Fewer than 25 red wolves remain in the wild. Once ranging from Texas to New York, they now cling to existence in a single refuge in North Carolina. Traditional conservation funding has failed them. But there's a new mechanism that generates perpetual funding through market activity—no donations required.
the last wild red wolves
The red wolf (Canis rufus) is one of the world's most endangered canids. Smaller and rust-colored compared to their gray cousins, these wolves were declared extinct in the wild in 1980. A captive breeding program brought them back to North Carolina's Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in 1987, where the population peaked at 130 individuals in 2012.
Today, fewer than 25 remain wild. Gunshot mortality, vehicle strikes, and hybridization with coyotes continue to threaten their survival. Each individual is critical to the species.
The problem isn't awareness—it's funding. Traditional conservation relies on donations, grants, and government budgets that fluctuate with political winds. Red wolves need something more reliable.
a new funding mechanism: $CANIS RUFUS
$CANIS RUFUS is an ensurance coin—a cryptocurrency designed to generate perpetual funding for red wolf habitat protection. Here's how it works:
the fair launch model
When the coin launched, the total supply of 1 billion tokens was distributed like this:
| Allocation | Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Liquidity pool | 990M (99%) | Open market trading |
| habitat.ensurance | 10M (1%) | Initial funding for habitat protection |
No insiders. No airdrops. No pre-sales. The initial 10 million tokens went directly to habitat.ensurance—an onchain agent dedicated to protecting critical species habitat.
how trading creates perpetual funding
Every trade of $CANIS RUFUS generates ensurance proceeds—fees that flow to the protocol and are distributed to beneficiaries who protect nature. This isn't a one-time donation. It's a market that funds conservation continuously.
The mechanism:
- Someone buys or sells $CANIS RUFUS
- Trading fees are collected automatically
- Proceeds flow to ORIGIN | ENSURANCE PROCEEDS
- The protocol routes value to beneficiaries
Ensurance proceeds are perpetual funding for what matters. As long as the market exists, value flows to nature.
by the numbers
Current $CANIS RUFUS metrics (as of December 2025):
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Market cap | $4,381 |
| Trading volume | $2,404 |
| Ensurers (holders) | 40 |
| Tokens burned | 1.0M |
beneficiaries
The proceeds from $CANIS RUFUS trading reach:
| Type | Count |
|---|---|
| Direct recipients | 6 |
| Indirect recipients | 110 |
| Total beneficiaries | 116 |
Direct recipients receive funds immediately. Indirect recipients benefit through downstream distribution—pools, groups, and streams that fund specific conservation outcomes.
the model: coins funding agents funding nature
This is the ensurance model in action:
Coin launches → Initial supply funds agent → Trading generates proceeds → Proceeds fund nature
$CANIS RUFUS funds habitat.ensurance with its initial supply. But the real power is in the ongoing market activity. Every buy, every sell, every trade—each one routes value toward red wolf habitat protection.
another example: $ACEH and the leuser ecosystem
The same model works for different places and purposes. $ACEH is a newer ensurance coin funding the Leuser Ecosystem in Sumatra—2.6 million hectares of tropical rainforest and the only place where orangutans, tigers, elephants, and rhinos still coexist in the wild.
Unlike $CANIS RUFUS, $ACEH's initial supply funds multiple agents:
| Recipient | Focus |
|---|---|
| peninsular-malaysian-sumatran-tropical-rainforests.bioregion | Bioregional stewardship |
| tropical-forests.ensurance | Tropical forest protection |
| erosion-control.ensurance | Erosion control services |
| risk-resilience.ensurance | Risk resilience services |
This demonstrates the flexibility of the model. One coin can seed multiple agents, each focused on different aspects of ecosystem protection.
In November 2024, Tropical Cyclone Senyar triggered catastrophic flooding across Aceh—over 150 dead, hundreds missing, nearly half a million displaced. Environmental groups documented almost 600,000 acres of primary forest lost in 2024 alone. Restoring forest cover isn't conservation in the abstract; it's infrastructure for survival.
why this matters
Traditional conservation faces a $1 trillion annual funding gap. Donations are unpredictable. Grants require constant applications. Government funding shifts with elections.
Ensurance coins offer something different:
| Traditional | Ensurance |
|---|---|
| One-time donations | Perpetual proceeds from trading |
| Grant cycles | Continuous market activity |
| Political dependency | Onchain, permissionless |
| Opaque distribution | Transparent beneficiary routing |
This isn't charity. It's market infrastructure for nature.
how to participate
If you want to help save the red wolf:
- Buy $CANIS RUFUS — Your purchase generates immediate trading fees, and holding creates market depth
- Trade actively — Every trade generates proceeds, even selling
- Tell others — More participants means more trading means more funding
View $CANIS RUFUS on ensurance.app
frequently asked questions
how is this different from donating to a wildlife charity?
Donations are one-time transfers. Ensurance coins create a market where every trade—buying or selling—generates proceeds that flow to conservation. The funding is perpetual as long as the market exists.
where do the proceeds actually go?
Proceeds flow to ORIGIN | ENSURANCE PROCEEDS, then route to beneficiaries including natural capital pools (50%), distributions (20%), groups (10%), core protocol (10%), streams (6%), and swapper (4%).
is this a good investment?
Ensurance coins are instruments for funding nature, not investment vehicles. Their value comes from the conservation outcomes they enable, not from speculative returns. Treat any purchase as participation in a funding mechanism, not a financial investment.
can I create an ensurance coin for a species I care about?
Yes. The ensurance protocol is permissionless. Anyone can create a coin that funds specific agents or natural assets. Learn how agents work.
the bottom line
Red wolves have been failed by traditional conservation funding. $CANIS RUFUS offers a different approach—a market that generates perpetual funding through trading activity. 40 people have already joined. The mechanism is live, the proceeds are flowing, and the wolves are still out there.
Fewer than 25 remain. Each one matters.