LinksDAO is launching its own community token, adding a highly tradeable asset alongside its nearly 10,000 membership non-fungible token (NFTs) this crypto golf club tried selling to fund its mantra: "We're gonna buy a golf course." NFTs aren't as trending as they were in early 2022 when LinksDAO sold its membership tokens for $10 million. The market euphoria that led raunchy Beeple artwork to nab hundreds of millions of dollars at auction moved on long, long ago. CryptoSlam's NFT Index is down nearly 97% since its inception in January 2022, showing how market interest is now elsewhere. Memecoins now dominate crypto's short attention span economy; even Trump has one. Now LinksDAO will have one too, with LINKS. "We are going to be launching a community token that has deep culture, that's embedded in the game of golf, that's embedded in the community, and that's permissible under the fucking regulations that we have to deal with," LinksDAO founder Mike Dudas said on a community call late Tuesday. The coin is expected to launch in the coming months on the Base blockchain. A third of its supply is earmarked for LinksDAO NFT holders, with smaller allocations for members of other NFT communities, including Pudgy Penguins and Bored Ape Yacht Club. Any successful crypto coin inevitably lives or dies as a financial instrument, even when its promoters – right up to the President of the United States – attempt to insist otherwise in the fine print. For their part, LinksDAO's suits proclaimed LINKS was not "speculative" nor an investment. Instead, they're calling it a community "enhancer:" a way to broaden the reach of a crypto club that managed to weather the bear market less because of the enduring appeal of NFTs than the growing power of golf. "The goal is to have every single golfer have LINKS in their crypto wallet," said head of community and co-founder Cooper Sherwin. LinksDAO bought a golf club in Scotland in mid-2023. The club's executives recently signed an agreement to become partial owners of a second course in Kansas City. That deal is subject to a vote by LinksDAO's NFT-holding members, said Sherwin. Hillcrest Golf Course is an 18-hole course designed by an architect from golf's so-called Golden Age, Donald Ross in 1915. He once called it the finest course in the world, but it fell into disrepair over the ensuing century, according to project members. That created an opportunity for LinksDAO to cut a deal. Current owner Robb Heineman – a Kansas City businessman who also owns that city's Major League Soccer team – closed the club down for a few years back to pursue a $30 million renovation project. Heineman did not return a call from CoinDesk. In a press release, he said LinksDAO "shares our forward-thinking vision for what a golf club can be." LinksDAO will become a minority owner of Hillcrest and gain a board seat, though project leads declined to share specific financials behind the deal. The deal will seek the approval of LinksDAO's NFT holding members, who vote on proposals but don't have full legal power over the project's decisions. Some 200 members showed up on Tuesday night to hear the dual announcement of course acquisition and token. That means LinksDAO is not actually a "decentralized autonomous organization," but instead a kind of affinity club for people at the intersection of crypto and golf. Hillcrest's national membership program will become a LinksDAO operation open only to holders of its NFTs.
