- Blockchain entrepreneur and investor, Kain Warwick, shares insights on the current state of capital formation incentives in the crypto world.
- Warwick discusses the challenges faced by Web 3.0 teams in raising funds and the ongoing rivalry between VCs and retail investors.
- He also shares his recommendations for successful crypto fundraising, highlighting the role of retroactive airdrops.
Explore the current landscape of crypto fundraising, as blockchain entrepreneur Kain Warwick shares his insights on capital formation incentives, the challenges faced by Web 3.0 teams, and the strategies for successful fundraising.
Teams are constrained by dominant meta, Kain Warwick admits
In 2024, even the most successful Web 3.0 teams looking for fresh funds are constrained by the current meta if they want to raise big rounds, Warwick shared in his latest thread on Twitter with 123,000 followers. From the seed investor’s perspective, the signals of a project’s traction — in terms of user base, potential customers, airdrop farmers — remain unchanged: VCs are looking for products with growing TVL, large numbers of Twitter and Telegram followers and so on. That said, investors are still using these primitive indicators of social engagement to calculate the potential number of retail token buyers.
Introducing points for fundraising
As such, introducing points, pioneered by Blast, an overhyped OP Stack L2, became the natural way for teams to prepare for fundraising. Seed rounds completed at $10 million-$50 million in FDV are “pure cope” for investors, and almost each of them is in profit at the end of the day, Warwick admitted.
Crypto fundraising 101 by Synthetix founder
Personally, he recommends to reveal a token for retail at $10 million-$1 billion valuation after three rounds of private/seed funding with VCs. Also, he admitted the role of retroactive airdrops of 2021-2023 as a way to introduce tokens to a large percent of retail owners.
Conclusion
Warwick’s insights provide a clear picture of the current state of crypto fundraising, highlighting the challenges and strategies involved. His recommendations offer valuable guidance for both investors and teams seeking funds, shedding light on the dynamics of capital formation incentives in the crypto world.
