Noon aims to be web3’s most intelligent and fair stablecoin, maximising both through-cycle yield and rewards to our users. This note focuses on the latter: our fairness, and why it may matter to you. You can expect to read more about our larger vision, and more details about our roll-out, in the coming weeks.

TLDR

Noon aims to be the fairest stablecoin in the world by ensuring we maximise the value flowing to our users. We do this in two ways:

1. By maximising protocol returns to users: we route the maximum value and returns from our deployment strategies and our governance tokens to you, our users

2. By minimising (or extending) governance token distribution to non-users: we avoid distributing or selling tokens to investors, VCs, KOLs, etc, to minimise sell-side pressure, as well as lengthening vesting period for all of Noon’s Team

The Details

At times, this industry has left us feeling quite defeated and disconsolate. For every project built the “right” way, there seem to be numerous which take the easy way out - get-rich-quick schemes for their team and / or investors. For every investor with appropriately aligned long term incentives, there are others who insist on quick vesting terms, and demand as many tokens as quickly as possible as an a priori condition of their investment.

This has led to poor outcomes for users - from rug-pulls to the swift collapse of erstwhile promising projects. To be clear, there are a lot of excellent, principled teams and investors in web3, but we’ve all encountered many who are not.

We knew that if we were to build Noon sustainably, we would need not just to avoid these common pitfalls, but to avoid them entirely. In short, we wanted to ensure that we built Noon in a way that was as fair as possible to our users.

How have we done this?

1. We maximise protocol returns to our users

There are two main sources of return from any stablecoin protocol - raw returns and returns from governance token distribution and appreciation. We ensure both end up in the wallets of our users.

Raw Returns: These are returns from our deployment strategies. Simply put, we give as much of them back to you as we can:

• 80% of our raw returns go directly to holders of staked stablecoin (sUSN).

• 10% of our raw returns go to our Insurance Fund, which, if unused, go to holders of our staked governance tokens (sNOON). Since our users receive the majority of the governance tokens, these returns largely go to you.

• The remaining 10% first go to cover our operating expenses. As we grow, we will target reducing our operating expense (as % of return) - and the remainder will be distributed again to our users (via our Insurance Fund, above). We realise that there are protocols who have been able to reduce this figure to 0% - and have instead sold tokens to investors to fund operations. We’ve intentionally chosen a different trrrack - see below for details.

We’ve included an illustrative diagram below to visualise how every dollar of raw return is distributed.

Governance tokens: These are returns implied by the distribution of Noon’s governance tokens ($NOON). At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we also give as much of them to our you as we can:

• 65% of our governance tokens are directly distributed to our users. This distribution occurs over 8+ years to ensure we are rewarding users who contribute to the long-term value of Noon.

• 15% of our governance tokens are allocated to our Trust. These tokens will be used to benefit the protocol, our partners and, most importantly, our users. While we may use these tokens to incentivise partners to provide liquidity, we will aim to ensure that some of them remain unused, so we can distribute to our users as well.

• The remaining 20% of tokens will be allocated to the Noon Team. We’ve been very fortunate - we’ve attracted a top-calibre Team who are aligned with our long-term vision of maximising user value. Among other things, this has helped us keep our Team allocation relatively modest in this space - especially considering we have no governance tokens allocated to VCs, investors, etc (but more on this below).

We’ve tried to illustrate the difference between other similar protocols and ourselves, in terms of governance token allocation to users, below.

As we build partnerships with more of the top protocols in web3, we can imagine circumstances in which Noon may receive tokens from them as a reward for our help and support. In this event, we will ensure that the value from these rewards will be entirely and completely passed on to our users.

To us, this is not a get-rich-quick scheme - a fast way to enrich ourselves. We want to build a sustainable, future-proof stablecoin - and it must start with maximising protocol return to you, our users.

2. We minimise (or extend) governance token distribution to non-users

To build a sustainable, future-proof stablecoin, we must also ensure that our governance tokens are distributed, as much as possible, to long-term users of our protocol. Our governance tokens are vital to the growth of Noon. Their holders will be able to weigh in on key decisions, and receive unused proceeds from the Noon Insurance Fund. It is in Noon's best interest to ensure that our long-term users, the users whose incentives align as closely as possible with the long-term success of the protocol, receive as many governance tokens as possible. In order to do this, the following is necessary:

1. We need to minimise governance token distributions to any parties who are not long-term users

2. We need to ensure that any tokens that are distributed outside Noon’s long-term user base vest over as long of a period as possible

Minimise governance token distribution to anyone but long-term Noon users: We want to ensure that there are no parties receiving Noon tokens that they purchased at a low valuation, or investing early in the protocol’s growth journey.

This is directly due to the unique nature of capital markets in web3. In web3, protocols often list tokens on exchanges (and are therefore able to access retail liquidity) significantly earlier than start-ups at a similar stage are able to in other sectors. One consequence of this is the early-stage investor, who typically has 2 to 4 year vesting periods for their tokens, is able to exit their web3 investment at a much earlier stage, when their investment still bears considerable risk, than their counterpart in other sectors. And who do these web3 investors exit - or pass this risk off - to, but web3’s retail investors?

Of course, not every web3 investor operates in this manner, and there are many successful protocols who are able to thrive in this environment. But the pattern is clear - which has led to the rise of protocols that avoid this game entirely.

Noon has similarly elected to remove itself, as much as it can, from this game. We do not want our retail investors, our users, to be used as exit liquidity by professional web3 investors. This is why we have raised no funds from venture capital firms, angel investors or, in fact, anyone else.

Noon is entirely self-funded.

So while you won’t see web3 investors waxing poetic about Noon, you can also be sure that they won’t be waiting in the orderbooks to dump their tokens on you.

We think we have the better end of that bargain.

Vest tokens distributed outside of Noon’s long-term user base over as long a period as possible. We know there are some tokens that need to be distributed to parties who are not long-term users of Noon. While we have tried to minimize this as much as possible (as described above), it’s hard to build a successful protocol without allocating tokens to our Team to align incentives.

Again, we needed this due to the unique nature of capital markets in web3. As a result of the accelerated access to liquidity (detailed above), web3 teams, who often have vesting scheduled matching investors, are able to exit at a much earlier stage, when their project still bears considerable risk, than teams in other sectors. Once again, who do these web3 teams exit or pass off this risk to but web3’s retail investors? And predictably, once a team has, in large part, exited, motivation and incentivisation increases in difficulty.

Again, just as above, of course there are prominent examples of teams who break from this pattern - but the pattern remains clear.

This is why we have insisted on web3’s longest vesting period for every token in our Team allocation. Instead of the typical 2 or 3 or 4 year vesting period, Noon’s Team has a 7-year vesting period (1 year cliff, followed by 6 year linear vest). All Team tokens will be subject to this industry-leading vesting period - to ensure that our Team’s vesting period is aligned with the time it will take the protocol to truly find its feet and be de-risked for retail investors.

A promise to fairness with Noon

Noon is more than just a stablecoin—it’s a promise. A promise to put you, our users, at the heart of everything we do. In a space often driven by short-term gains and misaligned incentives, we have chosen a different path: one built on fairness, transparency and long-term value.

We have designed Noon to simplify and maximize yield strategies for you. With no tokens allocated to investors or VCs, and with the longest team vesting period in the industry, we have ensured our model is aligned with your participation. Every decision we make reflects our commitment to building a protocol that rewards its community—not outside speculators.

Fairness doesn’t stop here. We are creating a stablecoin that is not just smart and resilient—it is shaped by and for the people who use it: again, you. And that means we need you to help us grow, join us on the decision making, and prove that web3 can be better for everyone.

The future of financial fairness starts now, with Noon, with you.