The most recent news of interest is that of Celsius, a crypto lending platform who had to pause withdrawals to “stabilize liquidity and operations.”

Crypto exchange Binance then did the same, but for Bitcoin (BTC), resulting in a price plunge to ~USD$23K (at the time of this writing). Sounds all too familiar - especially after the LUNA fiasco just a week or two ago.

If the price of BTC continues to plunge to $21,000, one of its most vocal ‘evangelists’, Michael Saylor, will have to answer his looming margin call.

The stock price of Saylor’s company, MicroStrategy, has fallen 76% from its peak in November. Through his company, Saylor has purchased roughly $4b in BTC to date, with $2.4b of it from a loan with Silvergate.

How will this impact communities being built on crypto? Well, for NFT communities, this means plummeting floor prices for even the most ‘valuable’ collections. So if your NFT project has been built solely on the promise of increasing value by simply buying and holding - similar to crypto projects during the 2017/18 ICO craze - it’s advised to rethink your strategy.

Below you’ll find this week’s latest tip to better manage your own meta-community (Web3/NFTs/DAOs/etc.) amidst all the madness.

Speak soon,

Managing Director

When building a successful brand, especially a community brand, you need to understand your customers/members, plus all their deepest desires.

And just like selling technical superiority is a losing battle for customer loyalty or wide appeal, so too is selling the promise of “price go up” - whether it’s for a crypto project, or an NFT/Web3 one - in the long run.

Great brands go deep into the psychology of those they serve, and become about more than just price or technical capability.

Great brands look into a user’s why and then exceeds those expectations, which is what forms the “fundamentals” of the community.

In the non-crypto world, Apple is a great example of how to build a brand that forms a community identity around it.

In the crypto world, Ethereum and Solana have been leading the charge for their fervent focus on developer communities.

And so when you’re looking at your own community, what is it that’s binding all your users together? Is it price? Is it belonging? Is it something else? Find out what that is, and then double-down on it - especially during crises (like plummeting markets).

The more you make your brand about the community, the more the community will attach their individual sense of identity around the brand, and come to its aid in times of need.

Just note, though, that not all businesses or products require a formal community around it, but they can certainly benefit from them.