After weeks of speculation and frustration brewing across the community, COTI’s June 2025 AMA finally arrived. And this AMA was the most anticipated, most valuable Q&A the team has held so far.

Why? This was about real answers. Shahaf Bar-Geffen, CEO of COTI, sat down to tackle the 10 biggest questions the community’s been throwing at them for months, from inflation to rewards, from airdrop controversies to long-term value for holders. And The answers were deep, sometimes a little too deep for casual readers. But if you care about where COTI is going, this is the clarity you’ve been waiting for.

Let’s break it down.

1. Can you explain the tokenomics including the inflation rate and what is being done to ensure sustainability and transparency?

This question is one of the most frequently asked from the community, an answer that helped thousands of holders calm down and finally understand what’s happening behind the scenes.

Shahaf said:

"When we decided to build COTI V2 as a completely new infrastructure, we needed... to build a tokenomics that could fit a new project on top of an existing one which is like fixing a plane mid-flight at 30,000 feet. On balance, I believe we made the right choice, announcing our plans in December 2023 .... The tokenomics were revised through community feedback until the final version was presented in the whitepaper we published."

This clearly shows how a team should prioritize the community and value transparency.

Shahaf also added:

"We completely understand why 30% year‑one inflation and ~250% total emissions raise questions, especially for long‑term holders. It’s important to look beyond the raw percentages and understand how these tokens are being used, and why they’re essential to the growth of COTI V2:

• 58% of tokens are rewards for validators, liquidity providers, ecosystem participants etc.
• 18% are for developers building on COTI
• 24% are for ecosystem grants and other incentive schemes.

What I want to say is this: Not all inflation is bad! If the inflation is purpose driven and used for growth, it is good…It’s strategic."

He explained more about how important this is for COTI and the whole community. He also emphasized the team’s commitment to ongoing transparency:

"As explained in our transparency article, we’ll be publishing an annual report with a breakdown of token distribution, use of funds, reward mechanisms, and long‑term emission curves.”

2. How are gCOTI rewards distributed and how does the gCOTI boost affect the Treasury APY?

This was for all the Treasury users and staking participants who felt confused watching numbers thrown around.

Sahaf said:

"As shown on the Treasury website, the current maximum APY for $COTI is around 57%, and approximately half of that (28%) comes directly from gCOTI boosts, assuming a 1:1 staking ratio with a 120-day lock and full multiplier. I can confirm that 100% of the community allocation defined in the gCOTI tokenomics, which accounts for 52% of the total gCOTI supply, will be distributed to the community over the intended 5-year period."

He also clarify about The “1600%” boost, Shahaf added :

“The “1600%” boost refers to the relative weighting multiplier used to calculate rewards distribution, not an actual APY, and not a literal 1600% return. In practice, the total maximum APY shown on the Treasury is around 57%, even with full gCOTI boost, which includes both base and boosted components”

He explained more about how this structure is designed to reward active contributors to the ecosystem.

3. Why did the V2 Airdrop feel unfair to many users and are there plans to improve incentive design in the future?

The V2 Airdrop has been a hotly debated topic and also a must-read for long-term holders who felt ignored.

Shahaf said:

 “ Planning an Airdrop is never easy!... The V2 airdrop was NOT perfect, and we weren’t delusional about it being perfect.

Now, to be more specific about the V2 airdrop: upon rewards distribution it was apparent that a small number of Treasury users who took bigger risks on fee-generating activity, received much higher rewards. Meanwhile, the majority of users (80%), who favoured low-risk, long-term strategies, received lower rewards.”

He also emphasized the team’s commitment and said a comprehensive rewards system launching in the coming months.

He added, “we’re looking to the future and creating new ways to earn from COTI. We have big plans for a comprehensive rewards system launching in the coming months, in addition to other incentives such as those from Node operations, a new Treasury system, Stay COTI grants and more!”

4. Why are there issues with the Treasury and when will the US gain access?

He explained deeply and this answer was for frustrated users who experienced bugs or geographic restrictions.

Shahaf said: 

“ I’d like to start by saying that I’m very disappointed by the amount of issues we have experienced in our current Treasury... There are a lot of reasons why this is happening but I'm not going to hide behind excuses. We need to do better, and we will do better.

First of all, there will be a complete treasury overhaul. We’ll build it from scratch in a much better way than we did initially a few years ago. The timeline for that will be when we let node operators run their own Treasury. Until then, we’re updating what we can: Treasury for mobile was delivered two weeks ago, automatic reward distribution is planned for the end of June, and we will prioritize fixing bugs before the launch of new products.”

He also clarify about US access, He added: 

“We will do that as soon as the node ecosystem is up and running and everyone can run a Treasury. ”

5. What progress has COTI made towards real-world adoption and how is activity linked to long-term growth?

This was really a good question and answer for builders and believers in adoption over hype.

Shahaf said “ We have identified 3 major use-cases for privacy with market potential in the trillions of dollars: DeFi, RWA and AI… we are building a solid grassroots approach for no-code developers to build these use-cases on top of COTI. This is stay.coti.io … For RWA, we have secured partnerships with Plume (the layer 1 RWA-native chain), the ECB’s Digital Euro design project, and the Bank of Israel’s Digital Shekel design. We have integrated stablecoins on COTI, including USDC.e, and have many growing RWA opportunities through our MENA and Africa networks (SAAIBC and Africa Tokenization Council), as well as a growing relationship with the New York City mayor’s office that is looking at RWAs for civil infrastructure.”

He explained more about how these integrations position COTI for real-world impact. He also highlighted partnerships like Plume, Bancor, and privacy products such as PriveX.

6. What is happening with the grants program and funding for ecosystems and builders?

This is a question many builders and community contributors have been asking and Shahaf answered it. He said:

“ We received some requests for more info on how grants are progressing for projects developing on V2. Most of the grant updates are announced via medium and the COTI Connect sessions, so you can keep up to date there… We have published addresses related to the different pools of funding, for full transparency, so you can monitor progress.”

7. How is COTI’s operational runway, given bear market conditions?

Many community members have been asking this question for a month and Shahaf provided a very clear answer. He said :

“COTI is in a good and healthy shape. We have years of runway and the ability to execute on our shared vision. We don’t rely on VCs, token sales, or other 3rd parties. This is very bullish for COTI and why we prevailed throughout multiple cycles.”

8. How does COTI create value for $COTI holders?

Several people have asked Shahaf questions about the value of COTI. Most of them were: How does the growth of $COTI affect token holders? How will it change my life? What drives value within COTI? Shahaf answered the questions smartly. He said:

“We have a very big opportunity right now as early adopters of blockchain… we have a seat at the table in the unfolding blockchain revolution. At the moment, only 1% of people understand how critical privacy is for global adoption of blockchain. But this 1% is the brightest and most influential people in the space, and they are already moving on the opportunity”

After that, He explained more about how COTI’s growth will create value for the ecosystem and its participants. He added:

“COTI is here to meet the growing demand for privacy… Our flywheel is to respond to emerging demand, be the fastest, most flexible, and best fit solution. This will lead to rising activity on COTI, driving demand for tokens, staking, and node participation.”

9. What is the marketing and communication strategy to make COTI’s advanced technology understandable and demonstrate its real-world value?

The COTI team received many marketing-related questions about how they plan to grow visibility and communicate their technology to the world. It’s a great question because advanced cryptography, like Garbled Circuits, can feel complex at first. Shahaf explained it very clearly, He said : 

“We are not interested in short term hype cycles. Our approach to marketing aims for sustainable growth over the longer term and will tackle three ‘pillars’ of communication to create momentum. These are Vision, Adoption, and Participation”

After that, Shahaf explained that COTI’s marketing approach focuses on showing the technology in action rather than just talking about it. Real products like PriveX, which lets users trade confidentially on COTI, are examples of that strategy. Shahaf also added, 

“ We have clear communication and marketing strategies in place for a more promotional approach, and you will see these kinds of activity ramp-up in the coming weeks. “

10. How will COTI’s new node ecosystem work in practice, including incentives and participation?

COTI has aimed to make the process as easy, accessible, and innovative as possible and nodes will offer a great earning opportunity for the COTI community. Shahaf clearly explained the whole thing :

“Everyone will have the opportunity to participate in the New Node Ecosystem, whether by obtaining a license or running a node as outlined in the Node Litepaper. There is no ‘selection’ process. We have tried to make it as easy, accessible, and innovative as possible ”

Shahaf also highlighted the different earning sources for node operators. He added,

“Nodes earn from three sources:

• Validation Rewards: what you receive for running a node

• Assignment Fees: earned when license holders assign licenses to a node

• Staking Reward Fees: earned by managing Treasury pools and can be shared with assignees “

So node operators will be able to earn from validation fees, assignments, and staking. Anyone can run a node and set their own terms. 

Final Thoughts

This AMA gave the community what they’d been waiting for: clear answers, accountability, and a path forward.

For those who want to dive deeper, you can read the full official AMA Here