Coin Researches — Tea Protocols (TEA) — 10 February 2026

TL;DR

• Idea: Decentralized protocol incentivizing open-source software contributions through reputation-based Proof of Contribution and teaRank scoring
• Catalyst: Token Generation Event on 2026-02-05 unlocked 4% of total supply at $0.0005, distributing 4 000 000 000 TEA to participants
• Risks: Early-stage project with unproven demand for on-chain OSS funding, regulatory uncertainty around token incentives, and potential inflation from elastic supply design
• Score: 7.00/ 10

Coin

• Name/ Ticker: Tea Protocol (TEA)
• Segment: Blockchain Infrastructure
• Status: live
• Price: $0.000500

Key Metrics

• Market Cap: $2 000 000
• FDV: $50 000 000
• Circulating Supply: 4 000 000 000
• Total Supply: 100 000 000 000
• Inflation: 2.00%

Sources

1. https://icodrops.com/tea/
2. https://coinlist.co/tea

Technology

• USP: First on-chain protocol to reward open-source contributions via a dynamic impact-based scoring mechanism
• Core Technology: Decentralized registry on Base L2, Proof of Contribution consensus, teaRank algorithm for reputation-based rewards

Roadmap

• 2024-02-21: Incentivized Testnet v1 launch
• 2024-12-09: teaBASE development toolkit release
• 2025-03-31: Sepolia Incentivized Testnet launch
• 2026-02-05: Public Token Generation Event

Team & Investors

Team

• Co-founder & CEO — Max Howell: Creator of Homebrew package manager
• CTO — :
• Lead Protocol Engineer — :

Investors

• YZi Labs — Seed • 2022-12-06 • $8.90M
• Lattice — Seed • 2022-03-23 • $8.00M
• Woodstock Fund — Strategic
• Binance Labs — Strategic
• Betaworks — Strategic

Total funding: $16.90M

Tokenomics

• Utility: Governance, staking on OSS projects, earning rewards via teaRank and gas fee redistribution
• Vesting: Public sale tokens unlocked 100% at TGE; remaining distribution subject to multi-year vesting per allocation
• Next Unlock: (0.00% of circulating)

Pros & Cons

Strengths

• First-mover in on-chain OSS contributions incentives
• Built on Base L2 for scalability
• Fully unlocked public sale promotes fairness
• Backed by top-tier investors like YZi Labs and Binance Labs
• Integration with major package managers enhances developer adoption

Weaknesses

• Limited exchange listings at launch
• Reliant on wide OSS developer adoption
• Regulatory uncertainty around token incentives
• Potential token inflation from elastic supply model
• Early mainnet features still unproven

Price Scenarios (target: 2026-08-10)

• Bear: $0.000300 — Assumes 40% decline scenario due to slow adoption: price=current_price * 0.6
• Base: $0.000500 — Assumes stable retention of TGE price level
• Bull: $0.001000 — Assumes 2x price increase driven by rapid OSS ecosystem growth

How to Buy & Store

CEX

• Aerodrome (Base L2)
• CoinList (presale)
• Coinbase Wallet Quick Buy
• Binance Wallet Quick Buy
• OKX Wallet Quick Buy

DEX

• Aerodrome (Base L2)
• Uniswap v3 (Ethereum)
• SushiSwap v3 (Ethereum)
• 1inch (Ethereum)
• Curve Finance (Ethereum)

Storage

• MetaMask
• Coinbase Wallet
• Rainbow Wallet
• Trust Wallet
• Ledger (hardware)

Verdict

Tea Protocol pioneers on-chain open-source contribution incentives with strong backers and a fair token launch, but its success hinges on developer adoption, regulatory clarity, and broader exchange support.

Official Links

• Whitepaper
• GitHub
• Messari