The Fading Fortune? CoinList's Rise and Fall Across Bull and Bear Cycles
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The Fading Fortune? CoinList's Rise and Fall Across Bull and Bear Cycles
CoinList's product offerings are now organized into two main segments: a user-facing segment comprising trading, OTC, and staking platforms, and a developer-focused segment offering launch, testnet, seed, registration, and related functionalities.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: 1912212.eth, Foresight News
Once a shining star, CoinList is no longer what it used to be—its wealth effect and brand reputation have significantly declined. From being the most anticipated public sale platform to losing its former glory, what exactly happened to CoinList?
1. Overview of CoinList
CoinList was originally founded by renowned angel investor Naval Ravikant, who also created the U.S. equity crowdfunding platform AngelList. Years ago, Uber famously raised funds on this very platform.
When Ravikant noticed that blockchain was still in its early, chaotic stage, he saw an opportunity to build a blockchain version of AngelList. During the ICO frenzy, the Filecoin team was preparing a major fundraising round, and thus, together with Filecoin founder Juan Benet, they co-founded what would later become the well-known cryptocurrency crowdfunding platform CoinList. Although both were co-founders and the product and operations teams came from AngelList, the CEO role went to someone else: Andy Bromberg.
Andy graduated from Stanford University with degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science and helped establish the Stanford Bitcoin Group to promote Bitcoin. He was also co-founder and CEO of Sidewire.
After briefly leading CoinList for several years, Andy—though still listed as a co-founder—shifted his focus to beam, a newly launched non-custodial payment wallet. The CEO position was then taken over by Graham Jenkin, though his tenure was short-lived before being replaced by Raghav Gulati.
Raghav Gulati previously served as a venture partner at SHA Ventures for nearly six years and worked as a product engineer at Shyp, Backplane, and KEEP. In 2019, he co-founded and became CEO of Apex. In June 2022, the Apex team partnered with CoinList to enhance user experience, after which Gulati joined CoinList as Vice President of Product Management and eventually rose to CEO.
Today, CoinList’s business has been structured into two main segments: user-facing platforms including trading, OTC, and staking; and developer-focused services such as launchpad, testnet access, seed programs, and registration.
Despite the bear market and a series of industry collapses, CoinList achieved solid results. According to its 2022 review, it added one million KYC-verified users. In 2023, as market conditions improved, it added another 600,000 users, with the strongest growth seen in Europe and Asia. Over 1.5 million users registered to participate in token sales, generating more than $20 million in total token sales.
However, throughout its growth, CoinList has faced persistent criticism for its strict KYC (Know Your Customer) verification process.
In earlier days when KYC was less stringent, many users seeking higher returns would often purchase identities through intermediaries to register multiple accounts. CoinList eventually detected this practice and responded with strict penalties.
In May 2023, CoinList issued a formal warning stating: "There are serious risks and consequences associated with purchasing CoinList accounts from third parties. Buying accounts directly violates CoinList's Terms of Service and will result in immediate account termination." Additionally, since the seller remains the verified KYC holder, they can reclaim access to the account at any time and withdraw funds, causing irreversible losses to the buyer. Malicious sellers may even attempt to regain control of "sold" accounts to demand ransom. In such cases, CoinList cannot assist users in recovering their assets.
Shortly afterward, a large number of Chinese users who had purchased multiple accounts discovered their accounts were suspended, withdrawals blocked, and remaining balances confiscated by the platform.
In fact, CoinList, emphasizing compliance, enforces extremely strict KYC policies. Users from certain jurisdictions—including commonly restricted regions like the United States and China—are typically barred from participating in new project public sales. Before each public sale, users must select their country or region and submit documentation. Those failing to meet requirements are excluded from participation.
In December 2023, CoinList paid a $1.2 million settlement to resolve violations related to OFAC sanctions. CoinList Markets LLC had opened accounts for 89 users who almost all designated "Russia" as their residence but provided addresses in Crimea during account registration.
While CoinList’s strict KYC safeguards its compliance and brand integrity, it has also left many users lamenting missed opportunities for wealth creation.
2. High-Return Projects (2020–2021)
The previous bull cycle marked CoinList’s golden era, where numerous high-profile projects delivered massive returns. It was almost guaranteed profit—simply getting allocated meant making money. Projects like NEAR, SOL, FLOW, and others brought CoinList immense fame within the crypto community.
Solana Blockchain
Solana raised $3.2 million in its seed round in March 2018 ($0.04/token), $12.6 million in its genesis round in June 2018 (~$0.20/SOL), $5.7 million in its validator round in July 2019 (~$0.225/SOL), and $2.4 million in its listing round in February 2020 (~$0.25/SOL).
In March 2020, Solana conducted a token auction on CoinList, selling 8 million SOL tokens and raising $1.76 million, equivalent to $0.22 per token. At its historical peak of $260, this represented a return of up to 1,180x.
NEAR Blockchain
In August 2020, sharded blockchain NEAR conducted a public sale on CoinList with three options:
Option 1: $0.40 per token, 40-day lock-up, 25 million tokens available, minimum purchase 500 tokens, maximum 100,000 tokens;
Option 2: $0.34 per token, linear 1-year vesting, maximum purchase 5 million tokens;
Option 3: $0.29 per token, linear 2-year vesting, maximum purchase 5 million tokens.
The sale ultimately raised nearly $30 million. Notably, due to overwhelming traffic and community enthusiasm, CoinList had to extend the sale period to complete the offering.
During the last cycle, NEAR reached a high of $20.60. Based on a cost of $0.34, this represented a return of approximately 60.5x.
FLOW Blockchain
In August 2020, Dapper Labs, the developer behind FLOW, raised $11.4 million, involving 20 institutions and five NBA players. Returning investors included Samsung NEXT, Andreessen Horowitz’s Cultural Leadership Fund, Union Square Ventures, Venrock, Accomplice, Animoca Brands, and AppWorks. New investors included Coinbase Ventures and Distributed Global.
In September 2020, Dapper Labs launched a community sale of the Flow blockchain token FLOW at a private placement price of $0.10, releasing 100 million tokens. Although it listed on Binance near the end of the bull market, causing its price to decline repeatedly and eventually fade into obscurity, if measured against its all-time high of $35.60, it offered nearly a 356x return.
Some early participants made substantial profits from FLOW simply by using multiple accounts to participate in the initial sale.
MINA Zero-Knowledge Proof Blockchain
In March 2022, Mina raised $92 million in strategic and private funding rounds led by FTX Ventures and Three Arrows Capital, with participation from Alan Howard, Amber Group, Blockchain.com, Circle Ventures, Pantera, among others.
Mina Protocol was a pioneer in zero-knowledge proofs and gained significant attention in the previous cycle. It launched on CoinList in March 2021, issuing 75 million MINA tokens across two rounds at $0.25 per token. Later, CoinList reduced the purchase cap from $1,000 to $500.
Based on its all-time high of $6.68, the return was 26.72x.
Celo Blockchain (Now L2)
In February 2021, Celo raised $20 million, with investments from a16z, Greenfield One, and Electric Capital.
In May 2020, CELO completed a Dutch auction on CoinList, raising $10 million with a final clearing price of $1.00 per token. At its peak of $10.95, this yielded a return of over 10x.
3. Projects During the Decline of Wealth Effect (2021–Present)
Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last. After 2021, projects launched via CoinList generally performed poorly, often trading below their public sale prices, sparking widespread skepticism. Examples include NYM, AXELAR, GAL, ARCH, and CYBER. Analysis shows that projects launched toward the end of the bull market were heavily impacted by the broader downturn. Even with strong fundamentals and backing from top-tier VCs, they couldn't escape the negative effects of the market cycle.
Some of these projects rebounded modestly after market recovery in late 2023, while many others were quickly forgotten and faded into silence.
Casper Blockchain
In 2020, the project raised $28.5 million from investors including Consensus Capital, HashKey Capital, AU21 Capital, Blockchange Ventures, and GSR.
In March 2021, CoinList conducted a public sale of 100 million CSPR tokens (1% of total supply) at $0.015 per token. After listing, the price briefly surged past $1.30 before entering a prolonged downtrend, currently fluctuating around $0.04.
Axelar Cross-Chain
Founded in 2020, Axelar is built on Cosmos technology to provide interoperability between Ethereum and other blockchains.
In July 2021, it raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Polychain Capital, with Dragonfly Capital, Galaxy Digital, North Island Ventures, and Robot Ventures participating.
In February 2022, it secured another $35 million, backed by Dragonfly Capital, Polychain Capital, North Island Ventures, and Rockaway Blockchain Fund.
In March 2022, cross-chain interoperability protocol Axelar sold 50 million tokens at $1.00 each, with a minimum investment of $100 and a maximum of $750. Trading began in the second half of 2022, followed by a steady decline. It briefly touched $1.00 in early 2024 but remains below its sale price.
Ondo RWA Protocol
Ondo Finance creates and manages institutional-grade financial products such as U.S. Treasury bonds and money market funds, building DeFi protocols around them. Ondo aims to develop decentralized, composable protocols and offer tailored services for organizations, DAOs, and high-net-worth individuals.
Founded in 2021 by Allman and Pinku Surana—both former Goldman Sachs employees—Ondo Finance raised $20 million in April 2022. The round was co-led by Founders Fund, Peter Thiel’s venture fund, and Pantera Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Tiger Global, GoldenTree Asset Management, and Wintermute.
In May 2022, Ondo Finance sold 400 million tokens on CoinList at $0.055 each, with a minimum investment of $100 and a maximum of $2,000. Over 16,500 participants took part in the public sale, acquiring tokens representing about 2% of the total 10 billion supply.
ONDO launched in January 2024, briefly surpassing $0.30. As of now, returns remain under 6x.
NYM Privacy Blockchain
Nym is a privacy platform offering robust network-level privacy protection against sophisticated end-to-end attackers, using blinded, re-randomizable, decentralized credentials for anonymous access control.
Nym Technologies raised $2.5 million in a 2019 seed round (token-based), with NGC, Lemniscap, and Edenblock investing. In July 2021, it raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Polychain Capital, with Eden Block, Greenfield One, Maven11, Tioga, and 1kx participating.
Later that November, it raised $13 million, led by a16z, with participation from DCG, Tayssir Capital, Huobi Ventures, HashKey, and Fenbushi Capital.
In February 2022, CoinList sold over $30 million worth of NYM tokens. The event set a record for demand on CoinList, attracting 1.19 million unique registrants during the five-day registration window. Tokens were priced between $0.25 and $0.50. Shortly after listing, the price spiked above $1.80 before beginning a steady decline. As of now, it trades below $0.20.
Project Galaxy (now Galxe) NFT Infrastructure Protocol
Galxe is a Web3 credential infrastructure designed to help Web3 brands better build communities and products.
In January 2022, Galxe raised $10 million in funding led by Multicoin Capital and Dragonfly Capital, with Spartan Group, Sky9 Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Binance Smart Chain Growth Fund, Folius Ventures, Jump Capital, Sfermion, HashKey, Injective Protocol, Matrixport Ventures, Solana Ventures, and Alameda Research participating.
In February 2022, the project planned to sell 10 million GAL tokens (out of a total 200 million) at $1.50 each. All shares (10 million GAL) were sold out within 50 minutes on CoinList, with over 1.07 million users registering.
Shortly after listing, GAL briefly surpassed $17.00, benefiting from the NFT market surge, but then entered a long downtrend. It currently trades at $1.80, only $0.30 above its public sale price.
CyberConnect Social Protocol
CyberConnect is a multi-chain decentralized social graph protocol enabling developers to build social applications where users own their digital identity (DID), content, connections, and tokenized channels.
In November 2021, CyberConnect raised $10 million in seed funding led by Multicoin Capital and Sky9 Capital, with Animoca Brands, DraperDragon, Hashed, and Mask Network participating. In May 2022, it raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Animoca Brands and Sky9 Capital.
CyberConnect’s public sale on CoinList represented 3% of total supply, priced at $1.80 per token. Institutional investors in the Series A round paid $3.00 per token. The CoinList sale raised $5.4 million in total.
After listing, the price briefly exceeded $17.00, yielding nearly a 10x return from the all-time high. At the current price of $7.00, the return is only 3.8x.
NEON Solana EVM Compatibility Solution
NEON offers full compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing developers to use familiar Ethereum tools and seamlessly build on Solana.
In November 2021, Neon Labs raised $40 million, led by Jump Capital, with Three Arrows Capital, Solana Capital, and IDEO CoLab Ventures participating.
In May 2023, NEON sold 50 million tokens (5% of circulating supply) on CoinList at $0.10 each. After a long dormancy, it peaked at $3.80 in late 2023—a nearly 38x return—and has since pulled back to $1.40.
Chainflip Cross-Chain Trading Protocol
Chainflip is a decentralized, trustless protocol enabling seamless value transfer between any blockchain, including BTC, EVM chains, and layer-1 networks.
In August 2021, it announced a $6 million raise led by Framework Ventures. In May 2022, it announced another $10 million raise, with participation from Framework Ventures, Blockchain Capital, and Pantera Capital.
In September 2023, CoinList sold 4.5 million FLIP ERC-20 tokens at $1.83 each. After listing, the price briefly surpassed $7.00 and currently trades above $5.00.
Archway Blockchain
Archway is a Cosmos-based blockchain offering fast, low-cost transactions with built-in incentives for developers.
In March 2023, Phi Labs, Archway’s development company, raised $21 million in seed funding led by CoinFund and Hashed, with participation from 1confirmation, IDEO CoLab, Figment, Blockchain Capital, Wintermute, Chorus One, and stake.fish.
In May 2023, Archway conducted a public sale on CoinList, offering 30 million ARCH tokens at $0.20 each.
After listing, the price began a steady decline, bottoming near $0.05. It briefly recovered to $0.28 at year-end but has since fallen back to around $0.18, still below the public sale price.
Subsquid Zero-Knowledge Cross-Chain Data Query
Subsquid evolved from a project at the Kusama hackathon Hackusama, providing support for DApps built on Substrate, reducing data retrieval time and improving API reliability for developers.
In November 2021, it raised $3.8 million in seed funding led by Hypersphere Ventures, with Zeeprime Capital, Lattice Capital, Illusionist Group, and Digital Finance Group (DFG) participating.
In January 2024, CoinList sold 53,480,000 SQD tokens (4% of total supply) at $0.094 per token.
zkLink Cross-Chain DEX Based on Zero-Knowledge Proofs
zkLink is a multi-chain integrated trading platform based on ZK-Rollup technology, aiming to connect multiple chains, aggregate liquidity across ecosystems, and enable native DeFi assets from different chains to trade and combine.
In October 2021, it raised $8.5 million in seed funding led by Republic Crypto, with Arrington Capital, DeFi Alliance, Huobi Ventures, and GSR participating.
In May 2023, it raised $10 million, with Coinbase Ventures, Ascensive Assets, SIG DTI, BigBrain Holdings, and Efficient Frontier participating.
In January 2024, CoinList sold 31,250,000 ZKL (ERC-20) tokens (3.125% of total supply) at $0.15 per token.
4. Upcoming Projects in 2024
As the market recovers in the early stages of a new bull run, CoinList has remained active. After launching two projects in January, it will conduct public sales for two more in early February—one a popular blockchain, the other a DePIN project. Their future performance remains to be seen.
Nibiru Blockchain
Nibiru is a Cosmos-based Layer 1 blockchain supporting smart contract hubs for DeFi, RWA, and more.
In April 2023, Nibiru raised $8.5 million in seed funding co-led by Tribe Capital, Republic Capital, NGC Ventures, and Original Capital.
On February 2, 2024, the Layer 1 blockchain Nibiru will launch a community sale of NIBI tokens on CoinList. The sale includes 60 million NIBI tokens (4% of total supply) at $0.05 each.
Meson Decentralized Physical Network
Meson Network focuses on DePIN+AI, aiming to create a human-authorized decentralized physical network. Meson’s “DePIN” nodes are developed with user-friendly technology.
In June 2021, Meson Network raised several million dollars in funding co-led by Libertus, Mask Network, and Hash Global, with participation from DCG (parent company of Grayscale), Hashkey Capital, Permanent Ventures, and BixinVC.
In January 2024, it completed a strategic round at a $1 billion valuation, led by Presto Labs. The exact amount raised was not disclosed.
On February 9, 2024, CoinList will sell 2.5 million MSN tokens (2.5% of total supply) at $1.75 each.
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