Original Title: “Long-Termism: Backpack’s IPO Gamble”
Original Author: KarenZ, Foresight News
In the “Wild West” of cryptocurrency, “founders cashing out and exiting” and “projects rug-pulling retail investors” have become naked plundering of interests, a chronic illness shackling Web3 development. Consequently, “tokenomics” is often seen as an accelerator for team wealth and a touchstone for user confidence.
However, when we turn our gaze to Backpack, we see a completely different design: Backpack has chosen a thorny path directly targeting industry pain points—at TGE, all liquid tokens are given to users, with team and investor returns fully tied to the company’s IPO process.
This move by Backpack discards the roughshod design of “VCs setting up the game, retail investors footing the bill.” Regardless of ultimate success, it is a respectable attempt in cryptocurrency history.
Delayed Gratification: The Long-Termism Game Between Team and Capital
In Backpack’s token economic system, the most eye-catching aspect is the strict constraints on team and investor returns—no founder, executive, employee, or venture capitalist directly receives token allocations.
In the words of Backpack founder and CEO Armani Ferrante, the “escape velocity” Backpack pursues has never been about hitting a certain market cap in billions or reaching some short-term milestone in user numbers, but about after the company successfully completes an IPO in the United States.
All tokens originally intended for “team incentives” and “investor returns” (37.5% of total supply) are deposited into the company’s “corporate treasury,” i.e., on Backpack’s balance sheet. Even after a successful IPO, these tokens are subject to a full lock-up period of at least one year, further eliminating the possibility of “cashing out immediately upon listing.”
This “delayed gratification” design is the best protection for a project’s long-term value. In the crypto industry, too many projects collapse due to the “short-termism” of teams and investors—selling tokens too early for cash, causing token prices to crash, losing user trust, and ultimately dying out. Backpack’s approach completely severs the path for insiders to “cash out short-term,” forcing the team and investors to “sink or swim” with the project.
Of course, an IPO is no easy path. Backpack’s founder admits that listing could be imminent, distant, or even ultimately unattainable. But regardless of the outcome, they will give their all. This “break or make” determination makes Backpack stand out among the many short-term-focused crypto projects, yet it wins the trust of users who truly value long-term value.
User-First Token Distribution: Igniting the Growth Engine with Incentives
In Backpack’s tokenomics, all liquid tokens are entirely allocated to users. In Backpack’s view, users are the core driving force behind project growth, so tokens should serve as fuel to incentivize user participation and drive product development.
· Total supply of 1 billion tokens, with 25% directly released to the community at TGE: Among these, point holders account for 24%, and Mad Lads holders account for 1%.
· Unlock triggered by key product milestones before IPO (37.5%). Each market expansion, each new product launch, is an opportunity to incentivize users with tokens, triggering corresponding token unlocks. This design, through a predictable token unlock model, continuously attracts new users and expands the community.
More importantly, according to Armani Ferrante, Backpack has set strict constraints for token unlocks: the new ecosystem value brought by token unlocks must always exceed their dilution effect on token price.
This design safeguards users’ core interests while ensuring the project’s long-term value isn’t diluted by short-term unlock actions, making token incentives a true catalyst for platform growth, achieving a win-win-win for “user benefit, ecosystem value-add, and project growth.”
Under Compliance: Slow Is Fast
Beyond innovative token distribution, another standout aspect of Backpack is its pursuit of compliance. This contrasts sharply with the industry’s common logic of “expand first, comply later” and “prioritize scale over compliance.”
As Armani Ferrante reveals, “Backpack currently serves only about 48% of global regions. Behind this seemingly slow expansion lies a pursuit of compliance.”
This strategic choice may miss market opportunities in the short term, but from a long-term development perspective, it is key to building trust barriers.
Currently, Backpack’s positioning is as a compliant crypto trading platform, offering cryptocurrency spot, derivatives, and lending services. However, it isn’t content with being just a pure crypto trading platform; it aims to build a compliant platform integrating crypto assets with traditional finance (TradFi) services. To achieve this, the team is laying banking rails globally and plans to gradually launch diversified services like securities products in the future. In January, Backpack also launched a unified predictive portfolio product using cross-margin and cross-collateral.
Market Perspective: How to View Backpack’s FDV?
Market attitudes toward Backpack also reflect the controversy and potential of its model.
According to Axios citing informed sources, Backpack is negotiating new financing terms with a pre-money valuation already reaching $10 billion.
On prediction market Polymarket, market expectations for Backpack’s token show clear volatility: the probability of the market betting that Backpack’s token FDV exceeds $10 billion within one day of listing is 21%, while in November 2025, this probability once exceeded 80%. Of course, such volatility largely stems from the inherent uncertainty of the crypto market and reflects market caution toward the “IPO-bound returns” model.
Summary
When tokens become tools for project teams to cash out, when users become targets for harvesting, the crypto industry loses its original ideals. Backpack’s token distribution essentially physically separates Web2 equity incentives from Web3 token utility.
· For the team: The only way out is to strengthen the product, ensure compliance, until IPO. If the company fails midway or cannot list, the equity in the team’s hands will be worthless, with no possibility of cashing out.
· For the community: They are no longer the liquidity exit for VCs. Tokens are purely user rewards and ecosystem tools, not the team’s ATM.
Backpack’s choice redefines the value logic of crypto projects with compliance, transparency, and long-termism, showing us another possibility for the Web3 industry.
As Armani Ferrante says: “We either go big, or we go home.” This statement is not just Backpack team’s manifesto but a mandatory question for the entire Web3 industry: Do we continue reveling in speculative bubbles, exhausting the industry’s trust and future? Or, like Backpack, choose the harder, slower, but more hopeful path, reconstructing the industry ecosystem with long-termism?
Of course, an IPO is no easy feat, and the road is long and arduous, especially in the crypto industry, facing multiple challenges from regulation, market, competition, etc., where surprises and uncertainties abound.
