Reading tokenomics
7 min read · Updated Oct 2026
Every raise page carries its raise details, and they are the nutrition label of the deal: what you are buying, how much of the thing it represents, and who holds the rest. This page walks the label line by line using the numbers Backable actually uses.
The price you pay
Every raise sells a fixed 10,000,000 tokens to backers. Unless otherwise stated on the raise page, the price per token is the goal divided by that number, so a $150,000 goal prices tokens at $0.015. Everyone in the raise pays that price, with no early-bird discount. Unless otherwise stated on the raise page, where any prior investors are named, there is no insider round underneath you.
FDV: what the whole company is being valued at
Fully diluted valuation is the token price multiplied by every token that will ever exist, and it is the number to argue with. If backers buy 10M tokens at $0.015 but total supply is 25M, the company is being valued at $375,000, not the $150,000 being raised.
Where the supply goes
Supply is fixed at launch. Creating more requires a proposal that a market has to approve, so nobody can quietly print tokens and dilute you. A typical raise splits like this:
| What | Amount |
|---|---|
| Backers (the ICO allocation) | 10,000,000 |
| Futarchy AMM liquidity, paired with 20% of the raise | 2,000,000 |
| Additional pool liquidity at ICO price | 900,000 |
| Founder performance package | set by the founder |
The founder's package is the variable to watch. A package of 12.9M tokens against 10M for backers means the founder holds more of the token supply than everyone who funded it combined, which can be entirely reasonable for a team that will work on this for years, but you should notice it rather than discover it later.
Liquidity: why part of your money buys a market
Twenty percent of the raise does not go to the treasury. It is paired with tokens into a liquidity pool so the token can be bought and sold from day one. Without it you would own something with no price and no exit. The cost of that is real: it reduces the working capital the team receives, which is why runway is computed against 80% of the goal, unless otherwise stated on the raise page.
The unlock ladder
The founder's tokens do not unlock on a calendar. They unlock in five equal tranches at 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x and 32x the price backers paid, after an initial lock period. If the token never doubles, the founder never unlocks a single tranche.
| What | Amount |
|---|---|
| Tranche 1 unlocks at | 2x your entry price |
| Tranche 2 | 4x |
| Tranche 3 | 8x |
| Tranche 4 | 16x |
| Tranche 5 | 32x |
This is the single most important alignment device on the platform. In a conventional token launch the team unlocks on a schedule regardless of outcome, which means the team gets paid whether or not you did. Price-based unlocks invert that: backers are up before the founder is liquid.
TWAP: why a price spike doesn't count
An unlock triggered by a moment's price would be trivially gameable, buy the token hard for ten seconds, trip the tranche, sell into the backers. So unlocks are measured against a time-weighted average price over a long window, typically three months unless otherwise stated on the raise page. Holding a manipulated price for three months costs more than the tokens are worth, which is the point.
A two-minute read of any raise page
Check FDV against the stage of the company. Check the backer share of supply, under 20% and you are buying a sliver. Check the founder package against the backer allocation. Check that the first unlock is at 2x or higher. If all four look reasonable, the deal structure is not the reason to pass; the business is.