Vida Global CEO Acknowledges Meme/Stock Pairing Trying to ‘CTO’ His Company

DeFi’s prevailing meta, the memecoin/RWA token pairing phenomenon, is showing its first signs of breaking out into the wider world.

With $CTO, a memecoin paired with a tokenized version of NYSE American-listed Vida Global’s stock, attracting millions in DeFi volume, the company has taken notice.

As $CTO gains momentum, the memecoin is pulling more of Vida Global’s public equity into its gravity. Issued by xStocks, $VIDAx supply now represents an estimated 31% of the company’s total market cap.

Vida Global CEO Welcomes $CTO Community into Corporate Fold

After watching meme/stock token pairings go viral on rival chains, the trench-dwellers of Solana might finally have found their champion. $CTO, named after the practice of reviving dead tokens through a ‘community takeover’, is paired with $VIDAx, a tokenized variant of AI firm Vida Global’s public stock.

After a strong initial run to a $5M market cap and devastating decline back to $100k, $CTO has been brought back to life by engagement from Vida Global CEO Lyle Pratt. On September 2nd, Pratt first noted that it was interesting to see communities forming around tokenized equity experimentation.

Pratt’s acknowledgement of his company’s tokenized equity sparked a dramatic surge of volume through the $CTO memecoin. No stranger to crypto and a self-professing Bitcoiner, Pratt’s comments triggered dozens of replies from $CTO holders, asking him to endorse or discuss the memecoin.

Is $CTO Crypto’s Strongest Chance to Impact Real TradFi Change?

On September 3rd, Pratt gave the memecoiners even more food for thought. Evidently swamped with questions from stakeholders, perhaps new and old, Pratt explained some of the mechanics of tokenized equity, describing how these emerging assets relate to their TradFi counterparts.

By virtue of the $CTO memes virality, onchain data suggests that $VIDAx’s onchain footprint is growing exponentially. There are currently 4.3M $VIDAx tokens in circulation on Solana, constituting a market cap of $11.2M. 

Meanwhile, TradingView data implies that the total market cap of $VIDA is sitting around $37M. Assuming that TradingView has not accounted for public stock being removed from traditional circulation, this would suggest that over 30% of the company’s shares are now trading hands in DeFi.

Over $124,000 dollars worth of this stock is now locked in Raydium liquidity pools, and can never be removed. 

Memecoin sensationalists assert that if the community can accumulate enough $VIDAx, typically 51% of a company’s shares, they would be able to claim a seat on the company’s board of directors. However, the exact mechanics of whether tokenized equity would be admissible in these circumstances is uncertain and unlikely.

Most RWA issuers give disclaimers outlining how tokenized equities are designed to give holders price exposure to the underlying asset, and do not infer ownership rights. However, Pratt has already demonstrated an eagerness to see what community-led shareholder groups are able to create, so future collaborations may not be out of the question.

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