The core tenet of any web3 project is a token.
Operating as the centerpiece of the ecosystem, tokens are the new form of equity. Tokens typically carry governance rights, and allow community members to participate in a product, service or protocol as a co-owner and key decision maker of a shared treasury.
Since 2013, founders have had to think about who to allocate tokens to and how to maximize not only the distribution, but also the “value-add” their holders provide.
Teams typically allocate chunks of the supply to certain types of holders - creating a schema that contextualizes how tokens are earmarked for different user groups.
We explored key trends of token distributions - stemmed from data of pitch decks, medium posts, and github readmes dating back to 2013.
Here’s what we found.
Please note: This report was published as of January 2022 using publicly available information as well as aggregated and anonymized private data points. The authors of this report did not independently verify the accuracy of these distributions today.
Token distributions can be broken down into 6 main segments:
We aggregated distributions across 60 projects and protocols to create a comprehensive analysis of notable trends.
Retained for future distribution through governance. Treasury tokens are often viewed as the project's “reserve pool” - allocated to different stakeholders through voting proposals.
Treasury allocations have fluctuated over time but have generally increased. In 2016, the average allocation dedicated to the treasury was around 20% but this has grown to over 40% in 2021.
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