Original title: The Cripto Native Guide to Investment Relations

Original by Mippo, Blockworks
Photo by Chopper, Foresight News

THE CORE FUNCTION OF THE IR SECTOR IS TO HELP MARKETS UNDERSTAND AN ASSET, ITS STRATEGY AND ITS POTENTIAL VALUE. IT IS A BRIDGE BETWEEN THE PROJECTOR AND THE MARKET。

WHEN I FIRST ENTERED THE ENCRYPTION INDUSTRY, THE "GOOD I.R." WHILE WE HAVE INDEED MADE PROGRESS IN SOME PLACES OVER THE YEARS, WE ARE STILL FAR FROM REACHING THE DESIRED LEVEL OF COMMUNICATION WITH INVESTORS。

IR HAS DONE WELL TO BROADEN YOUR BUYER BASE AND RAISE THE QUALITY OF THE HOLDER'S STRUCTURE. NOT DOING WELL, NOT EVEN DOING IT AT ALL, AND NO MATTER HOW GOOD THE PRODUCT IS, THE COIN WILL ONLY GO DOWN。

Over the past year, we have been communicating with almost all front-line projects in the encryption field to build an investor relations system, which now serves more than 20 projects. This paper is a practical guide to direct investor communication。

Distribution is the rule

If you want to maximize the value of the token, you need to look at two factors:

• How many targeted investors know that your token exists

• How many of these investors have turned into buyers

A GOOD IR STRATEGY THAT MUST BE OPTIMIZED SIMULTANEOUSLY。

There are only two kinds of potential buyers of tokens:

The first category consists of encrypted liquidity funds。They're active management bodies, already in possession of your tokens or on an ongoing basis. For them, the core is revalued, allowing an institution that values your tokens at $1 to see a path to $5. You need to do this with accurate data, clear narratives and continuous proof of progress. This is narrative construction and data presentation。

The second category consists of large strategic investors or institutions。For example, most recently Morpho and Apollo, Belet and Uniswap were working together. This is a completely different operating logic: a longer, more rigorous sales cycle, and you need a mature product. If you are at an early stage, or in the short term need funding, frankly, such institutions are not suitable for you. But if you're ready, you should be there: the Bloomberg terminal, the institutional summit, and the establishment of a human connection online. B2B sales thinking, not marketing thinking。

Control your narrative

If you don't tell your story, the market will tell it for you。

The reality is that most protocol data cannot be perfect, and that is okay。The real problem is to try to hide, to remain silent for months。"I don't want to be scolded on Twitter."

The project would not die because it was ridiculed on Twitter, but because it was forgotten by investors. The longer you don't communicate with the market, the more angry the investors will be, the more disappointed they will be。

You do not need perfect data, you do need honesty, background notes and a coherent explanation of what is important, what is improving and what needs to be improved。

That is the key to confidence-building, and silence can only directly destroy trust。

Currency Unlock

The issuer of coins must fear supply and demand。

If you want to understand price trends, you need only understand the core factor of supply and demand。In many cases, price management is more like a tactical operation matching supply and demand than anything else。

The biggest mistake I've ever seen is that the team didn't start thinking about solutions until it was unlocked for a month or two. In 30 days, you don't have time to repair the huge supply-demand imbalance。

At least 30 weeks ahead of schedule, 40-50 weeks best. You need time to connect buyers, to find demand, to communicate with investors when you need to delay unlocking。

THIS IS A TRIVIAL, INVISIBLE PART OF IR, BUT IT IS A CRUCIAL PART OF GIVING MYSELF ENOUGH TIME TO PROCESS IT。

Data is your best ally

Narratives are important。But in 2026, narratives without data are meaningless。

THE BEST IR SYSTEM, WHICH USES DATA TO MAKE TOKENS EASIER TO UNDERSTAND, COMPARE AND EVALUATE. THE DATA ITSELF SHOULD TELL A FULL STORY。

Data can be obtained from multiple sources:

• Disproportionate data on their own agreements

:: Chained market structure data

• Horizontal comparison of competition data

• To enable traditional investors to understand the reality of encryption against target cases

The last category is currently seriously undervalued. A truly good investor communication is not just an internal panel, but helps investors understand the role of your agreement in a larger context。

FOR EXAMPLE, YOU RUN A PERMANENT CONTRACT, DEX, THE PANEL SHOWS $75 MILLION LAST MONTH. THAT'S GOOD. THAT'S BAD. WHO SHOULD WE COMPARE TO? SHOULD INVESTORS BUY OR RUN

I see a lot of data in the encryption industry at the moment, but little background information。Not only do good teams report numbers, they use numbers to tell stories。

IR IS NOT A COMPLIANCE TASK

MOST PEOPLE THINK THAT INVESTORS IN THE ENCRYPTION INDUSTRY HAVE THE SAME RELATIONSHIP AS STOCK MARKETS. THE ONLY PROBLEM IS THAT I'M VERY BORED IN THE STOCK MARKET。

You don't believe me? Listen to Vlad Tenev。

Vlad envisages the future: the financial paper is no longer CFO's speech to 60 seller analysts at Zoom's dry bar, but, like the NBA post-game interview, it's live, interactive, emotional。

I TOTALLY AGREE. WE HAVE EIGHT YEARS OF MARKETING EXPERIENCE IN TARGETING, DATA SUPPORT, INTEGRATION WITH SOCIAL MEDIA. IR SHOULD ALSO OPERATE IN THE SAME WAY。The goal is not just to “notify the market”, but to attract existing investors, to deepen their confidence and to expand the group of investors who may hold coins in the future。

WHAT'S THE FUTURE LIKE? PRESS DAY LIVES, CEOS AND INDUSTRY GUESTS LENMACKS, INVITING THE GARAGE MASTERS TO COME OUT AND SHARE...TO REALLY INTERACT WITH INVESTORS AND GET NEW OWNERS。

Reducing entry costs for potential investors

NOW ALL LIQUIDITY FUNDS HAVE TO PROVE THAT THEY ARE REASONABLE. THIS MEANS FINE-TUNING AND INVESTMENT REPORTING。

If your agreement is not open to data, studies, background information, you are forcing each potential investor to build an analytical framework from scratch。

You're putting up the cost of investing in you, and the result is that fewer people will vote for you。

Reducing their difficulty by continuously exporting quality information: studies, analysis of protocol data, ecological progress, third-party analysis. Let the fund analyst easily write his report and put your tokens in the mix。

Without data analysis, you're flying blind

Even the most sophisticated agreements in the field of encryption have alarmingly weak understanding of investor structures. Basic behavioural analysis is almost blank: how long on average do investors hold? Is there a permanent counter-offer when the token is online

AND THE CHAIN DATA MAKES IT POSSIBLE FOR THE STOCK MARKET IR TEAM TO HAVE THE DESIRED DEPTH ANALYSIS。

IF AN INVESTOR CLAIMS TO BE A LONG-STANDING BELIEVER, THE TRUTH IS ALREADY PERMANENTLY RECORDED IN THE CHAIN. AN AGREEMENT TO EMBED THIS ANALYTICAL CAPACITY INTO THE IR FUNCTION WOULD HAVE A GREAT ADVANTAGE: NOT ONLY UNDERSTAND THE CURRENT HOLDER, BUT ALSO POSITION THE NEXT TARGET INVESTOR PRECISELY。

Transparency for market size

Most of the teams instinctively believed that less disclosure was safer, but the opposite was true。

Investors are already bearing uncertainty for your tokens: unlocking, treasury spending, making market agreements, non-standardized terms, etc. If you do not give the answer, the market will not ignore these questions, but will do so in the most pessimistic way。

The price of lack of transparency cannot be calculated precisely, and you will never know how many investors have given up your tokens because the information is incomplete and difficult to verify. The price is real。

Success indicators

IT'S EASY TO MEASURE IR'S SUCCESS OR FAILURE WITH TOKEN PRICES. THE PROBLEM IS, THE PRICE IS TOO MUCH NOISEINFLUENCED BY A LARGE NUMBER OF FACTORS BEYOND THE CONTROL OF IR: MACRO, LIQUIDITY, MARKET SENTIMENT, GEO-CONFLICT, ETC。

A MORE RATIONAL WAY TO MEASURE WHETHER IR HAS IMPROVED THE QUALITY AND BREADTH OF THE INVESTOR ' S STRUCTURE。

The following indicators are worth tracking:

:: Increase in the number of targeted investors who are proactively interested in tokens

• Growth of high-quality holders by market segment, especially liquidity funds and strategic institutions

:: Changes in the concentration of holders

• The number of investors who have managed to convert from initial exposures to active efforts

:: Proportion of core holders aligned with target hold cycles

:: Frequency and quality of investor exposure throughout the year

• Growth in proactive investor advice

Increased exposure in target buyer channels

:: Measured through direct communication and feedback: Increased investor understanding of your core logic

In the case of liquidity funds, it is practical to judge whether more investors have developed a clear valuation framework for your currency than a year ago。

Not all people must buy it now, but if more people know how to see your tokens, what milestones are important and what prices are attractive, that is real progress。

IR'S SUCCESS IS NOT JUST "A PRICE RISE" BUT "ARE WE EXPANDING THE SIZE OF POTENTIAL HOLDERS?"。

The way forward

We are building in this direction, because the status quo is a survival challenge for the entire industry. It was a regrettable fact that most of the currencies were not currently of investment value. Jason and I really wanted to solve this problem, and years of experience showed us the way forward。

Currency should be more transparent and investor-friendly than stocks, as they are based on encryption infrastructure. There is a strong incentive for the project to move in this direction, as this would significantly expand the reach of markets。

More importantly, the field of investor relations has not been creative for a long timeI DON'T KNOW. IN OUR VIEW, THE FUTURE OF IR IS NOT A BORING PROCESS TASK, BUT RATHER A DYNAMIC, MULTIMEDIA, HIGHLY INTERACTIVE, PROACTIVE ONE。It needs to actively engage in offline interaction, generate discussion in social media and tell fascinating stories to attract new investors. This is the direction the industry must take。

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