TechFlow news — On March 1, Nick Tomaino, founder of 1confirmation, wrote on X that over the past decade, crypto teams have raised substantial venture capital, followed by heavy token locking, small float sizes, and aggressive marketing to manipulate price and FDV and attract retail investors. Undoubtedly, there are other insider tactics, such as paying market makers to fake liquidity or simply orchestrating insider bidding for tokens, but the basic "crypto VC" playbook is:
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Raise over $100 million in funding and hype the deal with a compelling narrative;
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Launch a blockchain;
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Allocate more than 50% of tokens to insiders;
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Create a total token supply exceeding 1 billion;
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At launch, unlock 20% or less of the total supply;
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Run large-scale paid marketing campaigns.
Whatever one thinks of this playbook, the fact remains it has worked extremely well—four of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap have followed it, generating over $250 billion in value. Looking ahead, the big question is whether this model will remain effective. Yet judging from recent memecoin pumps and dumps, it appears this trend still has a long way to go.
