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8. Financials & Funding

8A. Fundraising History

Bitcoin Gold (BTG) was launched as a hard fork of Bitcoin on October 24, 2017. Rather than following the wave of ICOs popular at the time, BTG’s team adopted a distinctive “post-mine” endowment model, where 100,000 BTG tokens—about 5% of the total capped supply—were mined shortly after the fork and allocated for ongoing development, ecosystem grants, and team incentives. Of this post-mine, around 5,000 BTG went as bonuses to core team members, while the rest entered the treasury to support development and operations. This approach attracted criticism for its perceived centralization and lack of transparency, prompting some exchanges and community members to question the project’s early fairness and independence. However, BTG’s resistance to both ICOs and outside venture capital investments was a deliberate move reflecting its stated commitment to grassroots-driven decentralization and community stewardship (Bitcoin Gold - Wikipedia | Bitcoin Gold: Distribution, Protection, and Transparency - Investopedia ). 

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Following this initial allocation, BTG’s funding model depended on mining rewards, user donations, DAO proposals, and foundation-managed grants, maintaining its stance against external capital injections and distinguishing it from ICO-dependent projects.

8B. Treasury Management

The BTG treasury is anchored by the post-mine allocation, supplemented by community donations. Funds are managed through multi-signature wallets overseen by the Bitcoin Gold Foundation and selected community trustees, providing robust security and reducing single-party risk (Bitcoin Gold Governance, ). Treasury management features on-chain transparency—stakeholders can audit treasury activity at any time. Strategic liquidation of treasury holdings through credible exchange partners ensures operational liquidity, while efforts are underway to avoid disrupting the market price of BTG (Bitcoin Gold Official Website,). 

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Treasury allocations are directed toward diverse needs, including core developer compensation, security programs, partner and exchange listing fees, wallet and ecosystem tooling grants, and marketing. A major governance initiative in progress is the migration toward DAO fund control, which will anchor treasury allocation to transparent, community-driven voting and proposals (Bitcoin Gold Governance,). 

8C. Revenue Model

Bitcoin Gold’s revenue and value circulation are defined by protocol-level mechanisms and ecosystem growth:

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Mining Rewards: The block rewards, which started at 12.5 BTG per block and halve approximately every four years, are the main avenue for introducing new coins to circulation and rewarding miner participation. The mining incentive both secures the network and sustains the ecosystem (Bitcoin Gold Tokenomics - CoinMarketCap, ). 

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Transaction Fees: Each on-chain transaction pays a small fee, collected by miners. Though currently most network value is generated through mining, as block rewards halve, transaction fees are expected to play a larger role (Bitcoin Gold Trading Overview - AvaTrade,). 

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Foundation Activities and Integrations: Additional revenue flows from strategic partnerships, sponsorships, service infrastructure provision, and collaborative integrations with exchanges and wallets, as well as any incentive programs arising from BTG’s expansion into DeFi or interoperability with other blockchains (The Big Whale: Bitcoin Gold Overview,). 

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Notably, Bitcoin Gold’s protocol does not support centralized or direct user charges outside standard transaction and mining fees.

8D. Burn Mechanisms

Bitcoin Gold currently does not implement any explicit coin burn mechanism. Its total supply is capped at 21 million coins—the same as Bitcoin—ensuring scarcity is preserved via the fixed mining emission schedule. The supply grows only through mining, and new BTG cannot be created outside of this system (Bitcoin Gold Official Website, www.bitcoingold.org). Token reductions, if any, occur only from lost private keys or unspendable coins. Unlike coins such as BNB or ETH, BTG eschews burn events, choosing instead a predictably shrinking issuance via halving (Bitcoin Gold - Wikipedia,). 

8E. Use of Funds and Runway

Bitcoin Gold uses its treasury to support:

Protocol Development: Upgrades, bug fixes, integration with new wallet types, chain security, and performance enhancements are ongoing priorities, especially considering past security incidents and the drive to remain ASIC-resistant (Bitcoin Gold Security Blog, www.bitcoingold.org/security).

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Audits and Security Bounties: The treasury pays for rigorous security audits and open bug bounties to defend against exploits, with a focus on shoring up network vulnerabilities discovered after previous 51% attacks.

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Ecosystem Expansion: Funds target partnerships, exchange listings, grants for wallet development, merchant tools, and community programs. Staking broader access, BTG incentivizes new integrations and utility use-cases.

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Community Engagement & DAO Empowerment: Resources are invested in strengthening decentralized decision-making, including rollout of DAO-based governance protocols, community education, and outreach campaigns (Bitcoin Gold Governance,). 

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Marketing and Strategic Partnerships: BTG pursues events, education, global awareness campaigns, and targeted business strategies to broaden adoption.

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Treasury transparency, combined with a predictable mining-based income, ensures a healthy runway for several years. The ongoing transition to DAO governance is expected to further couple financial sustainability with community oversight, aligning priorities and maximizing impact.

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Bitcoin Gold’s financial model remains intentionally simple and transparent, rooted in decentralized distribution, capped supply, and strong alignment with its community-focused mission.

8F. VC Involvement and Influence

Bitcoin Gold (BTG) has established a clear stance of independence from venture capital (VC) since its launch in 2017. The project did not participate in VC fundraising, ICOs, or pre-sale allocation rounds. Its foundational capital was entirely the result of a 100,000 BTG post-mine allocation—reserved for development, strategic incentives, and ecosystem funding—rather than any external or institutional investor contributions (Bitcoin Gold - Wikipedia,).  As a result, BTG’s governance remains decentralized, with no major VC firms holding concentrated token stakes or board influence.

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This absence has meaningful implications:

Governance freedom: Strategic decisions, development priorities, and long-term vision are determined largely by the foundation and community, not by boardroom pressure or short-term ROI incentives.

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Slower growth trajectory: Without VC backing, BTG’s resource pool for aggressive marketing and network expansion is more modest compared to VC-funded competitors.

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Recent institutional interest: While Digital Commodities raised $2 million in 2024 to invest in BTG and similar assets, their involvement is strictly financial, lacking the typical voting or governance levers that VCs often wield (Digital Commodities Secures $2 Million for Bitcoin Gold Investment - Ainvest, ).

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