At 21 years old, Eloisa Marchesoni became the youngest ICO, IEO, and STO advisor in the crypto space. Since then, she has been an influential author for top media outlets and was nominated as Europe’s #1 Token Model Architect and Due Diligence Expert by Irish Tech News.
Last week, we caught up with Eloisa to talk more about her story, the job of a tokenomics expert, some of the sectors she’s keeping an eye on in the crypto space, and much more. Here it is.
The following interview has been edited for concision and clarity.
To get started, please introduce yourself and tell us about how you got into this space?
I am Eloisa Marchesoni, and I come from Italy. I was born in the United States, which gave me a little bit of the best of both worlds. I am 26 years old, and I started experimenting in crypto when I was around 19 years old.
At the time, I was in university. All my life, I had been a straight A student — just focused on studying. At university, I was forced to be a more well-rounded student, and somehow I got in touch with a blockchain crypto association, and that got me very interested.
After that, I started participating in events. As strange as it may sound, there were some events going on in Italy, especially in Milan, where I was studying. And the first time I had a hands-on approach was during a hackathon startup contest. Of course, the idea that my team and I had didn’t go anywhere — but at least it got me started in the space.
Then I started investing a little bit of money I had on the side until I discovered I wanted to be more active and try to help the crypto space, which was still very novel at the time. I met my current business partner, and given my background, which was in economics and finance, we thought, “Why not apply the same rules that I was studying in economics to the world of tokens?”
And so I just dug into the field of tokenomics, and at the time, there were few people working in it. Now it seems like there [are] many [tokenomics] experts, but at the time, there [were] none. So it was a very good niche for me to explore and it gave me my role also to establish myself in the crypto space.
Building on that, let’s briefly talk about the term “tokenomics.” Can you define what it means?
Yeah, I find the term tokenomics to be a little misleading and inadequate because it implies that we only work on the economics of the token model. But really, it is the study and analysis of the whole economy behind a token model.
And so, it starts with the Discovery Phase, where we start with any documents that the client has. This could be something about the business model, the marketing, investors they want to approach, their team, how they got their idea, and what is their vision and mission.
We evaluate, first, if they need a token. Then after mapping all the revenue drivers, the value drivers, the value flow, and prioritizing stakeholders, we come up with a network of objective functions. So, what issues and what gaps are we trying to solve with the project? And especially, what does the token solve within the project?
And then from there we go into the Sign Phase, which is the most popular. So, the economics — top-down bottom up, tech choices, and governance.
From there we go into the Third Phase, which are the simulations. Trying to simulate the valuation of the token in-time under specific extreme scenarios or also under average expected conditions. And that’s the full job behind what people just call “tokenomics.”
That makes me think about how you determine if a platform or project really needs a token. During the bull market, it seemed like everyone was coming out with a new token, and some of them were great and others were, say, unnecessary. So, what are sort of some of the things do you look for to make that decision?
Honestly, if the business makes sense (and maybe even more sense) without the token, you probably do not need a token. The fact that you have a token and that you’re blockchain-based has to be part of the unique proposition of your business. Or you could add a token later for the sake of the digitalization of your business.
That’s it. It must have utility. That’s the keyword. If it’s there only for hidden fundraising goals, then you probably do not need a token. You’d be better off just grinding on the fundraising because the high bet first may be good for you — you will raise some funds — but then, of course, it will backfire.
Absolutely, what are some of the elements that make a successful Initial Coin Offering (ICO)?
It’s been a long time since I’ve heard the term ICO. Which is good, because I think last time was during 2017-18, and 19 that we were hearing about ICO’s — and those did not end up well.
What they were was a disguised means of raising funds from the public without giving anything back. Even though in balance sheets they were probably disguised as vouchers, like the ones you get in your supermarket — but they were not good at all. And the term now has a very bad stigma.
What is popular now is to speak about a different approach that is usually staged. You will very rarely see a project that just launches a token directly on a centralized exchange.
First, they will probably have a Token Generation Event (TGE). So, they’re not really offering the token to anyone, they’re generating these tokens and making them available either to users that are already utilizing their platforms — whatever they’re offering in the form of a testnet. Or they’re offering them to the public on launchpads, which is a good way to whitelist your first users.
After the launchpads, you go to the decentralized exchanges. And you will call that an Initial Decentralized Offering. And only after that, after you’ve proven the value of your token to the public, and to the strictest public that you can find, which is the ones you find on decentralized exchanges, then you will offer your token on centralized exchanges. So right now, that’s usually the kind of staged approach that I find is most popular.
I think in terms of judging different offerings, it boils down to whether the token has utility. Because it may do great numbers at first, and then completely die off. But also, considering how a project is distributing tokens, their supply, their burning mechanisms, and the incentives and disincentives within the project. What will make people hopefully hold the tokens for enough time?
Are there any sectors right now in the industry that you find particularly compelling?
I don’t have a favorite vertical, but I will start with the vertical I like the least, which is gaming. Not that I don’t like it, but it’s the most complicated one, because to create a token economy for a game, it means that you basically want to simulate a new social economy in a new fictitious world.
And it must work very well for the project to be successful in the long term. It’s one of the most complicated things to do. It’s something I like to work on but not something that I really like in terms of the projects that are out there at the moment.
One vertical that I am enthusiastic about that I like to work on and that I like some projects that are out there is Real World Assets. RWA tokenization can include Real World Assets like real estate, watches, or maybe stocks and bonds.
This passion of mine was born with the Ondo Finance project, which I really love. And after that, Maple. Right now, I’m working with them on a project as a tokenomics consultant that is about the tokenization of real estate. And there’s a strong interest. The project is based out of Dubai, and they already have signed contracts for various millions of dollars of properties to be tokenized through their platform.
I think if I were a founder, and I was wondering which vertical to jump into now RWA would be the one. If I didn’t have a particular passion, and I was just looking for a business that could work, I think RWA — if of course, you have the connections or friends that have connections.
What kind of connections?
You need connections to property owners and to the Real World Assets world. But if you do have these connections then it’s quite easy because people on the other side in crypto are very interested. I think people in the traditional world are interested, and politics now is also trying to become closer and closer to crypto, and so it’s a good match.
What’s a day in the life of tokenomics consultant look like? How many projects are you working on at one time?
Very few projects can be worked on at the same time. Around three is a good number because tokenomics is an all-encompassing field and science. It’s not just me working on one project. I always work with at least two or three other collaborators because to work on a tokenomics project, you need someone with an economics background, someone with computer science knowledge, specific mathematics knowledge, a developer, and an analyst.
So, you need a lot of people, and it requires a lot of back and forth with the clients. Because if we take on a client when they’re in the initial phases, they will have very little idea about what they need and want, and all of that will be shaped throughout the process.
So, it takes maybe even two calls per week with each client. It takes a lot of chatting, and of course on our side, development, calculations, etc., etc. So, I would say two or three clients per month is a good amount.
Where are we in the crypto cycle now?
So, I’m not just working on tokenomics the whole day. I also run a Telegram community called @Crypto_Pills. We discuss market events, analysis, the daily news, and there’s a community attached and a discussion group where we collect everyone’s opinions and we talk daily.
And this will soon become a premium service with different token reports, for example. We personally believe that an all-time high will happen in Q1 of 2025, so I’m really holding onto my crypto with diamond hands and not looking at everyday volatility….
Thanks.
In case you missed it: