Bankless founder: In 2026, tokens will finally be treated as' equity ' Author: David Hoffman Compiled: Deep Tide TechFlow Deep Tide Introduction: Most tokens are junk? David Hoffman, co-founder of Bankless, pointed out that teams have historically been less serious about tokens than they are about equity, and the market has responded to this with prices. But there will be a turning point in 2026: MegaETH will lock 53% of its tokens in the KPI plan, which will only be unlocked if the growth target is achieved; The Cap protocol replaces governance tokens with stablecoin airdrops, allowing real investors to obtain CAP through token sales. These innovative strategies are putting an end to the era of "spray based" token distribution and shifting towards precise and conditional distribution mechanisms. The full text is as follows: The cryptocurrency industry has a 'good coins problem'. Most tokens are junk. Most tokens are not treated as equity by teams at the legal and strategic levels. Due to the lack of equal respect for tokens and equity companies in the team's history, the market has also reflected this in token prices. Today I want to share two sets of data that make me optimistic about the token status in 2026 and beyond: MegaETH's KPI plan Cap's stabledrop makes token supply conditional. MegaETH locks 53% of the total supply of MEGA tokens in the 'KPI plan'. The logic is that if MegaETH fails to meet its KPI (Key Performance Indicator), these tokens will not be unlocked. Therefore, in a pessimistic scenario, even if the ecosystem does not grow, at least there will not be more tokens flooding into the market to dilute holders. MEGA tokens will only enter the market when the MegaETH ecosystem truly achieves growth (as defined by KPI). The KPI of this plan is divided into four scoreboards: ecosystem growth (TVL, USDM supply), MegaETH decentralization (L2Beat phase progress), MegaETH performance (IBRL), and Ethereum decentralization. Therefore, theoretically, as MegaETH achieves its KPI goals, its value should increase accordingly, thereby mitigating the negative impact of MEGA dilution on market prices. This strategy is very similar to Tesla's compensation philosophy of "only by delivering can you get paid" for Elon Musk. In 2018, Tesla granted Musk an equity compensation plan, which will be allocated in batches and can only be realized when Tesla achieves both increasing market value and revenue targets simultaneously. Elon Musk can only receive compensation when Tesla's revenue and market value increase. MegaETH is attempting to port the same logic into its token economics. 'More supply' is not taken for granted - it is something that the agreement must earn by earning real points on a meaningful scoreboard. Unlike Musk's Tesla benchmark, I did not see any mention of using MEGA market value as a KPI target in Namik's KPI targets - perhaps for legal reasons. But as a publicly traded MEGA investor, this KPI is really interesting to me. The person who gets unlocked is important. Another interesting factor of this KPI plan is who will get MEGA when the KPI is achieved. According to Namik's tweet, the people who unlock MEGA are those who pledge MEGA into locked contracts. Those who lock in more MEGA for a longer period of time can receive 53% of MEGA tokens entering the market. The logic behind this is simple: dilute MEGA allocation to those who have already proven themselves as MEGA holders and are interested in holding more MEGA - those who are least likely to become MEGA sellers. It is worth emphasizing that alignment and balancing also bring risks. We have seen historical cases of serious problems with similar structures. Take a look at this excerpt from Cobie's article: "(Content)" If you are a token pessimist, crypto nihilist, or simply bearish, this alignment issue is what you are concerned about. Alternatively, from the same article, it can be seen that 'staking mechanisms should be designed to support ecosystem goals' by locking token dilution behind KPIs that should actually be reflected in the value growth of the MegaETH ecosystem. This is a much better mechanism than any ordinary staking mechanism we have seen in the liquidity mining era of 2020-2022. In that era, tokens were being issued regardless of the basic progress of the team or the growth of the ecosystem. Therefore, the net effect is MEGA dilution: diluted to the hands of those who are least likely to sell MEGA due to the corresponding constraints of MegaETH ecosystem growth. This does not guarantee that the value of MEGA will rise as a result - the market will do what it wants to do. But this is an effective and honest attempt aimed at fixing the core potential issues that seem to be affecting the entire cryptocurrency industry complex. In the history of treating tokens as equity, the team has been "spray and pray" their tokens in the ecosystem. Airdrops, mining rewards, funding, etc. - if they distribute truly valuable things, the team will not participate in these activities. Because the team distributes tokens like worthless governance tokens, the market prices them as worthless governance tokens. After Binance opened up MEGA token futures on its platform (which Binance has historically attempted to extort from teams), you can see the same philosophy in MegaETH's philosophy of listing CEX: hoping that teams will start to be more picky about their token distribution. If the team starts to view their tokens as precious, perhaps the market will respond in the same way. Cap's stabledrop protocol introduces "stabledrop" instead of traditional airdrops. They are not airdropping the native governance token CAP, but distributing the native stablecoin cUSD to users who earn Cap points. This method rewards farmers with real value points, thereby fulfilling the social contract. Users who deposited USDC into Cap suppliers accepted the risks and opportunity costs of smart contracts, and were compensated accordingly by stablecoin airdrops. For those who want CAP itself, Cap is conducting token sales through Uniswap CCA. Anyone seeking CAP tokens must become a true investor and invest real capital. The combination of stablecoin airdrops and token sales for loyal holders has been filtered to identify steadfast holders. Traditional CAP airdrops will flow to speculative farmers who may sell immediately. By requiring capital investment through token sales, Cap ensures that CAP flows to participants who are willing to accept all downside risks to gain upside potential - a group that is more likely to hold for the long term. The theory is that this structure provides CAP with a higher probability of success by creating a centralized holder base that aligns with the long-term vision of the protocol, rather than a less precise airdrop mechanism that puts tokens into the hands of those who only focus on short-term profits. Take a look at this video: https://(x.com)/DeFiDave22/status/2013641379038081113 Token design is growing as protocols become smarter and more precise in token distribution mechanisms. No longer a shotgun style spray prayer token issuance - MegaETH and Cap are highly picky about who can get their tokens. Optimizing distribution is no longer the same thing - perhaps a toxic hangover left over from the Gensler era. On the contrary, these two teams are optimizing concentration to provide a stronger base of fundamental holders. I hope that as more applications go online in 2026, they can observe and learn these strategies, and even improve them, so that the 'high-quality token problem' is no longer a problem, we only have 'high-quality tokens' left.