Last week, MakerDAO officially changed its name to Sky Protocol and will upgrade its tokens and stablecoins to SKY and Sky Dollar (USDS). This move attracted a lot of “diss” from old users. In addition to complaining about the unprofessional team and the improper handling of the original Like a Web2 technology company, it is not as impressive as MakerDAO; there are also KOLs who bluntly said that the team has violated the vision of decentralization.
Image source: BlockBeats
Throughout the crypto cycle, operations such as project name changes, mergers, or token renames are common. According to incomplete statistics from Rhythm BlockBeats, there have been more than 40 projects involving changes or mergers in protocols, projects or token names this year alone. In addition to MakerDAO, well-known protocols and platforms such as Galxe (now renamed Gravity), Helio Protocol (now Lista DAO), Polygon (token name changed to POL), etc. have all undergone name (or token) changes.
Image source: BlockBeats
Why is everyone obsessed with changing their name?
Expanding the vision to the entire industry, it can be seen from the table analysis compiled by Rhythm above that the main reasons for renaming the agreement or project include: reintegration of resources and funds, brand positioning update, and major technology upgrades. In addition, the name change may also be affected by factors such as simplifying the structure, major personnel changes, easing regulatory pressure and differentiated competition. When the market environment is poor or the project receives a cold reception, changing the name may also become a strategy to attract market attention.
Taking MakerDAO as an example, encryption researcher Haotian pointed out that for such old DeFi projects, there are unavoidable regulatory compliance issues. Unless you take a corner, anyone who wants to expand the market size must cater to regulation. This name change is also Its the first step in making a change. MakerDAO's ambition is not limited to making a more decentralized stablecoin on the chain, but is more inclined to expand its business scope and market user share.
Image source: BlockBeats
Projects such as Solend (now Save), Mirror L2 (now Mirror Staking Protocol), Qredo (Open Custody Protocol) and other projects have changed their names to better reflect their core business directions and technical expertise, so that users can understand them more intuitively. The industries these agreements are currently focusing on.
Amber Japan (now S.BLOX) and Fantom (now Sonic Labs) involve changes in team ownership, or technology and brand upgrades.
Take Fantom as an example. On August 2 this year, Fantom officially changed its name to Sonic Labs. Sonic is a brand new L1 that can cross-chain to Ethereum through native L2. At the same time, Sonic has added a new Sonic Foundation, Sonic Labs and a new visual image. Andre Cronje, the founder of Fantom, is a leader in the DeFi industry and was previously a member of the Fantom Foundation. However, in 2022, he suddenly announced his temporary withdrawal from the DeFi industry, causing the market's confidence in Fantom to drop sharply, and the price of FTM tokens also plummeted. The name change also involves personnel changes, with Andre Cronje becoming Sonic Labs’ Chief Technology Officer (CTO). At present, Fantom is trying to take this opportunity to restart the market and get rid of the impact of the Multichain incident by changing its name and adjusting its organizational structure. However, it remains to be seen whether it can once again lead DeFi to glory.
There are also some projects that change and expand the track by changing their names to improve the imagination of project development. Take Galxe (now Gravity) as an example. It has transformed from the largest task platform of Web3 to a Layer1 blockchain with a full-chain abstract design. Previously, Galxe has more than 25 million user addresses, cooperates with more than 6,000 project parties/communities, and has been launched on mainstream trading platforms such as Binance and OKX. After changing to a public chain, the original users will largely remain and follow. Currently, Gravity’s monthly active addresses have returned to previous peak levels. In terms of ecological construction of new public chains, Gavity can rely on years of project experience and personal connections, which will save a lot of effort in convening basic DeFi projects and seeking cooperation.
Another high-profile name change this year is the token merger case of Fetch.ai ($FET), SingularityNET ($AGIX), and Ocean Protocol ($OCEAN). Three projects specializing in AI announced in June this year that they would establish a decentralized artificial intelligence alliance and merge their tokens $FET, $AGIX, and $OCEAN into $ASI in order to form an artificial intelligence super alliance to promote artificial intelligence. The development and application of smart technology. With the continuous support of the AI narrative craze, the three projects have chosen to integrate their own resources and funds and work together to promote new projects, which is also a way to stand out from the tight encirclement.
The above-mentioned projects mainly initiated name changes on the premise of pursuing positive feedback such as self-construction and brand image enhancement. However, there are also some fraudulent projects in the encryption market that constantly change their names to deceive others and repeatedly defraud users of their funds. For example the project @realtronarmy. Due to the recent popularity of the meme platform sun.fun, the project attempts to release new coins through "hot spots" to defraud users of funds. However, sharp-eyed netizens immediately discovered that the project had been renamed "Vest-Changing" several times before, and "cut leeks" by issuing new coins. After being exposed, the project’s Twitter account is currently logged out.
Image source: BlockBeats
What is the "effect" of changing the name?
Change the brand name or create a new token symbol, and the token can "start over" with a new price curve.
In March this year, some media reviewed the price trends of 15 tokens after rebranding in the past year and found that token prices showed strong trends after rebranding, with an average maximum increase of nearly 243.5%. For example, in December 2023, the decentralized auction platform Bounce Finance took advantage of the boom in the Bitcoin ecosystem and announced that the brand had been upgraded to Bounce Brand. All products were tilted towards the Bitcoin ecosystem, and the effect was also very significant. After the name change The highest increase in AUCTION in two weeks reached 223%. However, the negative effects of the "hot spot effect" brought about by the name change also emerged as the popularity of the Bitcoin market faded. The pull-up effect caused by the name change only lasted for more than two weeks, and the currency price fell back to the level before the name change.
Source: CoinGeckoAUCTION chart
It can be seen that changing the name does not mean "changing luck". After the short-term market enthusiasm, how the team strikes while the iron is hot, seizes opportunities for development, or leverages its own advantages is the key to sustainability. OKX is one of the more successful cases. In January 2022, OKEx officially changed its name to OKX and designed a new logo. After the brand upgrade, OKX followed up with a set of combinations: continuous social media promotion, domestic and overseas advertising, sponsorship of well-known events, etc.; on the product business line, the launch of OKX Web3 wallet quickly seized the market pain points and became this This is one of the important turning points in the brand upgrade, which also allowed it to successfully penetrate the new brand into the hearts of users in a very short period of time.
write at the end
In the current market environment, regardless of objective factors such as organizational structure changes and supervision, the initiative of small and medium-sized projects to change their names has evolved more into a "publicity strategy." Due to the lack of new narratives, it is difficult for the project side to form an effective brand building strategy.
Since the DeFi Summer of 2020 and the NFT Summer of 2021, the market has not seen a main theme narrative that can reach broad consensus for a long time. The Bitcoin ecological craze only lasted less than half a year, and the rise of memes on Solana was not in line with the "practical" spirit of crypto fundamentalists and true Builders. There are even views in the market that the narratives of new ecosystems such as Bitcoin and Solana are also "repeating" the old path of Ethereum to a certain extent.
In this cycle, the multi-party game has become more open. Compared with the "brainless stud" situation of retail investors in previous cycles, today's retail investors are more cautious and firmly grasp the chips. Faced with such a market environment, project developers have come up with strange tricks to grab attention. Among them, "rebranding" with a name change has become one of their trump cards. However, changing your name does not mean changing your destiny. If you want to become an "evergreen tree in the currency circle" in the alternation of bulls and bears, you also need to have a large user base, products that are easy to use and meet real needs, truly innovative discoveries, and firm belief and unremitting persistence.
Finally, if you want to give your project a good name, you can also read this article as a reference: "Read the Art of Naming Encryption Projects: The first step to success is to have a good name?" 》. Attached is the "Metaphysics" naming website, I hope it will be helpful to you :)
Image source: BlockBeats
[Disclaimer] There are risks in the market, so investment needs to be cautious. This article does not constitute investment advice, and users should consider whether any opinions, views or conclusions contained in this article are appropriate for their particular circumstances. Invest accordingly and do so at your own risk.
This article is reprinted with permission from: "Rhythm Blockbeats"
Original author: Lila