If you’ve tuned in this week, you may have heard of Believe and all the projects and companies that launched on it this week.

As the buzz around Believe took off, the term “ICM” (Internet Capital Markets) started making its rounds again, reminding me of the chaotic weeks post-TRUMP memecoin back in January. I mean, remember my pieces on VINE and jellyjelly (holding at $48M and $35M market caps which, all things considered are respectable)?

It’s round 2 for the ICM movement and it’s off to a strong start so far.

Clout

To understand Believe, we have to understand what Believe was formerly known as, Clout. During the initial ICM movement back in January, I caught wind of the Clout app, which I found interesting. It was a mix of Bitclout and friend.tech, allowing vetted creators launch a token and create token-gated chatrooms for their token holders. Each creator token had a presale phase users could participate in. Naturally, they filled up in seconds as people were in mass speculation and memecoin mania mode.

The first wave of creators lined up was impressive, including notable VCs, founders, and crypto influencers such as Alexis Ohanian, Rus (Vine founder/VINE creator), Bobby Shmurda (rapper), Nikita Bier, icebergy, and more.

One notable feature of Clout was that token creators didn’t have to buy their own token. They earned it through trading fees, which were split 50/50 between Clout and the individual (the fee model is still similar today). This model aligned incentives more effectively between the creator and holders (keyword more).

The first token launched was PASTERNAK, based on the founder Ben Pasternak. The launch of the token quickly surged to a $80M market cap on its first day while revealing a lot of issues with the app that needed to be fixed as new users flooded in to join the remaining available presales.

Ultimately, Ben and team decided to take a pause and incorporate more features, with the awareness that the appetite for this type of token launchpad was veryyyy high.

Clout ➡ Believe

3 months later, it was time.

Clout rebranded as Believe, and instead of launching tokens based on people, the launchpad focused on launching products with a nifty bot, @launchcoin on X. Anyone could launch a Believe token, with the more interesting and reputable ones featured on Believe’s account and the app itself, providing extra visibility.

The relaunch started fairly quietly, but as reputable projects with actual users and traction were launching and featured on Believe, interest started exploding.

‘Exploding’ may even be a conservative term. Stats since the April 28th relaunch, with a vast majority over the past ~72 hours:

15,973 tokens launched through Believe
$2.15B in trading volume
257k wallets traded Believe tokens
~$7.7M claimed in fees in the past 24 hours, split 50/50 between creators and Believe. Note that this is a volatile figure due to fluctuating token prices

Additional tools were also made for the ecosystem, such as Believe Screener and Believe Leaderboard. And you guessed it, both were launched as Believe tokens as well 😉

As Believe interest, token launches, and market caps reached a fever pitch, Ben prudently decided to take another pause on featuring projects to focus on building out more tools for the successfully launched projects to provide more value to token holders. IMO smart move as the pace would’ve been unsustainable.

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Launchpad themes

As Believe has caught the attention of the broader space by storm, many opinions have emerged around the actual implications, both positive and negative. Are these new Believe tokens basically investment contracts and subject to SEC rules? Has Believe brought in more builders in a few weeks than ecosystems do in years?

It’s all too early to tell, but there are some interesting observations and questions I have, which Father Time will reveal the answers to.

Launchpads are competing ecosystems

Token launchpads like these are still quite new, with the OG Pump.fun just launching a little over a year ago. Fast forward to today, they’re popping up like weeds. Off the top of my head:

Pump.fun (still the undisputed champion)
Launch Lab
Believe
Boop.fun (launched just a few days after Believe)
LetsBONK (created by the BONK memecoin team)
Virtuals (AI focused)
Clanker
Zora (content as tokens)

It feels like there are parallels to what we’ve seen with the proliferation of blockchains, and many have become more specialized and focused. For example:

IP: Story, Camp
RWAs (real world assets): Ondo, Centrifuge, Provenance
Consumer: Abstract, Sophon
Stablecoins: Plasma, Codex

As for Believe, they’re positioning themselves as a token launchpad for founders, builders, and projects to disrupt traditional venture capital and revolutionize how founders raise funding. Although anyone can launch a token on Believe, their focus is on creators with products, moving beyond the average meme.

If this is an indicator of things to come, launchpads will continue to pop up and will niche down to a specific audience or use case with features catering to them. That said, there’ll always be memes despite the focus, and Believe has had their fair share 😂

Believe is onto something and it’s fraught with tradeoffs

I think it’s fair to say that Believe is onto something. They’ve attracted a new wave of builders who previously weren’t considering crypto or incorporating a token. And because they’re coming in with fresh eyes, there’s potential for new primitives, ideas, and innovations that crypto founders who’ve been around for years or decades have become closed-off to. To the new blood, a token is a new tool and lever. Question is, how will it be used?

Additionally, the timing is right. Tooling, infrastructure, and regulations are at a point where it’s easier than ever to integrate tokens into a product.

On the other hand…

That something has tradeoffs, with the burden of those tradeoffs ultimately on the founders who participate.

During the NFT frenzy of 2021, creators, entrepreneurs, and artists launched their own NFT collections, and many were wildly successful in the moment. As time passed and smart money sold, the community members and holders remained, angry and resentful that the price of the $20,000 toucan with a gold beak that they bought was now only worth $20.

The same will be with some (vast majority?) of the founders and tokens launched on Believe. In fact it already happened with one of the featured launches, Afterhour. The founder decided to pull support for the token the next day after realizing how serious launching a token was, and made a public apology to his users in the Afterhour app.

The pressure isn’t just for unsuspecting founders. Last week, ZEREBRO (an AI agent whose token reached a $800M peak market cap) founder Jeffy Yu faked his own death and was found at his parent’s house.

Meanwhile, other founders see Believe as a gateway to reach a new audience and ~~monetize~~ extract, in the case of Money Making Machine, for a 4th time 😰

Last but not least, are these traders even the right target users for the respective product? (the answer is no) And if not, aren’t they just fodder for the funding mechanism Believe is building?

Can Believe create belief?

Concerns aside, I have the optimistic take that Believe is moving in the right direction. Like NFTs, it wouldn’t be surprising if many of the Believe-launched tokens, projects, and associated founders give up, return to their non-tokenized roots, or max extract and bounce.

Hopefully before most do that, the team is building a SDK (software development kit) with additional features making it easier to integrate their respective Believe token into the product.

And if a few projects can figure it out and be successful, maybe we can all believe that Believe is more than just your average token launchpad for memes.

See you next week!

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#369: Believe and the Proliferation of Token Launchpads