Web3 Renaming Trend: Can Brand Restructuring Bring New Life?

Author: Lila, Sunday, BlockBeats

Last week, MakerDAO officially rebranded as Sky Protocol and will upgrade its token and stablecoin to SKY and Sky Dollar (USDS). This move has drawn criticism from many long-time users, who not only complain about the team's lack of professionalism and the mishandling of the former X (Twitter) account but also believe the new name is unremarkable and even lacks the characteristics of Web3, resembling more of a Web2 tech company, which is less impressive than MakerDAO; some KOLs bluntly stated that the team has violated the vision of decentralization.

Looking at the shifts in the crypto cycle, it is not uncommon for projects to undergo name changes, mergers, or token renaming. According to incomplete statistics from BlockBeats, there have been over 40 projects this year alone that have involved changes or mergers of protocols, projects, or token names. In addition to MakerDAO, well-known protocols and platforms such as Galxe (now renamed Gravity), Helio Protocol (now Lista DAO), and Polygon (token name changed to POL) have also undergone name (or token) changes.

Why is everyone obsessed with renaming?

Expanding the view to the entire industry, the analysis from the table compiled by BlockBeats shows that the main reasons for protocol or project renaming include: resource and funding reorganization, brand positioning updates, and significant technological upgrades. Additionally, renaming may also be influenced by factors such as simplifying structures, major personnel changes, alleviating regulatory pressure, and differentiated competition. In a poor market environment or when a project is neglected, renaming may also become a strategy to attract market attention.

Taking MakerDAO as an example, crypto researcher Haotian pointed out that for such DeFi legacy projects, there are unavoidable regulatory compliance issues. Unless they remain isolated, any intention to expand market scale will inevitably require compliance with regulations, and this renaming is the first step towards change. MakerDAO's ambition is not limited to creating a more decentralized stablecoin on-chain but is more inclined to expand its business scope and market user share.

Projects like Solend (now Save), Mirror L2 (now Mirror Staking Protocol), and Qredo (Open Custody Protocol) have renamed themselves to better reflect their core business direction and technical expertise, allowing users to more intuitively understand the areas these protocols are currently focusing on.

Amber Japan (now S.BLOX) and Fantom (now Sonic Labs) are also involved in changes of team ownership or technological and brand upgrades.

For example, on August 2 of this year, Fantom officially rebranded as Sonic Labs. Sonic is a brand new L1 that can cross-chain to Ethereum through native L2. At the same time, Sonic has established a new Sonic Foundation, Sonic Labs, and a new visual identity. Fantom's founder Andre Cronje, a leading figure in the DeFi space, was previously a member of the Fantom Foundation. However, in 2022, he suddenly announced a temporary exit from the DeFi industry, leading to a sharp decline in market confidence in Fantom, and the price of the FTM token plummeted as a result. This renaming also involves personnel changes, with Andre Cronje becoming the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Sonic Labs. Currently, it appears that Fantom is attempting to restart the market through renaming and organizational restructuring, hoping to shake off the impact of the Multichain incident. However, whether it can lead DeFi to glory again remains to be seen.

Some projects are renaming themselves to change and expand their track, enhancing the imaginative potential of project development. For instance, Galxe (now Gravity) has transformed from the largest task platform in Web3 to a Layer1 blockchain focused on cross-chain abstract design. Previously, Galxe had over 25 million user addresses and collaborated with over 6,000 project parties/communities, having already launched on mainstream trading platforms like Binance and OKX. After changing to a public chain, a significant portion of the original users is likely to remain and follow. Currently, Gravity's monthly active address count has also returned to previous peak levels. In building the ecosystem of the new public chain, Gravity can leverage years of project experience and connections, saving considerable effort in gathering basic DeFi projects and seeking cooperation.

Another notable renaming practice this year is the token merger case of Fetch.ai (FET), SingularityNET (AGIX), and Ocean Protocol (OCEAN). The three AI-focused projects announced in June this year that they would establish a decentralized artificial intelligence alliance and merge their tokens FET, AGIX, and OCEAN into ASI, aiming to form a super alliance for artificial intelligence to promote the development and application of AI technology. With the ongoing hype around AI narratives, the three projects chose to integrate their resources and funding to collectively push forward new projects, which is also a way to stand out.

The aforementioned projects mainly initiated renaming with the premise of pursuing positive effects such as self-construction and enhancing brand image. However, the crypto market is not without some scam projects that frequently rename themselves to evade detection, repeatedly defrauding users of funds. For example, the project @realtronarmy. Due to the recent popularity of the meme platform sun.fun, this project attempted to "ride the wave" by launching a new coin to defraud users. However, sharp-eyed netizens immediately discovered that this project had previously renamed itself multiple times to "change its disguise," issuing new coins to "harvest users." After being exposed, the project's Twitter account now shows that it has been deactivated.

What is the "effect" after renaming?

Changing a brand name or creating a new token symbol allows the token to "restart" with a new price curve.

In March of this year, some media reviewed the price trends of 15 tokens that underwent brand reshaping in the past year, finding that the prices of tokens showed strong trends after rebranding, with an average maximum increase of nearly 243.5%. For instance, the decentralized auction platform Bounce Finance announced a brand upgrade to Bounce Brand in December 2023, aligning its entire product line with the Bitcoin ecosystem, and the effect was quite significant, with AUCTION reaching a maximum increase of 223% two weeks after the renaming. However, the negative effects of the "hype effect" brought by renaming also emerged as the heat of the Bitcoin market faded, and the price increase effect from the renaming only lasted a little over two weeks before the token price fell back to pre-renaming levels.

AUCTION price trend chart Source: CoinGecko

It is evident that renaming does not mean "changing fate." After a brief market heat, how the team capitalizes on the opportunity to develop or leverage its advantages is key to sustainable success. OKX is one of the more successful examples. In January 2022, OKEx officially rebranded as OKX and designed a new logo. Following the brand upgrade, OKX launched a series of initiatives: continuous social media promotion, advertising both domestically and internationally, sponsorship of well-known events, etc.; on the product side, the launch of the OKX Web3 wallet quickly captured market pain points, becoming one of the important turning points in this brand upgrade, successfully embedding the new brand into users' minds in a very short time.

Final Thoughts

In the current market environment, aside from organizational restructuring and regulatory factors, the behavior of small and medium-sized projects actively renaming themselves has increasingly evolved into a "publicity strategy." Due to a lack of new narratives, project teams find it difficult to form effective brand momentum strategies.

Since the DeFi Summer of 2020 and the NFT Summer of 2021, the market has not seen a widely accepted mainstream narrative for a long time. The Bitcoin ecosystem boom lasted less than six months, while the rise of memes on Solana does not align with the "pragmatic" spirit of crypto fundamentalists and true builders. There are even views in the market that the narratives of Bitcoin and new ecosystems like Solana are, to some extent, "repeating" the old paths of Ethereum.

In this cycle, the competition among various parties has become more public. Compared to previous cycles where retail investors "blindly gambled," current retail investors are more cautious and firmly hold their positions. In such a market environment, project teams are resorting to unusual tactics to capture attention, with renaming as a gimmick for "brand reshaping" becoming one of their trump cards. However, renaming does not equate to changing destiny. To become a "evergreen tree" in the crypto space amid the ups and downs, a project still needs a large user base, useful and essential products, genuine innovative discoveries, and unwavering faith and persistence.

Finally, if you want to give your project a good name, you can refer to this article: "The Art of Naming Crypto Projects: Is the First Step to Success Having a Good Name?" Additionally, here’s a "mystical" naming website, hoping it helps you all :)