As a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), Badger DAO focuses, from the ground up, on decentralized finance (DeFi) applications – specifically those facilitating the use of Bitcoin as collateral.

Badger DAO enables users to earn yields on wrapped Bitcoin tokens via staking vaults, as Messari has noted, with key features being automated yield generation and re-investment strategies.

BADGER is the Badger DAO ecosystem's governance token. Additional functionalities include staking and liquidity provisioning in BADGER-WBTC pools.

"Badger DAO is building the infrastructure to bring BTC to DeFi," the Badger website says.

Its maiden product foray is the Sett vault which allows users to earn yield on their synthetic BTC assets.

Badger’s second product, Digg, is software that runs the DIGG token, pegged to BTC.

As an open-source DAO, the Badger ecosystem is looking to build out a suite of offerings – minting, borrowing, yield farming, swaps – that, taken together, simplify BTC collateralization across a range of smart contract platforms.

Badger developers harness the power of the collective to enmesh BTC into as many blockchains as possible. Developers, in return, are rewarded for their contributions via a taste of fees and allocations of BADGER tokens flowing from the developer mining pool, based on the volume of BTC-use implementations.

It’s not just developers; anyone can create and contribute to the overall strength of the network. Contributions can be made to one or more of the main pillars supporting mission, whether developmental, operational or activities tied to distributing tokens.

Working off open-source code, developers from around the world come together to work toward the shared goal of accelerating more speedy transfers of BTCs.

As mentioned, it’s a DAO. Governance relies on community initiatives.

Besides its primary operations, BADGER retains two primary products - Sett and DIGG.

DIGG, created with the intention of minimizing centralization among third parties, is a key resource within the Badger ecosystem i.e. it’s a reward and it’s tied to BTC’s USG price.

Badger was founded in September 2020, according to DeFi Coins.

The team’s co-founders include Ameer Rosic, a co-founder of Blockgeeks.com, and Albert Castellana, a co-founder of StakeHound. Another co-founder is Chris Spadafora who is associated with Alwayshodl.com and Angelrock. The team also collaborated with dOrg, a builder of DAO-related software.

In December of 2021, a hacker drained funds from the wallets of dozens of users of the Badger DAO yield vault protocol (CoinDesk). PeckShield concluded the total loss amounted to $120 million.

The current price of BADGER

As of mid-March 2022, BADGER was trading at about $7.50, some 90% lower than its all-time high of $90 reached in February 2021.

The all-time low, of just under $3, was reached in December of 2021.

How the price of BADGER is determined

With a total supply of 21,000,000 BADGER tokens, there is an elastic-supply model; this token periodically and automatically adjusts based on market conditions in a “rebase” type of expansion. If the price of DIGG is below 1:1 peg with BTC, a negative rebase will occur –supply is reduced, holders' balances decrease, and vice versa if DIGG exceeds the 1:1 peg.

What the bulls are saying about Badger DAO (BADGER)

BADGER users get rewards via DIGG, pegged to the price of BTC, and re-bases once a day, and which is why the price of BADGER now increases so rapidly, said Quora’s Marius Kramer.

"As a community-run initiative, token holders decide everything and truly have shared ownership," DeFi Pulse said. "Their goal is to be an environment for all of the best builders in the industry to come together and build the products we need for Bitcoin."

BADGER can go as high as $14 in the next year, TechNews Leader said in mid-March.

What the bears are saying about Badger DAO (BADGER)

BADGER could fall below $1 in the next year, Wallet Investor said in mid-March.

The technology is still nascent, and vulnerable to new types of attacks, said online technology magazine Redmond.

General sentiment is bearish, as of mid-March 2022, said CoinCodex.