ShapeShift's Voorhees Defends Venice Token Terms After Critics Call Deal Underpriced
Erik Voorhees defended the token terms behind Venices $65 million Series A on Thursday, telling critics on X that investors could ultimately pay $131 million for 6.5 million locked $VVV tokens if they exercise an attached option. The founder pushed back a day after announcing the round at a $1 billion equity valuation. Series A backers received a vesting grant of 1.5 million $VVV plus an option to buy 5 million more, all locked for four years, according to Voorhees original thread. Exercising the option would cost investors an additional $66.5 million, bringing potential total proceeds to roughly $131 million, a figure Voorhees reiterated in a reply to a critic who argued the structure undervalued the tokens. Napkin Math The critic had suggested Venice could have raised the same $65 million by selling 8.1 million tokens at around $8 each rather than locking up equity and token warrants. Voorhees rejected that framing, writing on X that “we would never offer such a thing,” and that the actual deal nets Venice up to $131 million for 6.5 million tokens if fully exercised, not $65 million for roughly 8 million. He argued the OTC buyers are taking on illiquidity risk that no existing $VVV holder carries,
