Why we launched Steak Pool on Rug.Ninja

Fair launch is unfashionable.

The standard playbook in 2024 goes like this. Mint a generous team allocation. Sell a private round to insiders at a discount. List to the public at twice that price. By the time anyone outside the circle sees the chart, the people closest to the project already hold a position cheap enough to sell into the public bid. A few months later the chart is down 90% and the team is posting about market conditions.

Rug.Ninja runs the opposite playbook. The contract issues supply transparently. Same price applies to everyone. The team buys at the same time, at the same cost.

We picked it for that reason and no other.

It cost us. No war chest, no marketing budget, no contributors getting paid out of round proceeds. The site looked rough for months. The whitepaper was a Google Doc.

What it bought, though, was the foundation everything since has rested on: a holder base that doesn't have to wonder whether founders are positioned to dump on them. When we announce a burn, we're announcing it to people who already know there's no insider round waiting to clear.

Worth it then. Worth it now.