token is launched will be controlled by the new token’s governance. These revenues will NOT accrue to the old STRD token. Pre-TGE revenues will be reinvested in growth.

Stride maintenance details

Stride will be maintained technically, the team will provide customer support, and liquidity deployments managed through Hydro. Stride has 1 employee working on liquid staking full time, the rest of the team will dedicate time to liquid staking as required (not expected to exceed 10% time).

Reward long term holders:

The intent of this mechanism is to reward long-term holders. The amount of Stride you held before 3PM UTC on Oct. 10, 2025 will be eligible for STRD-R post-burn.

DAO burn

DAO balances are excluded from burn eligibility. That’s because

(1) These wallets have historically funded Stride operations and growth, we should keep that mandate

(2) The split’s goal is to let individual holders/investors opt into the team’s new venture. Having the DAO burn would distort allocations and undermine the intent.

The result of this is the DAO keeps its runway and assets to maintain Stride. Community and investors retain clear, individual choice on STRD vs. STRD-R. The DAO is not a counterparty, which reduces complexity for us as contributors.

Questions

STRD-R

Q: Is STRD-R transferable? Can it be sold?

STRD-R is not transferable and can’t be sold. If a new token is launched, it will be transferable.

Q: If a new token launches, how will I claim it?

There will be a linking transaction, which we’ll communicate later. Make sure to hold onto your Stride keys (the ones you burn from).

Q: When will the new token launch?

We don’t know. We are focused on finding traction for a new product, a new token would only launch after real PMF.

Q: Is the new token guaranteed to launch?

No, only if we find PMF.

Burn

Q: How long do I have to burn?

6 weeks. Start date Oct 20, 2025, end date Dec 4, 2025 (final dates TBD).

Q: How much should I burn?

It depends on the bet you want to make. If you burn 0%, you are betting entirely on STRD and will hold a higher % of the network, post burn. If you burn 100%, you will entirely be betting entirely on a potential new product.

Q: How much STRD will be burned?

We don’t know. We estimate between 50M and 80M STRD, but we can’t know for sure because each holder may decide for themself.

Q: Where can I burn my tokens?

This is bad because …

Q: Are you abandoning Cosmos?

We will continue supporting Stride liquid staking at the same quality bar provided over the past 3 years. New products will be built outside of Cosmos. It’s maintenance + expansion, not abandonment.

Q: Is the team giving up on Stride?

No. At this point, the team is confident that liquid staking is a simple product that benefits from lindiness and trust - there’s little room for us to extend the product. Stride has solidified its place in Cosmos, and will benefit from Cosmos’ growth, and we think the upside from here is tied to the growth of Cosmos, not product iteration from the team.

Q: Are founders or investors advantaged?

No. Founders must burn their tokens like everyone else.

Q: Why not keep it all in one token?

It’s narratively messy. To draw an analogy, imagine if Axiom (Solana memecoin terminal) had a token that was previously an Avalanche lending protocol, rather than launching a new token. It raises eyebrows for investors and makes it harder to tell the story.