the bagholder's dilemma

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The Boys

Writer: Deana

Editors: Miranda & Natasha

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The Bagholder’s Dilemma. Only in crypto could a story about M&A involve two players called “Clanker” and “Rainbow.”

Rainbow, a popular Ethereum wallet, and the lead dev from Clanker, a token launcher on Base, got into a public tussle on Monday.

Early in the day on Monday, Rainbow announced their forthcoming TGE and Q4 airdrop alongside key product updates and a promise of “more exciting news dropping later” that day. After successfully whipping their followers up into a frenzy, they dropped their second piece of juicy news - a bid to acquire and integrate the Clanker protocol. The shape of the deal includes:

• a generous airdrop allocation of Rainbow’s upcoming token to $CLANKER holders

• $RNBW stakers getting in on Clanker fee action post-TGE

However Clanker’s lead dev, Jack Dishman, shot it down. He posted something to the effect of hey actually we don’t want to get acquired, Rainbow is strong arming us by posting this offer publicly, and they are lying about how the negotiation went down. The quote-tweets went wild.

As ever, traders are going to trade. $CLANKER had a “violent repricing” in response to the news, with the price jumping on anticipation of an integration, though it’s since settled back down.

It’s clear that the Clanker leadership team don’t want this deal to happen, but what’s unclear is what $Clanker tokenholders want. Some say this is a version of a vampire attack on Clanker, where Rainbow will siphon its utility (and treasury) until Clanker is a shell of its former self, and the value will accrue instead to $RNBW.

Others say integrations are healthy! Distribution, volume, the holy, hallowed ‘flywheel’… are all net positive for the protocol and in turn, support the token price and revenue sharing over time.

Meanwhile, despite its frankly silly name, Clanker has real numbers. Depending on the dashboard you check, the platform has generated roughly $40 million in cumulative fees to date. That is a real business, and the stakes here are meaningful. Wallets are becoming consumer superapps, and launchpads are distribution engines. There is power in owning both.

Hence, The Great Bagholders Dilemma in 2025. Do you aim for independence and growth on your own terms, or do you trade some sovereignty for scale and a bigger surface area of demand? And what if the interests of the holders and founders diverge over time? Who owes what to whom in a ~decentralized~ environment.

As for the drama on the timeline, without receipts on how the negotiation actually went down, it’s just a he-said, he-said situation, and personally, I love the mess.

It is fascinating to watch a new era of corporate maneuvering form in and around decentralized networks. We’re witnessing the formation of a new playbook right now. The stakeholders are anons, the currency is screenshots, and the sentiment changes at the speed of a scroll.

Quick Hits.

• It’s sperm supplement season!

• How/why is Kalshi eating Polymarket’s lunch?

• Sam Bankman-Fried is back on X ????????

• Polymarket on South Park.

Come hang with Boys Club in NYC at The Aptos Experience. I will be speaking on stage alongside Kim Milosevich, CMO at a16zcrypto.

Meet us for coffee, RSVP here.