Pump.fun’s $370M Burn Was a Mistake, Says Luca Netz: Uneasy Money

Pump.fun set fire to $370 million in tokens. Luca lays out the airdrop math that says they should have done the opposite. Thank you to our sponsors!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ MultiChain Advisors is an emerging technology growth firm that has helped create $50B+ in enterprise value for 80+ clients over the past 4 years. They're the partner to help navigate markets. Build real traction today at ⁠multichainadv.com⁠ Pump.fun had a choice with $370 million worth of its own tokens. It burned them. On this week’s Uneasy Money, Luca Netz argues that was the worst option on the table. He lays out the “people’s champ” math that, in his view, could have turned Pump.fun into a $5 billion-a-year business if Alon Cohen had launched the biggest airdrop crypto has ever seen—and bought the tokens back at the bottom. Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan also dig into the 137,000 ETH community effort to plug the KelpDAO hole, why Tay thinks Aave—not Layer Zero or KelpDAO—is the key player in DeFi’s latest blowup, and Luca’s blunt new take on whether DeFi yield is even worth the risk right now. Plus: Meta paying creators in USDC, the ghost of Libra, and OpenAI’s leaked AI-native phone. Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Security Expert ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Luca Netz⁠, CEO of Pudgy Penguins Timestamps 🩸 01:23 137K ETH drive to cover KelpDAO losses 🪤 07:40 Is DeFi yield actually paying you for tail risk? Tom Dunleavy thinks no 💀 18:08 Luca on whether the DeFi yield game is even worth playing right now ⚖️ 22:13 The ‘Aave users were idiots’ take, and why Tay wants no moral-hazard talk 💸 27:29 Meta is paying creators in USDC. The Instagram stablecoin pipe is on 🪦 33:31 How Facebook’s 2019 Libra blunder helped birth the Gensler era of crypto 🔥 40:55 Pump.fun burned $370M of tokens. Luca says that was the wrong call 📱 58:10 OpenAI’s AI-native phone, and why Kain says the OS is dumber than the apps Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices