CoinList: On-ramping users to the cryptoeconomy
One of the most exciting features about cryptoassets in the early days was that individuals had access to the genesis point of value creation commensurate with institutional investors, which was historically not the case with investing into private companies, IPOs, and funds.
As crypto market structure has matured, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for an individual to gain access to promising new token projects at the point in time where there is potential for venture-like returns.
Individuals are generally able to access new tokens on Binance or Uniswap for IEOs or FAIR launches or when they list on those exchanges. Same with Coinbase.
Seed stage token projects often do private sales where crypto funds gain access to projects at the lowest prices and benefit from their early access.
Sound familiar? This is the way that traditional markets have historically worked (until platforms like Republic and CoinList cropped up).
What if a platform could provide access to early token projects so that network participants could benefit well before the tokens were listed on major exchanges like Coinbase?
CoinList unlocks access to promising, blue-chip early-stage token projects for individuals and offers protocols access to a community of engaged early adopters who can add value to their network.
CoinList is building the essential foundations for crypto’s market infrastructure as the leading, trusted token issuance platform that bridges the gap between traditional financial services and the cryptoeconomy.
Token projects need access to network participants who are looking to be more than just money for a project. They want to build a community of engaged — and incentivized — users. CoinList provides projects a way to build a community of owners and users. Many projects have been able to raise from hundreds of thousands of users in their early token sales on CoinList.
CoinList has had a history of providing its users access to many of the top token sales in crypto. Blue-chip projects like Solana, Flow, which is affiliated with Dapper Labs and NBA Top Shot, and Filecoin were all introduced to the CoinList community via early token sales.
More importantly, CoinList is an on-ramp to the token economy for individual and institutional investors around the world.
I’ve talked about how companies that create on-ramps are a critical component to mainstreaming certain asset classes on Alt Goes Mainstream. Coinbase initially did this in crypto by providing access to the largest tokens via their exchange and custody platform. CoinList is doing the same with early-stage token projects.
There are a few things incredibly profound and underrated about creating an on-ramp to a new asset class.
Web3 is unique in that the next wave of the internet is now tied to the financialization of the internet. Tokens, which are seen as investable assets to many, are connected to the protocol layer of Web3 and the value that is created from building the next wave of the internet.
By enabling individuals to own tokens of early-stage crypto projects, CoinList is on-ramping consumers to Web3.
On-ramping investors to a new asset class is even more impactful in an era where younger investors — Millennials and Gen Z’s — view financial assets and investing in a different light than prior generations.
That’s why we view companies that create on-ramps as core parts of market structure. They may in fact come to define the future of the crypto markets and, more broadly, retail financial services.
CoinList has not only built the on-ramp to new token projects for individuals, but they’ve created the rails for individuals to engage with the world of decentralized finance. CoinList has minted one-third of the world’s wrapped BTC (WBTC) and they’ve enabled HNW clients to access compelling DeFi investment opportunities without selling their BTC holdings.
CoinList’s impressive traction — $800 million in tokens purchased by over 500,000 network participants, over $1 billion in monthly trading volume and an 8x increase in the number of average monthly traders, over $3 billion staked, and $130 million in staking awards — along with a resourceful, crypto native, and experienced team have made this a company we’ve long admired.
It took 30 months for Coinbase to reach $1 billion in monthly trading volume. It took CoinList 16 months to hit the same number.
CoinList’s CEO, Graham Jenkin, combines the best of a traditional tech background scaling some of Silicon Valley’s largest tech successes with a deep understanding of the regulatory and product knowledge required to build a market-leading investment platform after being an integral part of building AngelList into what it’s become today.
There is a huge role to play in on-ramping consumers to the cryptoeconomy and enabling them to utilize those assets as valuable network participants in a productive way via staking, lending, and market making.
CoinList is building the franchise platform for the space, as evidenced by their $100M round announced today, and we are excited to help them build out the crypto market infrastructure just like we’ve done in traditional market infrastructure.
We are thrilled to work with Graham and the CoinList team to help build the rails for the next wave of the internet and financial services.
