Tokenomics New Paradigm? When Backpack Starts Enabling VCs to "Deferred Gratification"

Original Article Title: "Long-Termism: Backpack's IPO Gamble"

Original Article Author: KarenZ, Foresight News

In the cryptocurrency "Wild West," "founder cash-out exits" and "rug pulls by project teams" have degenerated into blatant interest plundering, becoming a longstanding ailment hindering Web3 development. Therefore, "tokenomics" is often seen as both an accelerator of team wealth and a touchstone of user confidence.

However, when we turn our attention to Backpack, what we see is a starkly different design: Backpack has chosen a path that directly addresses an industry pain point—during the TGE, all liquidity tokens were given to users, and the team's and investors' rewards are entirely tied to the company's IPO process.

Backpack's move has forsaken the "VC accumulation, retail footing the bill" grassroots design. Regardless of the ultimate success or failure, this is a respect-worthy attempt in the history of cryptocurrency.

Deferred Gratification: The Long-Termism Game Between Team and Capital

In Backpack's tokenomics, the most intriguing aspect is the strict constraint on team and investor rewards—no founder, executive, employee, or venture capitalist can directly receive token allocations.

In the words of Backpack's founder and CEO Armani Ferrante, the "escape velocity" pursued by Backpack has never been about market cap breakthroughs or reaching a certain user count milestone in the short term; instead, it is about the company successfully completing an IPO in the United States.

All tokens originally intended for "team incentives" and "investor returns" (37.5% of the total supply) have been deposited into the company's "treasury," which is on Backpack's balance sheet. Even after a successful IPO, this portion of tokens has been subjected to a minimum one-year full lock-up period, further eliminating the possibility of "listing-to-cash-out."

This "deferred gratification" design is the best protection of the project's long-term value. In the crypto industry, the collapse of too many projects stems from the "get-rich-quick" mentality of teams and investors—premature token sell-offs leading to price crashes, loss of user trust, and eventual demise. Backpack's approach completely cuts off the path to "short-term cash-outs" by insiders, forcing the team and investors to be fully committed to the project's success.

Of course, IPO is not a smooth road. The founder of Backpack admits that going public could be just around the corner or a distant dream, or even ultimately unattainable. But regardless of the outcome, they will give it their all. This "break or make" determination makes Backpack stand out among a myriad of quick-profit crypto projects, earning the trust of users who truly value long-term benefits.

User-Centric Token Distribution: Igniting Growth with Incentives

In the Backpack tokenomics, all liquidity tokens are distributed entirely to users. In Backpack's view, users are the core driving force behind project growth, so tokens should serve as the fuel to incentivize user participation and drive product development.

· Total token supply of 1 billion, with 25% directly released to the community in the TGE: Of this, points holders account for 24%, and Mad Lads holders account for 1%.

· Unlocking triggered by key product milestones before IPO (37.5%): Every market expansion and each new product launch before the IPO is an opportunity to incentivize users with tokens, triggering the corresponding token unlock. This design, through a predictable token unlock pattern, consistently attracts new users to join and expands the community.

More importantly, as described by Armani Ferrante, Backpack has set strict constraints for token unlocking: the additional ecological value brought by token unlocking must always outweigh its dilution effect on token price.

This design not only safeguards the core interests of users but also ensures that the long-term value of the project will not be diluted by short-term unlock actions, truly making token incentives a catalyst to drive platform growth, achieving a three-way win of "user benefit, ecological value appreciation, and project growth."

Compliance First: Slow is Fast

In addition to innovative token distribution, another unique aspect of Backpack is its pursuit of compliance. This stands in stark contrast to the industry's common logic of "expand first, comply later" and "emphasize scale, downplay compliance."

According to Armani Ferrante, "Backpack currently serves only about 48% of the global regions. This seemingly slow expansion is driven by our compliance focus."

This strategic choice may seem to miss out on market opportunities in the short term, but from a long-term development perspective, it is a key to building a trust barrier.

Currently, Backpack's positioning is as a compliant cryptocurrency trading platform, providing cryptocurrency spot, derivatives, and lending services. However, it aims to be more than just a cryptocurrency trading platform and is dedicated to building a compliant platform that integrates crypto assets with Traditional Finance (TradFi) services. To achieve this goal, the team is establishing banking rails globally and plans to gradually introduce diversified services such as security products in the future. In January, Backpack also launched a unified prediction investment portfolio product that adopts cross-margin and cross-collateralization.

Market Perspective: How to View Backpack FDV?

The market's attitude toward Backpack also indirectly reflects the controversy and potential of its model.

According to Axios citing sources familiar with the matter, Backpack is currently negotiating new financing terms, and its pre-money valuation has reached $1 billion.

On the prediction market Polymarket, market expectations for the Backpack token have shown significant fluctuations: the market is betting that the FDV of Backpack's token within one day of launch exceeding $1 billion has a 21% probability, while in November 2025, this probability once exceeded 80%. Of course, this volatility is largely due to the inherent uncertainty of the crypto market and reflects the market's cautious attitude toward the "IPO-bound revenue" model.

Summary

When tokens become a tool for project teams to cash out and users become mere targets for harvesting, the crypto industry loses its original ideals. However, Backpack's token distribution effectively physically segregates Web2's equity incentives from Web3's token utility.

· For the team: The only way out is to strengthen the product, ensure compliance, and work towards an IPO. If the company fails midway or cannot go public, the team's equity will be worthless, with no possibility of cashing out.

· For the community: They are no longer a liquidity exit for VCs. The token is purely a user reward and ecosystem tool, not a team's cash machine.

Backpack's choice is to redefine the value logic of crypto projects with compliance, transparency, and long-term thinking, showing us another possibility for the Web3 industry.

As Armani Ferrante said: "We either go big, or we go home." This statement is not only a declaration of the Backpack team but also a mandatory question for the entire Web3 industry: Do we continue to revel in speculative bubbles, overdrawing industry trust and future, or do we, like Backpack, choose the tougher, slower, but more hopeful path to reconstruct the industry ecosystem with long-term thinking?

Of course, an IPO is no easy feat, with a long and winding road, especially in the crypto industry, facing multiple challenges such as regulation, market, competition, and unexpected risks and uncertainties at every turn.

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