Community ownership matters
Projects grow faster when they have an army of bagholders supporting them:- Hyperliquid distributed 33% of its supply to its users. Its perp volume 6xed.
- Yearn distributed 100% of its supply to its early users. It subsequently rose from an $8M TVL project to a $6B TVL project without incentives.
- MegaETH sold tokens in an Echo round to 2,900 people. Its Kaito mindshare 15xed.
But most tokens are done poorly
There are many problems with the standard playbook for doing a token. These include:- Rampant insider dealings have led to a loss of trust: hidden OTC deals, special insider payouts from the foundation, and the like have made many investors wary of tokens.
- The tokens themselves have very little fundamental value: because there aren’t any legal protections, nothing stops revenue from flowing to the team or a labs entity.
- Frontloaded demand and backloaded supply contribute to structurally lower prices over time: because they generally launch at a high FDV and most of their supply is vested over 2-3 years, these tokens need a large amount of incremental buy pressure to maintain their prices.
MetaDAO is for founders who want to launch a token the right way
MetaDAO’s core principles are:- Fair launch early: instead of launching at a high FDV, projects launch early with high-float ICOs so that they can grow over time.
- Real ownership and unruggability: the most important parts of the project - the intellectual property, the funds, and the ability to mint new tokens - are controlled by market-driven governance. This imbues the token with value and mitigates the risk of malicious teams rugging the treasury.
- Pay-for-performance: insiders unlocks are proportional to the premium over the launch price. This keeps teams and participants aligned.