- Celestia (TIA) is trading at $1.81, down 13% over the past week.
- The altcoin has given back gains seen after a rebound from a $1.32 low.
- The Celestia Foundation announced it purchased all remaining TIA from Polychain Capital.
Celestia’s price of $1.81 has slipped into double-digit losses over the past week. Although the token rallied about 38% from its June all-time low of $1.32, it remains roughly 70% below its level a year ago and about 91% off its all-time high above $20.90 reached in February 2024.
As the broader cryptocurrency market navigates another pullback, is TIA at risk of further declines, or could the Celestia Foundation’s recent move spark a renewed recovery?
Celestia Foundation buys back TIA from Polychain Capital
During TIA’s decline over the past year, many analysts pointed to aggressive selling by Polychain Capital as a key pressure factor.
Celestia went from one of the most hyped tokens at mainnet launch to a relative underperformer in the market. That underperformance has left the project far from its peak valuations.
One analyst on X described it as one of the “most predatory VC tokens out there.”
In a notable reversal, the Celestia Foundation announced it has taken ownership of Polychain Capital’s remaining TIA holdings. The move effectively closes a long-running chapter with the VC that had acquired tokens at or below $1.
Polychain agreed to sell 43,451,616.09 TIA back to the Celestia Foundation for $62.5 million. To facilitate the transaction, Polychain will undelegate the staked assets and then delegate them as needed to complete the sale.
The Celestia Foundation has worked with Polychain Capital to assign Polychain’s entire remaining TIA holdings to new investors.
This month, the Foundation purchased 43,451,616.09 TIA from Polychain Capital for $62.5m. Polychain will shortly be undelegating their entire staked…
— Celestia 🦣 (@celestia) July 24, 2025
Why is TIA still largely bearish?
Even after the Foundation’s buyback, TIA’s price trajectory remains predominantly bearish.
Token unlock schedules will continue to release redistributed tokens into circulation over time. The controlled nature of these releases is intended to prevent a sudden supply spike, and new holders are expected to follow distribution rules that disincentivize immediate dumping similar to past Polychain behavior.
Nevertheless, if new investors adopt aggressive sell strategies or if loopholes around staking rewards persist, bears could regain momentum.
Responding to TIA’s price dynamics, crypto analyst zeroknowledge wrote on X: “The structural selling pressure is not a side effect, it is literally the primary feature of the tokenomics design.”
“The most destructive example is Polychain Capital, which invested roughly $20 million in Series A and B rounds. Through the loophole in the law for staking rewards (see screenshot below) Polychain has already sold over $82 million worth of TIA (a 4x return on investment) before any of their primary tokens unlocked.”
Is this shifting? Market participants note Celestia is restructuring its tokenomics and governance model.
1/ @Celestia restructures token supply & governance model
$62.5M $TIA reallocation from @Polychain and a proposal to slash inflation from 5% to 0.25% signal major changes to long-term incentives. This comes as $TIA trades 67% below 2024 highs. pic.twitter.com/oi9GJtPsEl
— Chaos Labs (@chaos_labs) July 24, 2025
As Chaos Labs highlighted, Celestia has not only reallocated the Polychain holdings but has also proposed major changes such as cutting inflation. Whether these measures will materially curb selling pressure remains to be seen.
Celestia price technical outlook
At the time of writing, the token traded near $1.81, with open interest reported up to $197 million.
On the technical side, daily indicators point to seller dominance. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) sits below 50, and the MACD has produced a bearish crossover—both signals that downside momentum remains in control.
In summary, the Celestia Foundation’s buyback removes a major selling source and indicates a strategic effort to stabilize token distribution and incentives. However, token unlock schedules, legacy tokenomic issues, and current technical signals mean downside risks persist until sustained on-chain and price behavior show clear improvement.