What I Learned From Launching 89
I launched 89 with $7.
That was literally my dev buy. Seven dollars in rewards sitting in my Phantom wallet from launching TOKABUTO as a joke. That was the starting point.
Before I launched, I tweeted so I could attach the tweet to the pump metadata. Then I messaged a few buddies. Volume started picking up. I kept buying. I never sent new funds into the wallet. I bought all the way up to $2.5M and all the way back down using rewards.
Along the way, I spent over $20,000 buying a TikTok account. I spent another $10,000 on content campaigns.
Unless 89 runs back heavy, I lost money on this project.
And I’m okay saying that.
If it goes low enough, I’m even willing to buy 50% more and burn it. Not out of desperation, but because I believe in what 89 represents. I believe 89 is the great meme reset for 2026 the way 67 defined 2025.
Here’s what I actually learned.
1. You can’t just throw money at a project and expect it to succeed.
Distribution helps. Content helps. Awareness helps. But capital alone does not create conviction. It does not create culture. It does not force attention to stay.
2. You don’t have to bundle a coin for it to run.
89 proved that. Momentum came organically at first. That said, supply control matters. If I’m being honest, better supply strategy likely would have helped sustain the early velocity.
3. Attention span in this space is almost non-existent.
Right now, no one wants to build communities. Everyone wants immediate upside. The community meta will return. I believe that. But trying to force it in the current environment feels unnatural.
4. Web2 and Web3 are closer than people think.
I learned a lot about how to use my network outside of crypto. I saw what transfers and what does not. I also met a few people inside this space I genuinely trust and can build with long term.
5. This is a thankless job.
Some people bought early and made tens of thousands. Some round-tripped. Some bought the top and are still holding. Memes are zero-sum. Unless price only goes up, someone will be disappointed.
When you attach yourself publicly to a coin, expectations become heavy. I understand that now. I respect it.
I do not want to let down the people still holding 89. I am still cooking. But I am not going to rush anything just to manufacture short term action. The overall market is cooked right now. Forcing moves in a bad tape rarely ends well.
To everyone who rode this with me, who continues to ride, and who will ride in the future, I respect you.
I learned more from this $7 experiment than most people learn from a clean win.
Just landed back in LA
SOL bottom in
Bitcoin at 89k
Things are about to get interesting this week 👀
The CA starts with 8 fucking 9
89E7wc1H2LmzEGSa96hWURcsVs5V9ByWdNM7rctSpump
Wonder what happens to this project when:
67 runs back to $50M+
We have a tik tok video do 1M+ views
A content campaign video does 1M+ views
And those are just the ones likely to happen within the next few weeks…
89.
Over 500 pieces of organic content.
A Tik Tok acquired with 1.4M subs.
It’s so hard to maintain attention in this world we degen within, but if nothing else, 89 has proven to me what is possible.
Regardless of where market cap goes from here, I’m really proud of what was accomplished.
89.