(New Essay) The Machinery of Modern Finance
On why I think the next ten years of financial innovation will surpass the prior fifty.
Give it a read.
brandonkumar.substack.com/p/the-machiner…
1/ Crypto adoption is slower than you think
Most web3 projects struggle to get more than 2,000 daily active users
Yet few teams have taken a thoughtful approach to user growth and retention
Let's look at the numbers 👇
1/ Excited to share that Layer3 has raised $21M.
A $15M round led by @paraficapital and @greenfield_cap, and a previously unannounced strategic round of $3.7M in 2022 and $2.5M round in 2021.
Conversation with dead chain:
- Raise $25M on a $250M post. Then $75M on $750M post
- Over 2 years, $100M raised for 20% equity.
- Team: 40–50 FTEs at ~$200K avg comp = ~$9M/yr.
- Add ~$4M/yr in ops (legal, SaaS, travel, etc.)
- Total burn: ~$13M/yr
- Keep ~$80M in t-bills
Coinbase's Solana drama is a textbook hero-to-villain arc. Right after FTX imploded the entire industry praised Coinbase for a cautious approach to security / fraud. They carried the weight of regulatory blowback from a disaster they didn’t cause and went toe-to-toe with the SEC