ask.ivan.eth

A story without numbers is a fairy tale, numbers without a story is a spreadsheet.

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

@lookonchain @hypersurfaceX 117% APR in USDT is pretty sick. Most of defi now is fake yield from worthless tokens.

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

It's wild how much of the ~$200 billion skincare industry is based on vibes and "trust me sis", instead of decades of clinical trials, and biochemistry research into anti-aging.

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

@sandraleow I used to be an Emergency Medical Technician. I created my own customGPT to triage any medical issues, and feed it detailed records of all my medical histories.

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

Someone had to say it

[Bo @bozhangles]

1/ @blockworks just dropped the Token Transparency Framework (TTF) — a self-reported checklist for crypto teams to “signal transparency.” But how does it stack up to tradfi disclosure rules? Spoiler: It doesn’t. 🧵👇

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

How much a token launch actually costs - a budget breakdown 👇🏻 Pretty accurate from experience.

[Bo @bozhangles]

Everyone talks about launching a crypto token.

But almost no one talks about how much it costs to run one 💸

I’ve worked with over 20 crypto teams, with a touchpoint of over $800m in assets since I started @FydeLabs four years ago.

𝗔 𝘁𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿.

Here’s the cold, hard math behind launching (and maintaining) a token on CEXs and DEXs.

Spoiler: it’s not cheap!👇

(1/5)

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

@damienghader Build

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

How to know whether a crypto team is ngmi. I've seen these red flags🔴every single time.

[Bo @bozhangles]

Two years ago, the VC arm of @Consensys invited me to teach crypto treasury management to their portfolio companies. The ones that didn’t make it ☠️ all made these 3 fatal mistakes 👇

1⃣ Not cashing out in bull markets

Many teams hesitate to sell their own tokens for cash as markets rally, either to reduce sell pressure, or because they get overly confident.

Just remember, “give up trying to catch the last eighth, or the first. These two are the most expensive eights in the world.”

Token prices will crash faster than you can react. When this happens, liquidity evaporates, leaving treasury teams holding bags of worthless tokens that can’t pay the bills.

But there are other ways to unlock working capital during bull markets.

Institutional lenders offer up to 75% LTV in no-recourse loans against altcoin collateral. They charge projects a 10% origination fee on the loan value as well as annual interest, and lend up to 50-75% of the collateral value in cash or stablecoins like USDC.

This unlocks working capital without the sell
pressure on token prices.

2⃣ Launching a token to stay afloat

The best time to launch a token is when you don’t need the money. Especially in a bull market when valuations are high.

If you launch a token only when you need to extend your runway - it’s over. This is because most teams underestimate the costs to do so.

Managing a token after launch can easily cost $1m - just in the first year alone.

💸Exchange listing fees (budget $500k for MEXC, Gate, and Kucoin alone)
💸Retainers for market makers ($10-20k/mo assuming you don’t use the loan model)
💸The capital you need to post on the exchange for market makers ($150-200k for three exchanges).

That doesn’t even include the marketing budget required to generate sufficient demand for the token before it launches.

3⃣ Spending too little, too late on marketing

Teams will spend millions hiring cracked developers to build amazing products, but then scrimp on the marketing budget for user acquisition, community building, and brand awareness.

Founders (especially highly technical ones) tend to fall into the trap of obsessing over engineering, only to realize no one knows or cares about either their token, or their product.

The token is not the product, and the product is not the token. Token investors and users are (mostly) separate target audiences that care about vastly different things.

Build in public from day one. Focus on selling the story and journey for at least 6 months, and paving the way for a successful token launch.

De-prioritize anything that doesn’t contribute to this mission, and don’t be afraid to use a marketing agency. They’ve been there before, and will often have a better pulse on crypto marketing strategies than you do.

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

Not all growth is good growth. Chasing TVL from a trade that unwinds in a few months. Enticing depositors with yield from tokens.

If the *only* reason people use your crypto app is free rewards that eventually evaporate - don't be surprised when it happens.

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

@JoschuaBuilds "One more feature bro, just one more partnership, one more new product announcement, and we'll start getting users bro, I promise"

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

"One more feature bro, just one more partnership, one more new product announcement, and we'll start getting users bro, I promise"

[Joschua Sutee @JoschuaBuilds]

You launched the MVP and are faced with:

0 users
0 feedback
0 revenue

What's your next move? (Wrong answers only)

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

@bozhangles @MANTRA_Chain @FydeLabs $OM probably oversold

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

@bozhangles Sick! Would be cool if it had market alerts and suggest specific trade ideas💡

[Bloomberg Crypto @crypto]

Singaporean blockchain platform DigiFT will offer a tokenized version of a $6.3 billion Invesco private credit fund, the latest example of blurring lines between the finance and crypto worlds https://t.co/BP65iCEMSR

[Jack Prescott @JackPrescottX]

https://t.co/eJxwbzOCZ8

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

@RobertMSterling How about the German war veteran who became a painter who flunked out of art school, and went on to become the country's leader who led a nation out of the Great Depression?

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

@MicheleDaliessi Damn, I guess the future of devrel is AI agents

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

@braelyn_ai How much?

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

Good riddance. Gensler is emblematic of how politicians can bribe you to contradict yourself in public, and sabotage your own nation's industrial prowess.

[SEC Chair Gary Gensler Archive @GenslerArchive]

On January 20, 2025 I will be stepping down as @SECGov Chair.

A thread 🧵⬇️

[ask.ivan.eth @ask_ivan_h]

@SuiHub_org @GhafCapital @SuiNetwork @brincvc @CoinList Bullish

[The Block @TheBlockCo]

OpenEden's biz dev contractor was the founder of Braq — a community that's still wondering where its NFTs went https://t.co/Jl77XJVODG