Telos Foundation Shares 2022 Annual End-of-Year Report
Executive Summary:
At Telos, we believe that the future of blockchain is a world where everyone has access to decentralized technologies. We see it as our mission to make this a reality. We have developed and positioned Telos as a real-world-ready network for the masses.
Our team has worked hard to maintain our vision and stay focused on our goals in a challenging market where many projects were unable to weather the storm. We were not deterred by short-term challenges and were able to navigate through market turbulence with careful budgeting while maintaining a growth mindset.
We made giant splashes in 2022, advancing Telos’ mission of democratizing access to real-world applications for everyone, regardless of geographical location or economic standing. Overall, we grew our community, the number of stakeholders, and our developer community at a faster clip than ever despite the challenging macro conditions.
We attended conferences, expos, and events, including Consensus, where we were a major sponsor and hosted our own side event, ‘Telos World.’ We were represented at more than one event a month for the first time in our four-year history, raising awareness of Telos to new heights. We listed on multiple top-tier exchanges, including Huobi and Bitget, and onboarded the popular AMM Apeswap. We hosted two successful hackathons (Telos Spark and Mission NFT), and we made our way to Harvard to host the first crypto hackathon ever there. Finally, we bootstrapped the network’s second major platform TelosEVM with a significant cohort of quality apps and services.
Justin Giudici (Director, Telos Foundation)
Key High-Level Achievements for Telos
- Rapid community expansion, resulting in a significant increase in network engagement, participation, and on-chain activity
- Strategic partnerships and events that have elevated Telos’ visibility and positioning within the industry
- Onboarding of top-tier exchanges, providing increased accessibility and liquidity for Telos holders
- Introduction of Telos Ignite Ventures and Grants to lead innovation and development within the ecosystem
- Launch of Telos Fuel Campaign and collaborations with leading DeFi protocols, driving adoption and usage of Telos
[1] Marketing Department
In 2022, we achieved major marketing milestones that propelled us forward in the blockchain industry. From key events to community growth and grant programs, we have made our mark. Our in-house marketing team of nine experts specialized in driving engagement, developing compelling content, analyzing data, and connecting with industry leaders. We generated over 100 business development leads at Consensus Austin, hosted successful hackathons, and launched innovative programs such as Telos Ignite and Telos Fuel. Our social media presence also saw a surge in growth, and we are proud to welcome new members to our thriving ecosystem. We are confident in our progress and are eager to build on our successes with the support of our community.
High-Level Achievements in Marketing
Telos Ignite Grants Program Launch
12 Days of Telos Holiday Giveaway
Announced over 90+ Partnerships driven by Business Development
Community
In 2022, the Telos community’s social media presence expanded significantly, primarily on Twitter, where our profile gained approximately 30,000 new organic followers. This accomplishment highlights the Web3 community’s growing interest in Telos. As we continue to raise awareness and educate the public about the advantages of the Telos ecosystem, our goal is to double that number by the end of 2023.
In addition, Telos tweeted over 1,000 times in 2022, ensuring our audience was well-informed on all announcements by the Telos Core Developers, Business Development, NFT, and GameFi teams. This constant communication and engagement served to strengthen the bond between Telos and its community and helped boost network adoption.
Events Attended
Affiliate Outreach
In Q4 2022, we strategically leveraged our YouTube presence to dominate search results for relevant Telos-related keywords, highlighting Telos’ competitive advantages, industry partnerships, and cutting-edge product releases. Our targeted approach, utilizing strategic micro-influencer relationships, resulted in the production of 21 high-impact videos reaching over 250,000+ impressions, resulting in a significant increase in brand recognition and reach for Telos. In addition, our data show that these efforts led to a 15% increase in website traffic and a 10% increase in social media engagement in the closing months of 2022. We were able to establish a strong presence with our Twitter account for the year with the following:
- 6.7M Impressions
- 486K Engagements
- 33.6K Link Clicks
- 7.3% Engagement Rate
With this successful strategy in place, we are confident in our ability to continue driving growth for the Telos brand in unique, creative, and educational ways.
Improved Ambassador Program
Earlier in the year, we transformed our Ambassadors program to align with our goal of creating a powerful and positive image of Telos. We revamped our content delivery systems and refined our content guidelines, enabling us to track progress and optimize performance across various channels. These efforts will be the foundation for our 2023 success by implementing tracking methods and regularly monitoring progress to ensure continued growth. By the end of Q4, we had seen a 25% increase in engagement across our ambassador channels and a 15% increase in website traffic from referral sources. We are confident that these efforts will continue to drive positive results and amplify the reach of our ambassadors, further establishing Telos as a leading player in the industry.
Telos Brand Development
We took a deep dive into understanding our brand mission, values, target audience, competitors, and key pillars. The result? A clear and impactful marketing message that resonates with our core audience. This analysis helped us identify authentic ways to communicate with our target audience, ensuring that we stay true to our values and core offering. This step is essential for all our marketing campaigns in the future and our ongoing website overhaul. It allows us to confidently and authentically connect with our audience and drive real results. We’re excited to continue building on this foundation as we look to the future and take our brand to new heights.
Peter Nguyen (Marketing Director, Telos Foundation)
[2] Business Development
2022 was a breakout year for Telos as we made significant strides in our business development efforts. With the launch of the EVM in November 2021, our focus was on driving growth for the new chain. Starting the year with only two dedicated BD team members, we have grown to a team of 8 experienced professionals, with dedicated coverage groups for all major crypto ecosystems, including DeFi, NFTs, and GameFi. Led by AJ Dinger and Jeff Nowak, our team was able to onboard over 90 EVM projects and infrastructure solutions throughout 2022, driving unprecedented growth for Telos EVM. These efforts have set the stage for even more rapid expansion in 2023, and we are confident in our ability to continue positioning Telos as the premiere solution for developers and users.
Telos Ignite Grants Fund
As a key component in building a thriving ecosystem, Telos launched Telos Ignite, a 12 million $TLOS fund dedicated to fostering growth on our EVM. The initiative was presented to the community for a vote, which passed in early February. With over 300 applications received, the team took a rigorous approach to project vetting, selecting only the top-tier projects for funding.
For the year, 25 projects received funding, with a total allocation of $397,500. Sixteen projects received funding in the form of equity investment, totalling $306,500, and the remaining 9 received pure grants totalling $91,000.
To ensure maximum impact, any future returns of these investments will be recycled back into the grant program for future deployment. It is important to note, many of the projects that received funding from Telos have yet to hold a TGE due to overall market conditions. However, we are closely monitoring all projects and are excited to see the impact of these projects in the months to come, along with the mark they will make within the Telos Ecosystem for 2023.
Notable grant allocations/investments are listed below:
Telos Fuel DeFi Initiative
In Q3 2022, Telos launched Telos Fuel, our most ambitious growth program since its inception. After conducting extensive market research and gaining valuable input from industry experts and partners, we launched the initiative in September. Despite challenging market conditions, we successfully grew our Total Value Locked (TVL) and attracted strategic partners such as ApeSwap to our ecosystem.
The Telos Fuel initiative has already deployed 3.58 million TLOS since its launch, with 72% going towards providing liquidity, 26% towards liquidity incentives, and 2% toward payroll and operational expenses.
While still in its early stages, we believe that as the market conditions continue to improve, the Telos Fuel initiative will play a key role in driving growth for our ecosystem by attracting new users, increasing liquidity, and diversifying the types of applications and projects on Telos. We are confident that this initiative will be a driving force for Telos’ success over the course of 2023.
AJ Dinger (Head of Business Development, Telos Foundation)
[3] Telos NFT Department
2022 was a year of growth and community building for Telos’ NFT ecosystem. Unlike other chains that focus on influencer-based cultures, Telos is a grassroots-driven endeavor and its NFT ecosystem is no exception. Starting from scratch after the EVM launch, the team and community came together to create and add 13,000 NFTs to the Telos blockchain over the past year, featuring notable projects such as Apish Punks, Telland, Mochi NFT, MINOs NFT and Telos Pirates.
As the chain’s NFT curator, I joined the Telos Foundation in April and helped guide one of the most ambitious NFT contests in the space, Mission NFT, which brought a lot of the genesis community to Telos and served as an open-for-business sign to the greater community. The contest ultimately saw 5 winners, with Telland taking home the top prize for their innovative NFT agricultural project.
The sense of excitement post-Mission NFT led to a small but budding community on Telegram, which quickly grew to become the network’s go-to spot for NFT-related news. With over 500 members between Telegram and Discord, the community’s growth was fueled in large part by our partnership with Joyn.xyz, an artist co-creation platform, which allowed us to broadcast to a larger audience and acquire more artists for our base community.
Our successful campaigns with Joyn have included the Artist Accelerator program, which welcomed 50 newly created collections that were minted on the Telos EVM. Our current campaign with KandaWeather and Joyn showcases our appetite for projects with utility that connect artists and builders within the Telos NFT ecosystem, as well as new external builders and creators. With this strong foundation and continued partnerships, we are confident in our ability to drive growth and build a thriving NFT ecosystem for Telos.
High-Level Achievements for Telos NFT:
- Telos has integrated Flair, a no-code solution, allowing artists to easily deploy and own their contracts, further empowering creators in the ecosystem.
- The Telos NFT hub on Discord serves as the centralized touch point for all growth within the internal ecosystem, providing a valuable resource for artists and enthusiasts alike.
- The Unbound project raised 8k from its mint towards its fundraising campaign, showcasing the potential for NFTs to drive real-world impact and fundraising success.
- Our continued focus on community building and empowering creators helps position Telos as a leader in the NFT space, driving growth and creating real-world impact.
We are confident that these efforts will drive ecosystem growth and continue to establish Telos as a premier destination for NFTs and creators in the space.
Telos Ignite Grants
- Telos provided a grant to Andrea Reade, an NFT artist, to support her work and showcase her talents on a global scale.
- Reade’s NFT artwork, supported by Telos, has been exhibited in China and Canada, showcasing the international reach and impact of Telos’ grant program.
- Our grant program will continue to support and empower emerging artists and creators in 2023
The Big Gooey (Lead, Telos NFT)
[4] Liquidity & Exchanges Department
The Telos Foundation’s Liquidity and Exchanges (L&E) team serves as a key driver of growth, acting as an independent and extended arm of the Foundation with a mandate to facilitate exchange listings, strategic partnerships, manage liquidity and oversee the effective deployment of capital across DeFi and CeFi initiatives. Led by Sukesh Tedla and supported by a part-time DeFi advisor, TF & TCD executives and three community multisig signers, the team was able to create a significant splash this year.
Despite the volatility of the crypto markets, the L&E team has taken proactive steps to manage capital efficiently, secure new listings, launch new initiatives, and onboard new partners, resulting in the achievement of our ATH volumes and price this year. Based on limited CMC data, the average daily volume of TLOS tokens increased by 134%, and we had a total aggregated volume of more than $1.4 billion in 2022, which is more than double of 2021. This is a testament to our team’s dedication and ability to drive growth for Telos even in challenging market conditions.
High-Level Achievements for L&E:
- Successfully listed Telos on Huobi Exchange, expanding our reach and liquidity
- Secured additional listings on reputable exchanges such as BKex, Bitget, CoinEx, Biconomy, DigiFinex, HotBit, ApeSwap BSC, further increasing liquidity and market exposure.
- Secured our first major FIAT on/off ramp integration with Simplex, enabling easy access to Telos for a wider audience
- Secured Telos EVM support from Kucoin and Gate exchanges
- Successfully secured refund of locked user funds from CoinTiger, building trust with our community.
- Launched the Telos Fuel program, driving growth and innovation in the Telos ecosystem
- Onboarded ApeSwap to Telos EVM, expanding our ecosystem and partnership reach
- Represented Telos and met potential partners at major industry events such as Consensus, Fireblocks Spark, and Binance's 5th anniversary, further expanding our reach and partnerships across global markets
- Supported the launch of multiple DeFi applications on Telos EVM, driving innovation and growth
- Implemented a new L&E team structure, defined roles and responsibilities for more transparency, ensuring effective and efficient management of funds
Funds Overview:
As of December 1st, the Telos Foundation has a total of ~$5.7m worth of funds under its control, with 50% of the funds allocated to TLOS to expand liquidity across strategic platforms. Further demonstrating our commitment to driving liquidity and growth for the TLOS token.
We are confident that our strategic allocation of funds will create new market opportunities for Telos and position us as a leading player in the industry. We are dedicated to maximizing the potential of our funds to drive growth and success for Telos.
Sukesh Tedla (Director of Liquidity & Exchanges, Telos Foundation)
[5] Financials
In 2022, Telos had access to significant capital in our treasury in the form of stablecoins to support the growth of the network. This capital was invested heavily in a variety of growth initiatives throughout the year. The top investment was in the team, which grew from 8 FTEs at the end of 2021 to a robust team of over 30 FTEs and several part-time contributors today. The team represents the backbone of Telos, and we invested heavily across all business units, with a particular focus on developers, marketing, and business development.
The first half of 2022 represented a higher spend compared to the second half, with cost reductions being primarily driven by several external black swan events which changed the 2H landscape (Luna in May and FTX/Alameda in November). In response to these events, the financial strategy was adjusted to extend the capital runway into 2024. This included reducing spend on sponsorship of events, reducing PR and influencer/KOL spend, revamping the ambassador program to support more impactful allocation of resources, and slowing the deployment of grant funding (which often needs to be delivered in the form of stablecoins). Additionally, many members of the team, including all members of senior leadership, took pay adjustments to reflect lower stablecoin payments and higher $TLOS payments to extend the runway.
Despite the increased spending in 2022, Telos managed to retain substantial capital reserves that will comfortably take us into 2024 without requiring outside capital injection. This solid financial footing positions Telos for continued growth and success in the future in the new year.
High-Level Achievements for Financial Team:
In Q4 2022, Telos took decisive action to reduce stablecoin/FIAT spending by 35% quarter-over-quarter while also decreasing $TLOS spending by 25%. This was achieved through a combination of cost-saving measures, including:
- Reduction in marketing salary expenses without any critical reduction in staff
- All senior leadership taking stablecoin pay cuts
- Restructuring of the community (ambassadors) program resulting in a 50% cost reduction QoQ
These cost-saving measures allowed Telos to maintain its financial stability and continue to invest in growth initiatives.
[6] 2023 Goals and Visions
As we look ahead to 2023, the Telos team is fully committed to driving growth and success despite the ongoing market uncertainty. Despite potential challenges such as fallout from the FTX, Alameda entanglements and ongoing regulatory uncertainty, we have created a foundational budget that allows us to operate with the capital we currently have on hand.
Despite these major events, we remain dedicated to our vision and we are confident in our ability to weather an extended market downturn. However, we are also prepared to take advantage of opportunities for growth if the macro market recovers. We have developed multiple budget scenarios based on market conditions over the course of 2023. Our baseline plan assumes the markets continue to be choppy through 2023, with alternate plans based on an earlier market recovery.
In the coming days, we will provide our community with a detailed view of what each of Telos’ major departments plans to accomplish in 2023. We are dedicated to transparent communication and keeping our community informed of our progress.
Follow our community for further updates and direct communication with the team!
About Telos
The Telos EVM is the most powerful and scalable Ethereum Smart Contract platform built to power Web 3.0. Telos features a robust, third-generation, ESG-compliant evolutionary blockchain governance system, including smart contracts, advanced voting features, and flexible and user-friendly fee models. In addition, Telos supports the blockchain ecosystem by serving as an incubator and accelerator for decentralized applications through development grants. Build with us.
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