2026-01-18 12:26:38

Many people’s first reaction after receiving the LISTA airdrop or mining rewards is to immediately sell on the exchange. In the short term, there’s nothing wrong with that, but over a longer time horizon, this becomes a classic case of poverty mindset—selling off a golden pickaxe as scrap metal.

What exactly are you selling? On the surface, it’s a token, but in essence, it’s the governance rights and dividend rights of the ecosystem. In the DeFi 2.0 era, the way tokens are used has changed. Governance rights have shifted from an intangible voting game to a tangible cash flow harvesting machine.

LISTA DAO uses the veToken model, which is simple at its core: transforming liquidity providers into long-term stakeholders of the protocol. When you lock $LISTA to get veLISTA, your identity switches—from a liquidity provider working for the protocol to a shareholder of this on-chain bank.

What’s the benefit of this identity change? You gain the power to decide where the protocol’s incentives flow. LISTA DAO controls a huge amount of liquidity, and the direction of incentives will cause the yields in that direction to explode.

How do other projects compete for this liquidity? New stablecoin projects, certain DEXs, in order to get higher APYs for their trading pairs, have to court and bribe veLISTA holders.

The Curve ecosystem has long played this game, known in crypto circles as the “Curve War.” In that battlefield, governance token holders are the true power brokers with control over discourse and profit distribution. You either become one of them or forever remain a bystander.

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MysteryBoxOpener

· 6h ago

Selling tokens is equivalent to selling voting power, and there's nothing wrong with that logic. Curve's approach has long been understood, and now LISTA is simply copying the veToken model. The real winners are still those who have the patience to lock their tokens.

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not_your_keys

· 6h ago

To be honest, those who sold early are probably kicking themselves now. Just look at Curve—those holding the chips are the real winners.

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PensionDestroyer

· 6h ago

Haha, using the word bribery is spot on. This is the essence of the Curve War—holding governance rights is like holding the printing press.

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ForkItAll

· 7h ago

This is the contempt hierarchy in the crypto world: those who sell coins will never earn the right to govern. LISTA stakers are now the happiest, while other projects' sycophants are really quick to lick. It's the same old Curve War routine; it seems you have to learn how to play the power game to get a share of the pie. I've seen it long ago—retail investors are still struggling with whether to sell or not, while big players are already building their own small kingdoms. They earn enough influence in just three to five months, there's no way to compare. If you're still asking why you're not making money, just read this article carefully and you'll understand. The VeToken model is truly a breakthrough for DeFi; it's much more substantial than the previous virtual voting rights. I'm just worried someone will read this and rush in to get cut, because the power game isn't that simple. You're not wrong, but the key is having capital—ordinary people like us can't afford to play this game.

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