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Alcyone · the advisory practice of TrustSwap

Strategic advisory for Web3 businesses, foundations and institutions.
From a pillar of the industry.

Alcyone advises on strategy, tokenomics, fundraising, partnerships, marketing, product, infrastructure, launches and security. Our partners have spent six years building and operating some of the most widely used platforms in Web3. That experience is what we bring to your decisions.

Book an intro callHow an engagement runs
Abu Dhabi · Established 2020

The situation

Most Web3 projects do not fail for lack of a strategy.

They fail in execution. A board approves a plan, a budget is committed, and three or four firms each take a piece of the work. Here is what usually goes wrong.

01

The strategy nobody could execute.

The plan was sound on paper. It assumed engineers, liquidity and a community that did not exist yet, and it was handed to people who had not read it.

What it costsA quarter lost re-briefing vendors, and a launch that ships a second draft of the plan.
02

Tokenomics the contractor rewrote.

The vesting schedule agreed in the strategy was changed by whoever wrote the contracts. Nobody compared the two until the first unlock, and by then it was on-chain.

What it costsHolder trust, and the one thing a regulator will later ask you to prove.
03

A launch plan that assumed liquidity.

The market maker never agreed to the depth the plan required. The exchange listed on its own timetable. Launch day went ahead anyway, and the order book was thin.

What it costsA first week that sets the price narrative for a year, decided by someone else’s calendar.
04

Distribution left to chance.

The product was live, but the audience was a Telegram group and an agency’s list of influencers. Every user had to be bought, and the buying stopped when the budget did.

What it costsMarketing spend that never compounds, and users who leave when the incentives do.
05

Five advisers, one blind spot each.

Each firm did its part well. None had worked on the other parts, so none could see where its work would break the rest. When it did, the fault was everyone’s and no one’s.

What it costsThe senior time you hired advisers to save, spent refereeing between them.
06

The question you could not answer.

Which exemption you relied on. What you disclosed. Whether control was really distributed. The SEC’s framework asks all three, and the records were never kept.

What it costsYour ability to enter the market you most need, at the moment you most need it.

Why it happens

The problem is not the advice. It is that most advisers have only ever done one part of the job.

Web3 advice is organised by specialty. Law firms know the exemption but have never launched a token. Tokenomics boutiques have a model but have never watched an unlock day. Agencies know the influencers but have never read a vesting contract. Development shops can build anything but have no view on whether it should be built. Each is competent in its own lane. None of them has run the whole thing, so each optimises its own part and the plan breaks where the parts meet.

Adding a project manager helps less than you would expect. The missing ingredient is not coordination but judgement, and that only comes from having done every part of this yourself, through a full market cycle, and having paid for your own mistakes.

The usual advisersWhat they have never done
CounselKnows the exemption. Has never launched a token.
Tokenomics boutiqueHas a model. Has never watched an unlock day.
Development shopCan build anything. Has no view on whether it should be built.
Exchange and market makerKnow the listing. Have never carried a plan through to it.
AgencyKnows the influencers. Has never read a vesting contract.
Alcyone's partnersHave built and run token infrastructure used by more than 40,000 projects, taken more than 80 projects to market, grown a consumer app past five million downloads and built an institutional custody business, through two full market cycles.
“We advise on every part of Web3 because we have run every part of it.”
Alcyone

What we do differently

Advice on your whole business, from people who have run one.

Our partners built and operate the infrastructure, launch platform, consumer application and custody business that TrustSwap runs today. We do not assume you need any of those products. What you get is the judgement that comes from running them.

Every part of the market

Eight service areas, one team.

Strategy, tokenomics, partnerships, marketing, product, infrastructure, launch and security, advised by people who have worked in each of them. A decision in one area is made with the others in view.

8service areas covered by one team
Independent advice

Recommendations on their merits.

TrustSwap's platforms are available where they help and left aside where they do not. Many engagements never use them. If the right answer is another chain, another venue or another vendor, that is the answer you get.

0obligation to use TrustSwap products
Partners, not a delivery team

The people you meet are the people who do the work.

Senior partners lead every engagement personally. We take on a limited number at a time so that this stays true.

1team, from the first call to the last report

The record · as of 2026

80+
Projects launched
Through the TrustSwap Launchpad
$100M+
Raised
For launched projects
40,000+
On Team Finance
Locks, vesting, staking and airdrops
27
Blockchains
EVM and non-EVM
5M+
App downloads
The Crypto App, iOS and Android
Top TVL provider
On major chains
Ranked among the leading providers

Selected engagements

Some examples of our work.

TrustSwap has taken more than eighty projects to market since 2020 and supports more than forty thousand on its platforms. Most of that work is confidential. Here are a few examples we can share, with client names withheld. References are available on request.

Situation

A large mainstream consumer app wanted to enter Web3 but had no crypto capability, entity structure or go-to-market.

Areas engaged

Strategy · Tokenomics · Partnerships · Marketing · Product · Infrastructure · Launch · Quality

What we did

We took the application into Web3 end to end: entity setup, crypto integration, tokenomics, launch, and distribution through TrustSwap's own platforms.

Result

200M downloads and 3M monthly active users; approximately 0.5M monthly active wallets, roughly ten per cent of all active wallets on its host chain; and a Launchpad partnership with the chain's leading DEX. This is the clearest demonstration of the full model.

Situation

The chain faced user onboarding challenges and needed a path to mass-market DeFi launches.

Areas engaged

Strategy · Partnerships · Marketing · Infrastructure · Launch

What we did

We launched the first token project on the chain, delivered locking and vesting infrastructure, built onboarding materials, ran joint AMAs and co-branded campaigns, and coordinated exchange integrations.

Result

5,000 or more new token holders and approximately $10M locked in vesting from the first project alone, setting the template for the launches that followed.

Situation

A national banking association wanted to advance its sustainability and digitalisation agenda through a climate-positive NFT initiative, and needed a compliant, secure partner to deliver it within a regulated financial environment.

Areas engaged

Strategy · Partnerships · Product · Infrastructure · Launch · Quality

What we did

We built the NFT infrastructure end to end, from concept through smart contract setup, minting and distribution, and advised on structuring the campaign so members could claim and engage with the NFTs. The work was delivered to the security and compliance standards required by a regulated financial-sector client and integrated into the association's broader sustainability roadmap.

Result

A regulated financial-industry body brought to market with a live, compliant NFT initiative tied to its climate goals — a demonstration that the model works for institutional and highly regulated clients.

More examples

How an engagement runs

What happens after the first call, week by week.

Five points in an engagement, and what you have in hand at each one. If we are not the right firm, you will know by the end of week two.

Week 0the first call

Thirty minutes with a senior partner.

You tell us what you are building, where it stands and what you need to decide. We tell you on the call whether we are the right firm, and what a two-week diagnostic would cover.

No preparation needed · the partner on the call leads the engagement
Intro call · 30 minutesLed by a partner
What you are buildingDiscussed
Where it stands: token, product, team, runwayDiscussed
What you must decide, and by whenDiscussed
Our answer, on the callRight firm, or not
Week 2the assessment

A written assessment, and a decision point.

Two weeks, fixed scope, fixed fee. We review the project, the token, the product and the market, and we interview the people who matter. You receive a written view of what is working, what is not and whether to proceed. If you do not need us, the assessment says so.

Fixed fee · credited against any further work
Written assessmentIllustrative
Working3 findings
Not working5 findings
Decisions needed4
RecommendationProceed · fix the vesting first
Week 6the plan

A plan written to be carried out.

Strategy, tokenomics, go-to-market, partnerships and product priorities, developed with your team and tested against what we have seen across forty thousand deployments and eighty launches. Every part has a named owner: you, us, or a vendor we will hold to it.

Three to six weeks · every part has a named owner
Vesting and lock structureIllustrative
Cliff · 3 monthsLinear · 21 months
Team 18% · Investors 22% · Community 41% · Treasury 19%
Owner: AlcyoneBuild: your engineersVenue: decided on merit
Week 14launch

Launched to the agreed sequence, with the partners present.

Exchange strategy, listing support, market-maker and PR contract review, community activation and launch-day operations. The partners who wrote the plan are on the line during the launch window.

Launch window · post-launch report within the week
Launch window · day oneIllustrative
Locks and vesting verified on-chain✓
Market-maker depth confirmed at the agreed level✓
Listing live, sequence held✓
Community activation, first 24 hours✓
Partners on the line✓
Quarter 2the report

Still here after the token is live.

Introductions, distribution through our relationships and continuing advice as the project grows. The quarterly report is written by the same people who wrote the assessment, so it can say plainly what worked and what did not.

Ongoing · the same partners throughout
Quarterly reportIllustrative
5,000+holders
$10Mvested
3further launches
What worked, what did not, what comes nextWritten by the partners

How we engage, in detail

Who this is for

We are the right firm for some situations and not others.

We would rather tell you here than on the fourth call.

A good fit

  • Established Web3 companies with a live token or a funded launch ahead of them.
  • Blockchain foundations that need an ecosystem built rather than described.
  • Institutions entering digital assets with a specific mandate, such as a treasury programme, an NFT initiative or a tokenisation project.
  • Boards that want one accountable partner and are prepared to fund the work properly.

Not a fit

  • Very early-stage teams. Our platforms are open to you directly at team.finance.
  • Projects whose main need is a development shop.
  • Anyone who wants a deck without the delivery.
  • Launches that need to happen next week.
Steady judgement through two market cycles.
Alcyone by TrustSwap

Start with a conversation.

Thirty minutes with a senior partner. We will tell you whether we are the right firm for the work and what a two-week diagnostic would involve.

Book an intro call