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Cicada X Telos - let's build!
Recorded: June 13, 2025 Duration: 0:39:19Space Recording
Short Summary
Telos is gearing up for significant growth with a million-dollar investment program aimed at enhancing its ecosystem, focusing on sustainable tokenomics, and supporting innovative DeFi projects. The discussions highlight strategic partnerships and upcoming developments that promise to elevate the Telos token's value and utility in the crypto market.
Full Transcription
Thank you. you you Hey, hey, how's it going, everybody? It's going good.
Give it a minute here for people to join.
Shout out to the people who are here right at the start.
It's been an interesting month for Telos, but we're moving forward.
So thanks for staying positive.
Thanks for staying positive.
George, what I'll do, I'll invite you up as a co-host as well, just to secure the connection.
Sounds good.
Looks like Cicada joined as well.
Okay. Thank you. Looks like we got some people rolling in here
Cicada do you want to do a quick mic check real quick can you hear me guys hello folks
yep I can hear you well thank you thank you Josh
all right uh I would say let's kick off and people will stream in. First off, thanks for everybody in the Telos Foundation or the Telos community to join today's space.
Like I mentioned, it's been a little bit of a rough month in the crypto markets and in Telos.
I think we do have a lot of exciting stuff on the horizon.
Developments moving forward.
We've got some exciting things coming related to token deflation and lowering
the inflation rate, the TELOS token, and as well as some major partnerships, this one
included.
So if you just want to do a quick introduction and tell us a little bit, first off, is it
Cicada?
Cicada?
How do you pronounce yourself?
And if you just want to give a little bit of a background.
Hey, guys. Yeah, I appreciate having us here.
And actually, this is the, I would say, top five questions regarding our brand and regarding our business is how to pronounce it correctly.
and regarding our business is how to pronounce it correctly.
And different people, different cultures
will pronounce it in different ways,
but we call it like cicada.
Perfect. That's what I thought it was.
And then I got self-conscious.
I was saying it wrong the entire time.
So welcome. Thanks for joining.
If you just want to give a little bit of introduction
about what you guys do that'd be uh great and kind of set the background for today's space
yeah sure sure uh so i wanted to start like uh briefly about us uh so as the market maker
So as the market maker, we started just last September, 2024.
But as the business Cicada, we started way more before in 2021.
We started actually as a family office.
Now we are working in the liquidity provision and liquidity management space.
So SCADA is not just about the market making right now.
We are a full spectrum liquidity partner for Encrypta.
So we manage and deploy our own capital across a couple of core pillars.
It's market making, it's OTC, it's DefiLMP, and we also have these grant programs.
So that means we don't just offer like services, we actually put our own efforts and own skin
into the game to help web3 businesses businesses scale with real and sustainable market like traction and
infrastructure. So the team was built by professional traders, not only engineers,
and we understand how markets actually work and behave and it way just beyond the software.
actually work and behave and it way just beyond the software so we work hands-on with founders
to co-design liquidity strategies and to help them grow their web3 businesses very simple
thanks for that see a great background and you know liquidity management goes so hand in hand with like family office and investment strategy.
So you guys sound like you have kind of a full spectrum of knowledge within the Web3 space.
And that's kind of, I think, how this partnership came to be. Right.
You guys have a great track record of investment, but also on the liquidity management and market side.
but also on the liquidity management and market side.
I know you guys have already started looking at the Telos markets
and see some areas we could potentially improve liquidity
and just strategy for helping take Telos forward
and the Telos token, which is great.
What is your market-making philosophy?
I know there's a lot of different strategies
that we can kind of
put forward with market making and web3 but do you guys have a specific kind of philosophy or
strategy that you guys are going to be implementing with Telos yeah yeah great question actually it's
another like strong point for us so the philosophy and approach combines like our roots are in dmm like
designated market making for centralized exchanges so our current approach for the larger projects
like telus is combines the traditional market making strategies from the stock and from the storics market so it means we are focusing
on strategies like liquidity mirroring or back-to-back execution of the liquidity but
it's of course adapted to the crypto market and the crypto assets so the goal isn't just about like providing the volumes but it's about building the
trust with actual retail traders and by managing the liquidity across different exchanges uh we
allow and provide the best trading opportunities the best training experience for the traders
with back-to-back
execution and liquidity mirroring we are at the same time able to generate an organic and
like volume from their retail so basically allowing them to match the orders to execute
the orders like from either beat side or from the ask side of the order
book with a low latency and with a minimal, I would say almost like zero slippage.
So we don't believe in set and forget bots.
So we are an active market maker, strategic.
And of course, we deeply involved into the ecosystem with
our partners in order to grow together.
Yeah, that's really fantastic to hear.
I think, you know, in order to have success within Web3, we need retail to feel comfortable
with what they're buying, right?
I mean, as a retail investor, if you go and try to purchase a coin, but then the price
moves up, you know, 10 to 15%, you don't really want that to happen and you don't really care that it is happening.
You just want it to be correct.
So like I kind of see the market making team kind of working silently in the background
just to make the user experience of investing for retail really, you know, second to none
and what they expect.
So I really appreciate that philosophy from you guys.
Yeah, absolutely.
That's the most underestimated actually part of the business and all the trading part.
The daily, day-to-day operations for the trading or for the market making actually can make a really
big difference in the long term because everyone is actually overestimating what they can do in a
short period of time but they under estimating at the same time what they can achieve uh if they stick to the longer game so yeah yeah and i think that's
one of the areas i mean we've always tried to you know collaborate and align ourselves with
long-term thinking partners you know web3 is is it's so easy to play the short game you know and
i know there's tons of market makers that can manipulate the pricier token one way or the other for their short-term gains.
But, you know, Telos has been here for seven years and we're planning on being here for, you know, the foreseeable future moving forward.
So the long-term vision is exactly where we want to be aligned with.
Yeah, absolutely.
I personally know Telos, I think, since 2020.
So I even remember your performance, performance guys on the previous cycle.
Yeah.
It was fantastic and yeah, good to extend the partnership at the Columniac.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Well, I hope with you guys we can help replicate a lot of those past performances and then extend past that as well.
past performances and then extend past that as well.
So obviously the big news is the investment into the Telos ecosystem.
You guys obviously operate, you said, as a family office, so you're looking at investments
and getting ROI for yourself.
Yeah, just kind of talk me through a little bit of the million dollar program for Telos and just kind of some high
level details around it. And also, why Telos? Why now?
I would maybe start with the second part of the question and then we move slightly to the
program details. So in my opinion, and Skyder thinks that 2025 is actually the turning point for the crypto.
Markets started coming back by the middle and end of 2024, but everyone is kind of rushing things and expecting a real crypto spring during 2025.
expecting a real crypto spring during 2025. So builders are shipping again and infrastructure
plot projects like decay or modular execution is finally ready to scale. So we personally
see a huge opportunity to get to the market now and to back the projects here.
So this type of different at the same time, BTC has matured into a macro asset.
So it's trading more like a gold now, right?
With less correlation to the heights.
And that's why we think it's a perfect time to commit $1 million program together with TELUS.
So regarding the TELUS and why we choose it as a partner.
So TELUS is one of the most highly rated and highly capable um infrastructure projects a lot projects in
the space right now so is designed uh for to execute and to allow the web3 builders and teams to
um to help them with their performance so lightning five fast like low fees uh ready
infrastructure solutions so that makes it as a ideal for scaling the next generation
applications in the in the three so what really stood us stood out to us is how focus the telus team on developer
experience and the speed so that kind of infrastructure is exactly what serious builders need
and that's why we decided to uh part up like to go together and not just back in the chain but we are back in a team
uh that has a vision that's aligned with our own which is performance like real utility
and the long-term growth so that's the perfect match in our opinion yeah that's fantastic to
hear and i'm not sure if you've kept track to the Telos community as of late, but we are kind of refocusing on our Telos EVM. You know, that's our flagship product. And ultimately, we think it has USP in the current crypto climate, right, for developers, but then also that end user experience, right? experience right I think tell us you know from my point of view still provides the
best user experience in terms of just using applications and we're constantly
kind of working to refine the developer onboarding experience as well so you
know it'd be really great to collaborate close on that make sure that that flow
is really you know really ironed out and then also you know provide you know that contact with you guys to help support you know the vision of developers whatever you know that
you know dream or or uh product that they're building with the million dollar grant yeah
yeah absolutely absolutely agree with you and also is it like it's been mentioned that you guys are already a well-established business in the crypto space
and you have a good experience and actually the proof expertise and experience of delivering
the real complicated technologies to the market. So providing this infrastructure to the new businesses is really crucial and help the whole industry to evolve faster.
And our trading background, our trading experience and our investments can help the projects to achieve the necessary goals on the current stage of the development.
So that's why we choose this partnership.
Again, that's the perfect match for our teams.
Yeah, I mean, that makes complete sense from my side, right?
I mean, a lot of developers are great at building,
but then when it comes down to, you know, exchange listing strategy,
liquidity, and all these other facets of launching a token,
generally speaking, you want to lean on teams with that expertise, so that's where you guys
can come in.
And I kind of see this evolving into a core ecosystem partner to help developers kind
of get to that end product, but then also launch successfully.
So often we see products coming to market, and then they fall completely flat post launch, you know, whether it be bad tokenomics, you know, no liquidity.
It's a really common issue.
And I think we've lost a ton of really good products within crypto because of that next step, which is liquidity, which is, you know, trading and things like that.
So yeah, it's really great to hear.
We can definitely work together with that kind of onboarding experience for developers
and then almost work in collaboration to get those projects live,
successfully trading and liquid, right?
Yeah, totally agree.
And I think it's good to dive more into the details of the program and what the projects exactly we are looking for and like we are potentially can back and support.
So we are looking for the teams actually where the main interest for us here and the projects and the founders businesses that we are looking for the teams actually we're uh the main interest for us here and the projects
and the founders businesses that we are looking for looking at is the projects who are a few months
like two three sometimes it's up to six months closer to the actual token launch like the TGE event. So why this timing is crucial is just because even two or three months,
it's more than enough in order to, for example, tweak the tokenomics
or to warm up the community and to just align the resources together
in order to conduct actually the successful TGE.
Because investing into the projects
who are already listed,
it makes like more or less interest
even for the businesses itself
just because they are already well-established businesses.
So the TGE is the first requirement here uh another requirement not another requirement but
another point here is that the selected teams uh will get their full liquidity support uh go
to market strategy uh from cicada trading team we have a really good and actually i would say solid uh playbook
uh of the projects that we are actually lodging on exchanges we were conducting the tge for them
assisting them with a go-to marketing strategy and we actually managed to bring them to
we actually managed to bring them to the billions project.
So that's actually showing the serious approach
and the proven track record,
which is more important for the founders
because the cases actually speaks for themselves.
Like you don't need to play with words.
You can just show them the cases.
And regarding the grant program is we are dividing the total grant
into different pieces we are not limited on the numbers but from the previous experience we
usually invest from uh 20 30k sometimes we have a checks of 50k and up to 100k of course if there will be more appealing
or interesting opportunity uh from the project side and if you see a really really great potential
uh from the project but they are lacking of i don't know funds for example in order to cover
their listing expenses or for some exchange we can also support these uh projects and to cover the listing expenses or for some exchange,
we can also support these projects
and to cover the listing expenses for a few changes.
So that's an extra, I would say,
that the projects and the founders can get
from the Cicada side.
Perfect, thank you for that overview.
I mean, what kind of projects are, I would say, are you generally looking for in your portfolio right now? Kind of based on where we is there anything you're kind of eyeing right
now um in terms of specific niche or product fit um for the grant program
i would say that we are currently looking and then obviously on the def5 projects sometimes gamefi uh zk is also on the table here i would say also the different
kind of projects for using the modular solutions or pushing the boundaries like speed or privacy
or sometimes in the ux is also the projects that we are looking at. So we are not really limiting around the specific narratives
because, again, we are not just investing into the narratives,
but we are investing into the teams and the founders
and the businesses behind them.
So we are looking, again, the perfect match here
as we found with you.
So if you manage to find something special with the projects from your ecosystem, that would be more than perfect.
Got it. Okay. Yeah, obviously, I mean, from our side, you know, the TELS Foundation is trying to support the, you know, the growth of d5 within our ecosystem we've got some great builders right now um so it probably makes sense to collaborate and kind of see you know what we can get in terms of
d5 projects to help both help the you know round out the telos ecosystem but also you know get
some really good products to to market um so uh look forward to collaborating with you guys on that. Yes. And yeah,
the DeFi is
really on the
edge to, I think, to
have a next leap here.
And it's always good to support it
from the very beginning.
Perfect.
Talking through a little bit of the application process,
obviously, you know, there's
a form to be submitted. And then I'm assuming you guys do an internal review. What does that process look like on your side? I think we had a couple applicants send in their projects. But what does that process look like? Is it transparent to the community? Or, you know, just talk me through that a little bit.
to the community or, you know, just talk me through that a little bit.
Process is really, really simple.
We try to cut off the unnecessary steps for the founders and for the builders, because
they are busy with the projects and we are just trying to not waste the time on that kind of things.
So they basically need to fill out the application form through our website they
can found the form on our partnership announcements uh we got the form we got the details and all the
information there after that our team will be quickly reviewing the information provided. Of course, we will do our off research
before any touches with the project teams.
And after that, we set up the group,
adding the founders and the businesses
to the chat on the telegram
in order to make a deeper due diligence process.
So the transparency and the team is very
very important for the cicada so we do a kyc kyb process adding the actually the
tells team I hope also the inside the groups checking their processes and overseeing their projects inside of them and after that if all are good during that
stages we are going on the intro calls and intro meetings with the teams in order to discuss the
the projects and the vision of the founders in more details in order to understand if we match
our visions here that's actually very simple step steps regarding the application and how the process
looks like and if you see good match here if the projects is about to go live soon with their tokens and if they match all the requirements
previously discussed we are more happy to then to allocate the uh
grant for this kind of projects and we don't need really much time in order to
get the decision here because we are interested in developing the business rather than paperwork.
So for us, usually it takes a week or so in order to get a final decision regarding the projects from the first touch of the group.
Yeah, that sounds pretty straightforward.
Pretty simple process as well.
So, yeah, we're going to continue to push that to our developers and our ecosystem at large.
And ideally speaking, we get some great applicants in.
I'd just like to shift gears a little bit.
Obviously, you guys have a huge amount of knowledge within the Web3 space, within the investment space.
Telos is kind of, I would say, in a bit of a crossroads right now.
We're looking to develop
our tokenomics to a more sustainable model. Currently, we're funded by token inflation.
And we're looking to see, you know, how we can get Telos to a, you know, non-inflationary,
potentially even deflationary state. Do you guys have experience that you could bring to the Telos team and the community to help
kind of structure and strategize around sustainable tokenomics?
Regarding the tokenomics, we have a couple of engineers, actually they're Defy engineers,
it's on the team who previously been involved into developing a lot of the
different economics for the projects and we can many of them so this is not our like primary
focus right now but as the market maker and actual trading team we know uh the nuances and different insights of the economics that
can help projects to thrive in the in the the long-term run so yeah we are more than happy
to also extend the collaboration and assist with the economics tweak here. And I would say actually the deflation mechanism in the projects
is a kind of new meta, like new hot narrative.
So it would be nice to also explore the synergy here and to suggest
you a couple of interesting solutions, how you can actually enhance and
adapt the economics to the new market.
Yeah, that's amazing to hear.
I mean, in Web3, so many of the projects are funded by very high token emissions and ultimately
funded by speculation and aren't really working towards what you could call profitability in a traditional sense,
where you're taking in more gas fees than you emit token-wise.
So that's something we're looking very intensely at right now.
We've done a lot to lower our inflation over the past several years.
I think when Telos launched, I remember,
it was about 55% or 60% inflation, and now we're about 5%, right? But it's like, how do we get
from 5% to an actual deflationary model? And then we've got a lot of ideas around that,
you know, increasing Telos token utility to increase gas fees, and also, you know,
lowering the amount of emissions for tokens going up.
But really good to collaborate on that and almost bring you guys into some of the community
discussions to how does the Telos token evolve and thrive, not just in a couple months, but in
five or 10 years. And I think that long-term planning
that you were talking about earlier
is kind of exactly what we're trying to do right now.
So having you part of those discussions would be super good.
Yeah, that's actually really the things
that we are looking for into the projects from your ecosystem.
You mentioned the decreasing
of the inflationary for the token which is absolutely
right way and the great approach here and uh once you become to manage and create a deflationary
scenario for your economics and for your token this can completely change the game uh for the telus as for the brand because you guys are already have
a very like strong brand in the crypto and the good traction of the token and from the business
and when you are going to the market with another milestone, which is really, really big and huge.
And I would say also unique because not really that much of the projects can achieve that results.
I think that can really change the game for you as for the business.
And we as Cicada are happy to be a part of the success for your brand.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
Absolutely looking forward to it.
Before I wrap up on my questions from my side,
we maybe have some questions from the community.
Is there anything else you would like to add in terms of the grant
or potentially Cicada or tell us at all?
And then if not, we can potentially open it up to some community questions.
I take that as nothing else from your side.
So Waxa, do we still have you on here? I'm
not sure if there are any community questions that have come in.
I think we have no questions yet from outside. Actually, just asking the teams to
fill out the form to provide as much details as possible, requested details there, and
just to expect the, uh, feedback in the really, really short term.
So again, we are looking to support the business and this is our primary and the main goal.
And if you share this vision, we'll be happy to, we'll be happy to get in touch with you guys.
Perfect, perfect.
And I know obviously we can get in touch through your website.
Are you guys in the Telos community channels?
Is there potentially a specific point of contact that we can, you know,
tag within the community channels if they have any immediate questions?
Yeah, yeah yeah sure i have my own and personal act so i can share my details regarding the twitter and the telegram
so for the builders projects or any guys from from the telus who are interested to know more about
us or how do we work, how do we support.
We'll be happy to answer the questions
and even to open the call.
Or if needed, we can arrange another AMA, why not?
Perfect.
Cool.
Well, I will make sure that's reposted within our dev channel
just so all the builders are aware.
And then I believe we have another space this coming Monday
with JT and team.
And I believe there's going to be some updated tokenomic proposals
coming out within the next week or so as well.
And like we mentioned,
we'll probably have some close collaboration with you guys
to sanity check
kind of the long-term vision of the telos token um and yeah looking forward to collaborating with
you guys and thanks for coming on the space yeah sure thanks for inviting us thanks for having us
there um always a pleasure to you know reasoning about the token and the business and the crypto.
So invite us more and we are happy to join.
All right. Thanks everybody and have a great weekend.
Yeah. Thanks everyone. Appreciate your time to join guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
