What was the claim phase?
The contract’s day 0 was 2019-12-03 (UTC), a pre-claim day. The claim phase of 50 weeks = 350 days ran from day 1 to day 350 (HEX.sol:664-672; checks :2422-2423). HEX was distributed in two ways: a free claim for Bitcoin holders during the claim phase, and daily ETH lobbies from day 0 to day 350 (:2702). Both ended together.
How did the Bitcoin free claim work?
The contract stores a Merkle root of a snapshot of the Bitcoin UTXO set (:680-681); a holder proved ownership of a BTC address by signing a message, and the contract checked it against that root (:2113).
| Rule | Value | Code |
|---|---|---|
| Base amount | 10,000 HEX per BTC | :643-647 |
| Claimable BTC addresses in the snapshot | 27,997,742 | :701-702 |
| Auto-stake | 90 % of every claim was staked automatically for at least 350 days | :707-712, :2454-2458 |
| Speed bonus | up to +20 %, falling to 0 over the phase | :2674-2688 |
| Late-claim cut | the claim shrinks linearly to zero by the end of the phase | :2654-2665 |
| Referral | +10 % to the claimer; the referrer gets 20 % of the already increased amount, i.e. 22 % of the base; a self-referral collects both | :2492-2516 |
Because 90 % of every claim was auto-staked, most claimed HEX started out locked.
What was the “Silly Whale” rule?
Very large Bitcoin addresses received less (:2605-2650):
| BTC on the address | Share kept |
|---|---|
| under 1,000 BTC | 100 % |
| 1,000 to 10,000 BTC | from 50 % down to 25 %, linearly |
| 10,000 BTC or more | 25 % |
In numbers: an address holding 1,000 BTC or more could claim at most half of its base amount, and one holding 10,000 BTC or more a quarter.
How did the Adoption Amplifier lobbies work?
On every day from day 0 to day 350 anyone could send ETH to xfLobbyEnter (:2697-2716). The next day each participant could collect a part of that day’s HEX pool in proportion to the ETH they sent (:2723-2789, formula :2752).
- Day pool = the Bitcoin still unclaimed that day, converted to HEX, divided by 350 (
:2877-2891). Day 0 had a fixed seed of 1 billion HEX (:659-661,:2892-2894). - The same referral bonuses as for the claim applied (
:2758-2776); there was no speed bonus in the lobbies. - The ETH stayed in the contract until someone called
xfLobbyFlush(), which sends the whole balance to the hard-codedFLUSH_ADDR0xDEC9f2793e3c17cd26eeFb21C4762fA5128E0399(:635-636,:2794-2800). Anyone could call it. The contract has no function to return lobby ETH: the published design is ETH in, HEX out.
What happened at the end of the launch year?
Big Pay Day on contract day 352, 2020-11-19, distributed all Bitcoin that had never been claimed (converted to HEX) plus an adoption bonus to the stakes active over that day (:677-678, :1586-1592). During the phase, daily payouts were also raised by bonuses that grew with the number of claimed BTC addresses and the amount of claimed Bitcoin (:1200-1220). Details: Staking.
Who else received HEX during the launch?
The Origin Address received a copy of every claim speed bonus, a copy of every referral and referrer bonus (claims and lobbies), and a daily slice of unclaimed Bitcoin during the claim phase — all by the fixed rules in the code.
How does the SEC case describe the launch?
The SEC’s complaint, filed 2023-07-31 (case 1:23-cv-05749, E.D.N.Y.), called the window 2019-12-03 → 2020-11-19 the “Hex Offer Period” and alleged that at least 2,371,362 ETH was deposited from 21,156 addresses; the court restated these figures as the SEC’s allegations (ECF 57, p. 5). These are allegations, not findings. The court dismissed the case in full on 2025-02-28 for lack of personal jurisdiction and, independently, on extraterritoriality grounds; the SEC declined to amend (2025-04-21) and judgment was entered for the defendants on 2025-05-06 (ECF 61). The ruling did not decide whether HEX is a security. Full record: Legal timeline.