Understanding of tokenomics is the most important skill in crypto.
Initially, when you find a potential coin to invest in, for example on CMC, you see the following:
- Market cap (mc)
- Total supply
- Circulating supply
- Fully Diluted Value (FDV)
Basic supply metrics:
⧠Circulating Supply: tokens that are currently in circulation
⧠Total Supply: total tokens that can exist
⧠MC: total value in $ of circulating supply
⧠FDV: total value in $ of total supply
understanding these metrics allows you to assess the token's potential
⧠But to do this, you need to know more about them than just their labels
⧠You need to understand how each of them operates and how they can impact the price
Supply-There are two paths a token can take:
1. Inflationary token
⧠The token's supply can increase, and this is called emissions
Emission is not good cause it usually leads to a decrease in value
However, if the emission rate is slow and the total supply is still far away, it does not significantly impact the value
2. Deflationary token
⧠It can also happen that the token supply decreases over time
⧠This occurs when a project buys back tokens and burns them
⧠In theory, reducing the supply should increase the value, but this is only in theory.
Now let's discuss the main factor that determines the launch and life of a token: Allocation & Distribution.
There are 2 ways:
- Pre Mined (distribution between early investors, team, advisors, etc. )
- Fair Launch (everyone has equal position to buy)
Mostly Pre-mind used
Why it's important?
⧠Cause if 50% is allocated for investors and there is TGE 100%, investors can dump the token and u become exit liquidity
⧠That's why you need to understand what are:
- TGE allocation
- Vesting
- Cliff
There are often the following Distribution receivers:
- Private Sale (investors, KOLs, etc)
- Public sale (retail investors)
- Marketing
- Ecosystem (staking, rewards, etc)
- Airdrop
So we've discussed who receives the tokens, now let's talk about how they sell them.
The day of the token launch is called TGE
â§TGE allocation is the percentage of tokens allocated to all the aforementioned individuals (10-20%)
⧠Cliff is the period after TGE and before the next vesting
⧠Vesting is the gradual release of token percentages each month
Recently, projects have been adopting a method with a small % TGE (up to 20%), followed by several months of cliff and 12+ months of vesting
⧠This approach is better suited for long-term project success, so it's important to verify all these details before investing.
Now, the other side of the coin for the success of any token is demand
⧠This is what motivates people to buy that particular token
⧠For example, the $, despite significant inflation, people still buy it cause they need it to live
In general, 4 things drive demand for tokens:
âą Store of value
âą Community
âą Utility
âą Value Accrual
Now about each one separately đ
Store of value
⧠The next demand factor is that crypto can serve as a store of value
⧠Many people buy crypto simply to store their money in it, such as in $BTC, which is often compared to gold
Community
⧠As this cycle has already shown us, a community can strongly drive demand
⧠Meme coins pumped solely because of community
⧠People buy what they think will make them money
Value Accrual - Incentivizing for Stakers
⧠People also want tokens to provide some value
⧠So here is Staking, where you lock your tokens to earn rewards at regular intervals
⧠This is also beneficial for everyone and carries a relatively low risk
Value Accrual - Incentivizing for Holders
⧠Another option is Holding
⧠So, projects often give rewards/airdrops, etc., to their holders, and this is often beneficial for everyone
⧠But there are even more ways to lower the selling pressure through holding:
Holding 1 VeTokens
⧠You can also receive VeTokens for holding tokens
⧠"Ve" stands for Vote Escrow, meaning by locking your tokens, you gain voting power
⧠The longer you hold, the more voting power you accumulate
Holding 2 Farm Boosting
⧠Holding can also boost your farming token percentage
⧠The more you hold, the higher your percentage will grow
Also, understand that no matter how high the demand may be, it's important to understand Who's Holding.
⧠Strong community or dumpers
⧠This is more challenging to figure out; you need to get involved in the project's community and analyze it.
Also, remember an important thing: despite poor tokenomics, a token can rise, and vice versa
⧠Always consider this possibility
Below, I've made a list of what you need to check before investing:
NO BLIND INVESTMENT:
- Total Supply and Circulating Supply
- Allocation and Distribution
- Vesting period/Unlocking dates
- % Emission
- Demand
⧠After such analysis, you'll be able to determine whether it's worth investing in the project or not.