Backpack founder and CEO Armani Ferrante has put forward a token distribution plan that few crypto founders would make: the team receives no tokens at all. Not a reduced share, and not a lengthy vesting schedule — none.

Ferrante described the exchange's tokenomics as the most extreme ever, and criticized the token warrants that typically hand founders and investors a large slice of a token's supply. Founders and investors commonly secure sizable token stakes through such arrangements, which is what makes a zero-team allocation stand out.

How the Backpack token is split

Backpack disclosed the framework on February 9, 2026. The token has a total supply of 1 billion, one quarter of which — 250 million tokens — was allocated at the Token Generation Event (TGE), the point at which a token is generated and begins circulating.

Of those 250 million tokens, 240 million went to points participants, meaning users who earned rewards by using the platform. Points campaigns of this kind have become a widespread pre-launch mechanism across the crypto industry, and here they account for nearly all of the initial circulating supply. The other 10 million went to holders of Mad Lads, the NFT collection linked to the Backpack ecosystem.

The remaining 75% of the supply is divided into two tranches of 37.5% each. The first is a pre-IPO tranche of 375 million tokens, which unlock gradually as the company hits growth milestones such as regulatory progress and new product launches. The second tranche is tied to a potential US IPO. Those tokens sit in the corporate treasury and remain locked for at least one year after any such listing — a longer horizon than the roughly six-month lockups customary in traditional public offerings. In effect, the timing of future supply rests on company milestones rather than a calendar, making regulatory progress, product launches and any movement toward a listing the markers to watch.

The token launched on March 23, 2026, with 25% of the total supply already distributed.

Why Ferrante is skipping insider tokens

Token warrants give holders — often investors in a company's equity round — the right to receive tokens once a network goes live. Ferrante's argument is that this arrangement allows insiders to sell into retail demand.

Backpack's response is to give founders, executives and investors no direct token allocation and no warrants. Their wealth is instead meant to rise or fall with the value of Backpack's equity. The design also replaces time-based vesting, under which tokens unlock on a fixed schedule regardless of how a project performs, with milestone-based unlocks tied to concrete company results.

Staking, fee discounts and an equity bridge

Backpack is pairing the token with staking programs. Users who stake can receive discounts on service fees.

Up to 20% of the firm's equity pool is connected to the pre-IPO tokens, creating a pathway for converting tokens into company equity. That bridge is notable because tokens and equity are traditionally separate instruments, each with its own rights and claims.

A founder with a reason for caution

Backpack lost approximately $14.5 million in the 2022 collapse of FTX — one of the largest exchange failures in crypto history — roughly 90% of its capital at the time. The company subsequently bought FTX Europe in January 2025 for $32.7 million, and reached unicorn status that same month with a valuation of $1 billion.