What Makes a Good Token? | Roundup

Bullish:

• $HYPERLIQUID - Hyperliquid is executing the best in the space with successful buybacks and burns, has product-market fit, and is being rewarded by financial markets for accruing value to token holders.

  • “hyperliquid's the darling, right, of the market today, and a large part of that has been because they've won investor trust, and a part of that is because they have been consistently doing buybacks and burns”

    Myles·33:00

  • “Hyperliquid came out with a clean slate and timed it really well. And, you know, before that, they were building, building, building, bang, more favorable regulatory environment, and they've been very successful ever since”

    Xavier·26:53

  • “I think in terms of a team that has executed the best in the space that I think all of us are aligned on is is like Hyperliquid”

    Xavier·26:08

  • “with the amount of money, the sheer amount of money they're generating, like, how could they even reinvest that into growth right now?”

    Xavier·33:57
• $UNI - Uniswap is moving to accrue value to token holders through unification proposal, BlackRock just bought tokens showing institutional validation, and the market is rewarding this pivot.

  • “I think the BlackRock Uniswap news is, like, literally this podcast in a nutshell. They're buying a token that is now accruing value directly back to the token, which in the past was just a governance token”

    Xavier·55:50

  • “I think what Uniswap is doing now to accrue more value to the token in the unification proposal, this is more of like an aggressive move in order for them to compete again with something like a Hyperliquid because the financial market is rewarding teams that are actually accruing value back to token holders”

    Xavier·27:14

  • “Hey, Croc bought Uniswap today”

    Mike·53:36
• $SKY - Sky (formerly Maker) has done buybacks successfully for the longest time and could be the shining example of what works long-term in crypto with sustainable revenue.

  • “one of the protocols which we haven't talked about very much in this podcast, which I think does a good job, which might be worth exploring, and might you probably spent a bit of time on this protocol in the past is actually like Sky, previously Maker. I think they've done buybacks for the longest time and maybe really could be the shining light in what does work long term in crypto”

    Xavier·47:11

  • “with Sky, they had fundamental investors, VCs, buying liquid tokens in size in, you know, 2021, 2022. This is when it was maker. Because the upside was just so massive”

    Myles·48:20
• $DEFI - DeFi protocols are generating real value and revenue, with the pendulum swinging back to DeFi-native projects that focus on value accrual and sustainable business models.

  • “DeFi historically has been one of the categories in crypto which has actually generated a lot of value and also been something that people want to get involved with”

    Xavier·11:26

  • “that pendulum is swinging, but it's going more back to the sort of DeFi native side where, like, buybacks and value accrual is actually now more important than ever because we we can do it, so I think we should be doing it”

    Xavier·28:51

Bearish:

• $LAYERTWO - Layer 2s trying to buy back tokens have no impact due to excessive emissions outweighing revenues, making buybacks ineffective.

  • “you're seeing a lot of examples right now of, like, layer twos maybe trying to buy back their token, and it has no impact. Well, that's because if there's more emissions and buybacks of the token, then, of course, that's not gonna make any impact whatsoever”

    Xavier·35:46

  • “unfortunately, in crypto, most teams have way more emissions than they do revenues. So, like, there's no way that buyback's gonna make an impact”

    Xavier·35:57
• $LIDO - Despite being a good business earning significant revenue, Lido's token is down 80-90% from all-time highs due to governance issues and lack of value distribution to token holders.

  • “this is a good business, like, earning a lot of revenue per year and, you know, potentially growing that over time. And the token is down, like, I don't know, maybe 80 or 90% from all time highs”

    Xavier·17:22

  • “Lido has been accruing value to a treasury for like four or five years now, right? And they're one of the few protocols that actually moved their operational expenses under the Dow completely, right? And thus to the token holders. And very, you know, like they were just a little bit too too far ahead of that, you know, their time there, and so it just hasn't really looked like value's being accrued”

    Myles·19:53
• $JUPITER - Jupiter's buyback program had no impact on token price due to excessive token emissions that couldn't be absorbed, and they've reportedly stopped the program.

  • “Jupiter, which I think is also interesting, they spend a bit more on buybacks. And, you know, unfortunately, they had a lot of token emissions, and so, really, the buybacks couldn't absorb that supply going into market. And now from what I understand, I don't think they're doing that anymore as well”

    Xavier·46:43