“In the crypto space, volatility has been 'killing' through digital assets.”

That’s how Andrey Didovskiy put it. He is the CEO of Seasons, a protocol built on Solana that has been directly depositing gold and Bitcoin into strangers’ wallets twice a week since December last year.

“As entropy increases and AI fragmentation makes the world more chaotic, humans are still seeking stability,” he said in an interview. “It’s an old story.”

The mechanism is simple: threshold. Didovskiy explained, “Any wallet holding over 10,000 tokens becomes a node on the network—a node that is essentially unlimited speculation.” At recent prices, 10,000 SEAS tokens are worth roughly $2,500. Every Wednesday and Sunday, these wallets receive payments consisting of Tether Gold, wrapped Bitcoin, and a yield-bearing USD token.

“You can also think of it as mining,” he said, “because twice a week, people receive Bitcoin, gold, and yield-bearing USDC.”

No staking contracts. No manual claim processes. “We don’t force users to freeze, lock, or stake anything.” Didovskiy emphasized. Simply holding tokens in one’s own wallet turns it into a “savings account.”

Note: Seasons is a protocol operating on the Solana blockchain, led by CEO Andrey Didovskiy. It launched on December 9, 2025. Its core value proposition is that holding sufficient SEAS tokens automatically and periodically yields gold, Bitcoin, and yield-bearing stablecoins—transforming one’s wallet into a “passive savings account.” In short, Seasons aims to provide crypto users with a hands-off passive income tool via “transaction tax + real asset dividends,” addressing the pain point of excessive crypto volatility and unwillingness among ordinary users to hold long-term. However, fundamentally, it still relies on its own token’s trading activity and remains a high-risk experimental project.

Where Does the Money Come From?

Seasons runs on three engines, with the real driver being the protocol-defined “transaction transfer tax.” Didovskiy was direct: “Every transaction activity absorbs a 10% fee, which is then directly redistributed to nodes.”

10% collected when buying, another 10% when selling—these funds are distributed to existing token holders. The gold deposited into node wallets every Sunday is literally the tax collected from previous trades.

He doesn’t claim this as his own invention. He traces it back to token design in the previous cycle: trading volume drives up the token’s intrinsic value. “Typically those were inflationary models,” he said, “we’re building on that foundation.”

The other two engines are smaller in scale. One module, called SSYM, first channels undistributed funds into yield-bearing stablecoins. Another set of vaults deploys reserves into lending and liquidity strategies, with plans to integrate Kamino—the largest lending market on Solana. “Since you already have this store of value, why not make it work?” Didovskiy asked. He also acknowledged this introduces “new risks, new things.”

The Numbers Behind the Returns

Seasons publishes weekly data, numbers that aren’t exaggerated. As of the week ending July 24, the protocol reported cumulative distributions totaling $242,624, with $7,433 distributed that week across 339 node owners. It claims an average annualized return of approximately 12.56%, having distributed 8.28 ounces of gold and slightly over half a wrapped Bitcoin.

Looking at the token itself: SEAS traded around $0.25 on Thursday, with a fully diluted valuation nearing $250 million, and 24-hour trading volume about $6,500 (data from CoinGecko). It launched on December 9, 2025. Circulating supply isn’t reported, so CoinGecko doesn’t list a market cap.

At a daily trading volume of $6,500, a 10% tax generates about $650 per day—roughly matching actual distribution size.

Entry cost, however, is another matter. A 10% fee upon entry, plus another 10% upon exit—nearly one-fifth of position size. Based on claimed returns, a node would need nearly 1.5 years of biweekly payouts just to break even, not accounting for token price volatility. Distributing the total $242,624 across 339 nodes averages about $715 per person.

Solscan shows approximately 7,000 SEAS holders. Only 339 meet the 10,000-token threshold. The rest hold tokens, pay taxes during trades, but receive nothing in return.

Crypto Has Done This Before

Token designs that tax transactions and redistribute proceeds to holders were hallmark products of 2021. The most famous was SafeMoon, launched in March 2021, with a 10% transaction tax—half going to holders, half to liquidity pools. In May 2025, a jury found its CEO Braden John Karony guilty of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. He was sentenced to 100 months in federal prison and ordered to forfeit approximately $7.5 million in crypto assets and two properties.

The core issue in that case wasn’t the tax mechanism itself, but rather the misappropriation of liquidity—despite claims of locking it. Prosecutors alleged executives retained access to the fund and siphoned funds. Seasons is currently not accused of similar misconduct.

Seasons addresses some glaring failure points. The token runs on Solana’s Token-2022 standard, natively supporting transaction fees—unlike the 2021 generation relying on custom contract logic prone to bugs. RugCheck records show minting permissions were revoked about seven months ago, freezing permissions about eight months ago—preventing arbitrary token issuance or wallet freezes. Around 22% of liquidity is locked. Dividends are paid in gold, Bitcoin, and USD—not the protocol’s own token, which is precisely what turns most reflection tokens into self-reinforcing loops.

RugCheck still rates this token “dangerous,” citing two reasons: low holder count and fee configuration. On Solana, the ability to modify transaction fee settings can be changed later, though there’s typically a four-day delay.

What Sustainable Returns Usually Require

“Crazy interest rates can’t last forever,” said Jonathan Han, CEO of Euler Labs, on the On The Margin podcast. “I think people have learned lessons from the past few years.”

Han refers to the aftermath of DeFi Summer—when protocols inflated returns using their own token emissions to achieve triple-digit yields. He also described today’s entrants: “Many retail investors, ordinary people, are beginning to come on-chain, seeking alternative yield sources and opportunities.” The DeFi yield layer has been rebuilt after multiple hacking incidents, and enthusiasm for sky-high return figures has clearly cooled.

Seasons doesn’t issue its own tokens—a point Didovskiy repeatedly emphasizes. But the money still comes from within. Streamex also pays yield on tokenized gold, and its CEO Henry McPhie explicitly stated where the funds come from: “We’re not just storing gold in bank vaults idle—we’re putting it to work.”

“We rent gold out to those who need it as working capital,” he said, listing borrowers such as jewelers and refiners. They pay rent to borrow gold, repay in kind—this portion becomes yield. The money flows in from outside the token ecosystem. Seasons, by contrast, derives funds from its own order book.

This is a crucial distinction that potential nodes must calculate themselves. It cuts through the debate over what retail DeFi is really for—and underpins the effort to treat crypto as a savings vehicle, not a speculative instrument.

On asset fundamentals, Didovskiy bets on one of finance’s oldest arguments. “If we look at history, gold and Bitcoin will naturally appreciate over time,” he said, “giving them a sense of calm.”

David McAlvany, operator of the gold platform Vaulted, echoed this on the same podcast: “The test is durability. Will it still exist in five thousand years? Gold—I’m fairly certain. Bitcoin? Maybe. Maybe not.”

The Failed Season

Seasons frames its history as numbered seasons. The first season paid out rewards in meme coins. Holders made it clear: they wanted real yield, not meme yield—so that season was abandoned. The current basket centers on tokenized gold, wrapped Bitcoin, and lending market USD—this is the corrected version.

Before being asked about the product, Didovskiy offered his diagnosis of the industry. “Especially in crypto, blockchain, and Web3 spaces, people often reverse-engineer solutions—they’re solving problems that don’t yet exist,” he said, rather than addressing pre-existing ones.

The problem he targeted is real. Crypto has never given ordinary savers a quiet place to sit. So attempts to create something “like a retirement account” have persisted. Seasons built an automated version. Whether it can function as a true savings account depends on traffic. But with only $6,500 in daily trading volume, the traffic is minimal.

Han, describing what pushes newcomers away from DeFi lending, pointed to something that never disappeared: “They don’t want to expose themselves to massive smart contract risk, market volatility, and unknown dangers.”

Written by Forbes, compiled by AididiaoJP, Foresight News