Cryptocurrency company’s annual expense report reveals the company’s marketing levels By Sam Bankman-Fried – We’re back, boys!
Polkadot, a blockchain platform with a market capitalization of US$8 billion (AU$11.9 billion), has released its treasury report for the first half of 2024 by members of the platform’s community.
Who are these vigilant members of society, you ask? Polkadot has a cryptocurrency token called $DOT. Those who hold $DOT have “governance authority.” This means that they have the right to vote on proposals submitted by other DOT holders.
Giving crypto holders voting rights and other privileges is a fairly common practice in the cryptocurrency space. So, Polkadot is one of the many platforms that does this.
Polkadot loves good ‘communication’
Anyway, back to the story. Polkadot community members revealed spending details on the company’s forum. To begin with, Polkadot’s Treasury spent US$87 million (AU$129 million) in the first half of 2024 alone.
Of the US$87 million (A$129 million) spent, US$37 million (A$55 million) was put into a category called “outreach”. What does “awareness” mean? Well, according to Polkadot, it means paying key opinion leaders (KOLs) to promote the company and brand its logo in various places. These KOLs consist of YouTube and X cryptocurrency influencers.
According to community members, the influencer marketing strategy “seemed to be working” at first glance, with the video totaling 15 million views and 570,000 total likes. But deeper analysis suggests that the influencers “were engaging in deceptive practices,” a Polkadot member said. He wrote on the forum On behalf of the community.
“Many KOLs have inflated follower numbers, promotional content and responses, resulting in extremely high costs,” the member added. Some KOLs even posted AI-generated retweets. Yes! It sparks the Kardashian-Jenner clan’s fake bot follower scandal. But who would be surprised?
In perspective, this would be enough to cover the AU$150 A ten-course fine dining meal in Hobart To myself, every day, for 2,356 years of my life. I’ll be dead by then so my kids and grandkids can enjoy it too.
Logo price: $710,000
A More collapse Polkadot’s “outreach” costs showed it paid US$418,000 (AU$711,000) to cryptocurrency price tracker CoinMarketCap to display the company’s animated logo on the CoinMarketCap website. Here’s what it looked like:
A profound and moving piece of art worth the money, if you ask me. The expensive animated logo is the “first-ever implementation of its kind” according to Polkadot’s balance sheet, so it’s something groundbreaking.
In comparison, Polkadot has a content deal with cryptocurrency publication The Block During the same period it costs much less. For research reports, sponsored posts, newsletters and data insights, the bill came to US$138,600 (AU$206,000).
Encryption, my brother, mathematics 🧠
Polkadot private jet brand
Perhaps the most egregious extravagance by Polkadot officials was spending US$180,000 (AU$268,000) on placing the company’s logo on a fleet of private jets based in Europe. that invoice Polkadot was issued the following: “The Polkadot logo will be placed on the fuselage on an entire fleet of private jets based in Europe for a period of six months. In addition to increasing awareness among the elite target group, we expect social media posts from various celebrities using the fleet.
… I am waiting. This is still much less than an animated logo!
“We hope the CMO will reach the maximum level through this community contribution,” books Crypto user on X.
What now?
At the time of writing, the price of the $DOT token has fallen 8.3 percent from US$6.59 (AU$9.80) to US$5.86 (AU$8.70) over two days. Polkadot doesn’t seem bothered by the online criticism. Amid the controversy, the company brazenly A post shared before Which reads: “gm to all marketers and KOLs ☀️,” seemingly referring to the public backlash against Polkadot’s decision to pay KOLs.
A full breakdown of Polkadot’s balance sheet, including cryptocurrency transactions, is publicly available on a Google spreadsheet here. The venture capital money is back. We love cryptocurrency governance.