Project Upgrade and Listing Dilemma: Reflections of a Crypto Assets Founder

Recently, our project is undergoing a brand and mainnet upgrade, while also carrying out a coin swap operation. As a project that has been building since 2017, we are quite familiar with these standard processes. In addition to the necessary compliance procedures and code audits, the main considerations are market budgets, how to attract new users and traffic, and how to benefit existing users. The project team needs liquidity and new trading channels, while trading platforms need users and trading volume, which is a mutually beneficial relationship.

However, after engaging with certain trading platforms, we encountered some interesting situations. After initial business communications, the research department raised several issues that could lead to our inability to list coins or require an increase in budget. I would like to share a few thought-provoking points among them:

First, they believe that our data heat is not enough, especially in terms of social media and on-chain data. They compare us to other projects in the same industry. But as a research department, can't they see the authenticity of this data? For example, a social media account with hundreds of thousands of followers has only a few thousand views and less than 10 comments per tweet, which is clearly unreasonable. Furthermore, certain projects' on-chain data shows that a single transaction hash contains a large number of transaction records, which means that ordinary users can perform complex bundled transactions, which is also unrealistic. Especially in the field of AI data labeling, due to the high technical threshold and the expensive subsequent data processing costs, large-scale labeling behavior is unlikely to occur.

Secondly, they emphasize the importance of endorsements from investment institutions. However, as a project that has been operating for more than 6 years, we have always relied on our own funds for development and have never accepted external investments. In our view, this purely community-driven model, free from venture capital control, is something to be appreciated, right? But in the eyes of the research department, this has become a sign of lacking institutional endorsements and insufficient legitimacy.

Thirdly, regarding the issue of token circulation and valuation. Our tokens have all been unlocked, and the market value is equal to the fully diluted valuation, with nearly 70% of the tokens locked in validation nodes. The research department believes this may bring significant selling pressure. However, in reality, as a purely community-driven project, who would sell on a large scale? Moreover, our market value is less than 100 million USD, which means our selling pressure is actually smaller compared to those projects that are valued at 1 billion USD right after their launch.

These experiences have led me to reflect that the current Crypto Assets industry seems to have changed its nature. Practices such as data falsification, project rebranding, airdropping to studios followed by market makers dumping the tokens have surprisingly become the basic operations for listing coins. I believe that listing coins should be more like venture capital, primarily focusing on the quality and strength of the team. If everything relies on these superficial tactics, then the long-term development of these projects is concerning.

As veterans of the industry, we understand these tricks, but we choose not to use them. Because these practices will ultimately only cheapen the gray market and the manipulators, sacrificing the interests of new retail investors, and will also lead developers astray, ultimately causing the entire industry to fall into stagnation.

Recalling the ICO era of 2017-2018, although everyone was short on funds, the discussions were focused on how to improve efficiency and security, how to promote products, and helping each other during hacker attacks. At that time, introducing venture capital and opportunities for listing on exchanges was done without charge, but now it is filled with various kickbacks and referral fees.

I sincerely miss that pure era and also miss the pure us back then.