Binance’s Latest Launchpool Project: Huma Finance
The latest project launched on Binance’s Launchpool is Huma Finance, backed by Robot Ventures, the Solana Foundation, Lily Liu, former president of Polychain Joseph Eagan, and the PayFi infrastructure of stablecoin issuer Circle. KOL Dov has published an analysis on why Huma is successful, and what types of projects Binance prefers.
Success in the Pre-TGE Stage with Listings on Binance, OKX, and Upbit
Dov first noted that the projects he seriously endorsed have consecutively listed on Binance (Sign and Huma), prompting a review of the reasons behind their success, or rather, a project listing manual based on first principles.
(Binance Labs’ first investment after transitioning to CZ’s family office: Can Sign solve the information asymmetry issue between VCs and retail investors?)
First, let’s define what success means: being listed on Binance, OKX, or Upbit against the Korean won in the Pre-TGE stage is considered successful, especially if it’s Binance or Upbit. Next, why did Huma achieve significant results?
- It represents the largest use case for USDC beyond payments and has product-market fit (PMF).
- Founder Richard has a track record as a highly successful entrepreneur.
- My conversations with Richard reveal that he is very pragmatic and has a great personal demeanor.
- His handling of public relations crises and responses to the community are very appropriate, articulating logic in a practical way. This is rare among those who are already financially free, as many pursue these endeavors for dreams and self-realization rather than for money.
- The community engagement is phenomenal, consistently topping Kaito (which is a significant plus).
- Three types of products meet Binance’s requirements; does your project align?
Why are these aspects important? Dov emphasized the need to reverse-engineer from the exchange’s perspective: if you were Binance, what types of projects would you want to list? Exchanges have only two core metrics: “user acquisition” and “trading volume,” which is the first principle. Therefore, he believes Binance primarily looks for three types of projects:
- Genuine PMF (rarest): These projects are the most scarce and represent innovation across the entire crypto space. Projects that can withstand verification and create real value will positively impact the entire industry and will definitely be listed by Binance. Dov stated that Huma’s business is very solid and rare, categorizing it as SSS level. Sign, with a business revenue of 15 million, performs well but is currently limited to web3, categorizing it as SS level, with potential to become SSS level as the business expands.
- Ability to bring in a large number of new users (less common): This refers to projects that can attract a large number of new web2 users to the exchange. Representative cases include Notcoin and Dogs from the TON ecosystem, PI (already listed on OKX), and consumer-facing projects like Stepn from the previous cycle. Huma faces challenges in user acquisition in web2 but interestingly attracts many Japanese users (due to the scarcity of high-yield financial products in Japan), thus exhibiting strong regional characteristics, categorizing it as A level.
- Significant trading volume (most common): Simply put, this reflects the sentiment and attention of the overall crypto community. These projects usually rely on spending money to promote via KOLs, classified as a “hype strategy.” Although the first two types of projects are rare, exchanges still require some popular projects to maintain trading volume as a foundational strategy (beta strategy).
In terms of acquiring new users, Sign’s product leans towards the brand side, but the community has become very meme-oriented. Although it still mainly targets users within the circle, it exhibits high enthusiasm and stickiness, currently categorizing it as S level; once the Sign App launches, it has the potential to become super SSS level. Additionally, there are projects with strategic synergy with the exchange, which involve more considerations and will be discussed individually with future cases.
Most projects rely on fake data and must resort to hype.
Dov indicated that many things are not difficult to judge; simply change your perspective and consider yourself as an exchange, starting from first principles, and you will identify which projects truly have potential. Exchanges certainly wish for every project to be a hexagonal warrior: having PMF, acquiring new users, and generating trading volume, but only a few will meet all criteria throughout a cycle. The competition between exchanges is fierce, necessitating a consistent “listing frequency,” or else traffic will be captured by other exchanges.
From his perspective, back in the day, OKX’s inscriptions put Binance in a dilemma, making it tough to decide whether to list or not. Listing would seem like helping OKX offload, while not listing would result in losing trading volume, with new users flocking exclusively to OKX. Moreover, most projects present fake data, fake TVL, fake PMF, and fake hype. When all indicators are scrutinized, they cannot compete, hence they must invest substantial resources in the market, leveraging the hype perspective.
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