What Is Radworks (RAD)? The Governance Token Behind Radicle and Drips

Radworks (RAD) is the Ethereum token that governs the DAO behind the Radicle code network and the Drips funding protocol, and it jumped 32.03% on 5 October 2026. It closed that day at $0.3451 on CoinMarketCap and ranked among the ten most-searched coins on that site on 6 October, though no project post explains the move.

CoinMarketCap logged $61.70 million of RAD volume on 5 October, 42.58 times the 4 October figure, yet the main on-chain pool carried 1.54% of it. The day was RAD's fourth one-day gain of 32% or more in ten months, and the three before it all closed lower 30 days later.

What Is Radworks Crypto?

Radworks is a DAO whose RAD holders steer a treasury that pays for open-source developer tools, and the Radworks site names three. Radicle is a peer-to-peer code collaboration stack built on Git, Drips lets ecosystems fund open-source contributors, and the Radworks App is a launcher the docs still list as coming soon.

Searches for the Radworks coin collide with two older words, the botanist's radicle and the physicist's rad. The token's contract went live on Ethereum on 15 February 2021 under the name Radicle, and it still carries that name, so "radicle crypto" searches land on the same coin.

Why Is Radworks Trending?

Radworks is trending after RAD's 32.03% gain on 5 October. On CoinMarketCap it closed 4 October at $0.2614 and 5 October at $0.3451, with an intraday high of $0.3788, and CoinGecko's daily snapshots put the move at 31.91%. That was the highest close of 2026 on CoinMarketCap.

The buying came in two bursts on the main Uniswap V2 pool, from $0.2651 to $0.3152 in the 15:00 UTC hour and from $0.3049 to $0.3529 in the 19:00 UTC hour. CoinMarketCap's hourly series shows the first burst in the same hour.

CoinMarketCap counted $61.70 million of RAD trades on 5 October, 23.99 times the daily mean of the 30 days before it. The pool traded about $950,600, so 98.5% of the day's volume ran through exchange order books that leave no trace on Ethereum. Read the headline figure with care, because how crypto trading volume affects price depends on where trades happen.

The spike also has a precedent, and it hasn't been kind to buyers. CoinMarketCap's RAD record from 28 February 2021 holds 12 earlier one-day gains of 32% or more, and 11 of them closed lower 30 days later.

The one exception came on 30 July 2021, in that year's bull market, and none of this is a forecast.

Method: a one-day gain is the close over the previous close, and the 30-day figure compares the close 30 days later with the spike-day close.

No project post dates a cause. The newest item on radicle.dev is the 23 September vulnerability disclosure, the newest topic on the Radworks forum dates from 8 August, and a web search on 6 October turned up no listing news.

What Is RAD Crypto?

RAD crypto is the Radworks governance token, and its one job is deciding how the DAO's treasury gets spent. The Radworks governance docs say the treasury runs through a Compound-style Governor contract, and each delegated token carries one vote.

Radworks names its proposals RGPs. Each needs 4 million RAD voting in favour to reach quorum, 4% of the 100 million supply, and a majority of votes cast to pass.

RAD in a wallet carries no voting power until its holder delegates it to an address, their own included. If on-chain and off-chain blockchain governance is new to you, Radworks runs both, with Snapshot polls off chain and Governor votes on chain.

The token governs money, and the software runs without it. Radicle installs with one shell command, and the radicle.dev homepage we read on 6 October doesn't mention the RAD token at all.

How Does Radworks Work?

Radworks works as a funder with a vote attached, and each team it pays ships its own product under its own name.

Radicle stores code, issues and patches as Git objects that nodes copy between each other, so a repository stays online as long as one node seeds it. The project moved from radicle.xyz to radicle.dev on 23 April 2026.

On 2 June 2026 it launched Radicle Garden, a subscription service of always-on hosted nodes run by The Better Internet Foundation, the Swiss non-profit behind the protocol.

Drips moves money to open-source contributors, and its Wave programme with the Stellar Development Foundation drew more than 1,000 developers in the first quarter of 2026. A 22 April team update on the Radworks forum gave that figure and counted more than 30,000 pull requests merged through the programme.

Treasury money moves only when a proposal passes. RGP-28 asked for 2,994,000 USDC to fund the Drips, Radicle Garden and Radworks App teams through 2026, plus 7.5 million RAD for Drips contributors. At 09:30 UTC on 23 December 2025 the Timelock sent that RAD to a Safe multisig that needs three signatures to move it.

Radworks Tokenomics

RAD has a fixed supply. The contract minted 100 million RAD once, at deployment on 15 February 2021. Its Sourcify-verified code has no mint function, no owner role and no pause or blacklist switch. Burns are the only way supply changes, and the total stood at 99,998,580 RAD on 6 October after 1,420 burned.

The Timelock that executes Governor votes held 40.92 million RAD on 6 October, or 40.92% of supply. Two Safe multisigs come next. One holds the 7.11 million RAD left from the RGP-28 tranche. Etherscan labels the other as the team's vesting wallet. It holds 3.21 million RAD.

CoinMarketCap's circulating supply of 59.08 million RAD equals total supply minus the Timelock balance, to the decimal. So it counts both Safes as circulating, including the tranche RGP-28 calls "fully locked until December 2026".

Leave the two Safes out and the float falls to about 48.76 million RAD, under half of supply. At the 5 October close that float was worth $16.83 million, against the $20.39 million CoinMarketCap's figure implies.

That lock is a policy in a proposal, held by a Safe that sent out about 394,600 RAD between 30 December 2025 and 4 August 2026.

How to Buy Radworks Safely

Phemex lists no RAD market, so these checks assume an Ethereum wallet and a decentralised exchange.

1. Match the token address in full to 0x31c8eacbffdd875c74b94b077895bd78cf1e64a3 on Ethereum, the one contract that minted RAD in February 2021, before you approve anything.

2. Ignore the copies that borrow the name or the ticker. PulseChain duplicated Ethereum's state in 2023, so a RAD copy lives at the same address there. Tokens on BNB Chain and Base and an Ethereum token called Radcoin V2 also use the RAD ticker, one of them named Radworks. On 6 October at 09:34 UTC someone opened a Uniswap pool pairing a token named Radicle against real RAD.

3. Route the trade through the Uniswap V2 RAD/USDC pool, which held more than $2.4 million on 6 October, while no other RAD pool on Ethereum held more than $6,300. Before any swap, run the checks for mints, liquidity locks and honeypot traps on whatever you are about to buy.

4. Size the order to that pool, because the pool's own price rose 33.83% on 5 October on about $950,600 of trades, and a large market order moves it hard.

5. On Phemex, the product list read on 6 October shows the RAD/USDT spot pair and perpetual as delisted, so RAD has no live perpetual there. The guide to what happens when a coin is delisted covers where that leaves holders. Futures on other coins use leverage, and a leveraged position is closed automatically if losses reach its margin.

What Are the Risks of Radworks?

The Network Flaw Radicle Disclosed on 23 September

On 23 September 2026 Radicle disclosed two critical flaws in its network protocol that affect every version released to that date. Traffic between nodes is neither encrypted nor authenticated, and the team told users to stop using private repositories until a fix ships. The fix swaps the network transport, so it needs a breaking major release.

Six Addresses Held More Than Two-Thirds of the Supply

Six addresses held more than two-thirds of RAD on 6 October. The Timelock and the two Safes accounted for 51.24%, which a passed vote or the Safes' signers can move, and three wallets that Etherscan tags to centralised exchanges held about 16.4%.

Supply Arrives From December 2026

RGP-28 plans to vest its tranche to Drips contributors from December 2026 through December 2029. That puts up to 7.11 million RAD, 7.11% of supply, on a path into the float that no time-lock contract enforces.

Four Spikes That Gave Back Ground

The last four 32%-plus days before 5 October each closed lower 30 days later, by 13.88% to 33.28%. The next 30-day reading for this spike lands with the 4 November 2026 close.

Is Radworks a Good Investment?

RAD carries votes over a treasury and no claim on product revenue. Radicle Garden's profits go to The Better Internet Foundation, and the Drips team reported in April that its Wave revenue roughly covers its own monthly personnel cost.

The 5 October close of $0.3451 was 98.75% below the $27.61 all-time high of 15 April 2021 on CoinGecko, and it left RAD 0.06% above its 31 December 2025 close. So a 32% day left the token roughly where it started 2026.

A Radicle release that fixes the network flaw and steadier trading on chain would change that picture. Until then, the record shows a token whose sharpest days faded within a month four times in a row.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Radworks crypto?

Radworks crypto refers to RAD, the Ethereum governance token of the Radworks DAO. Holders delegate RAD to vote on how the treasury funds the Radicle code network and the Drips funding protocol.

What is RAD crypto?

RAD is the ERC-20 token that launched as Radicle in February 2021, with a fixed supply of 100 million. Holders use it to vote on how the Radworks treasury spends its money.

Is Radicle crypto the same as Radworks?

Yes, Radicle crypto and Radworks crypto are the same RAD contract on Ethereum. The token launched under the Radicle name in 2021, and the DAO behind it has since taken the Radworks name.

Who runs Radworks?

RAD holders run the treasury through delegated votes on proposals called RGPs. The Better Internet Foundation oversees Radicle's protocol work from Switzerland, and the Public Goods Association is the Drips team's legal entity.

What is the RAD price?

RAD closed at $0.3451 on 5 October 2026 on CoinMarketCap, up 32.03% from $0.2614 on 4 October. Phemex's price page tracks the token, though Phemex's product list on 6 October shows both RAD pairs delisted.

Bottom Line

Take away the spike and RAD is a voting chip for a small open-source funder, priced by exchange order books that Ethereum never sees. The vote is the asset. A trader buying the 5 October move is betting on the one outcome RAD's last four spikes failed to deliver, a higher close a month later.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.