An LBP is an access product, not a launch hype machine

I was Co-Founder and CEO of Sonic from September 2023 to January 2025. With a five-person team I led product development of an automated market maker, a DeFi hub, and a Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool (LBP) on the Internet Computer Protocol.

If you want the broader career context first, start with Who is Sunil Vallath? This essay is about one product chapter: how we treated LBP as an access product for token launches, not as a marketing stunt around a pool.

The product job is access

An LBP is often described as a pricing curve. That description is incomplete as a product job.

The job is to help a project open access to a token launch in a way people can understand and participate in. The pool is necessary. It is not sufficient. Someone still has to design the mechanics, set the launch path, explain the offer, support the community through the window, advise on the launch itself, and think about liquidity after the first day.

That is the work I owned end-to-end for Sonic LBP: LBP mechanics, launch strategy, go-to-market, community management, token-launch advisory, and liquidity provision. The product had to connect those pieces so a launch was executable, not only deployable.

You can see the live launch platform at lbp.sonic.ooo. Exchange metrics for the broader Sonic product sit at v3.data.sonic.ooo.

Launch GTM is more than the pool

Token-launch GTM fails when it stops at “the pool is live.”

Beyond the pool, GTM includes how the project reaches participants, how the launch window is framed, how questions get answered in public, and how liquidity is planned so the market can continue after the bootstrap. Community management is not optional decoration. Advisory is not a side conversation. Liquidity provision is part of whether the launch remains usable after the first rush.

I treated those as product surfaces on the same path as the LBP mechanics. A launch that only ships a smart contract still leaves the project and its participants to invent the rest under time pressure.

That through-line sits next to other access questions I have written about: privacy as part of the user experience in privacy products and the Midnight wallet, and what first funded trade really measures in from weeks to under 60 seconds. Different chapters. Same habit: judge the product by the path people actually take.

Past proof from the Sonic chapter

The metrics below are past proof from the Sonic chapter on my site. They describe what shipped. They are not a claim about a current fundraising cycle.

Companies in the ICP ecosystem raised over $9M through LBP token launches on Sonic LBP. The exchange reached $200M+ in cumulative volume, including a $13.4M peak month.

I also raised $6M for Sonic through a community DAO sale and led DAO governance; the community approved the proposal to create Sonic DAO (proposal #124808). That fundraising and governance work sat alongside the LBP and exchange products. For this essay, the LBP and exchange figures are the primary past proof for the token-launch product job.

The product lesson

My view of LBP product work is simple:

1. Define the access job. The pool prices and distributes; the product has to make participation understandable.
2. Own the path past the pool. Launch strategy, GTM, community, advisory, and liquidity belong in the same product surface.
3. Keep proof labeled as past proof. Volume and raise figures describe what happened for users and projects. They do not replace a clear product story.
4. Connect launch to markets. An LBP that ignores post-launch liquidity leaves the hardest part of access unfinished.

An LBP is an access product, not a launch hype machine, because the people using it need a path they can follow — into the launch, through the window, and into a market that can still function afterward.

FAQ

What is an LBP product job? Helping projects open access to a token launch through a Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool — including mechanics, launch strategy, GTM, community, advisory, and liquidity — not only deploying a pricing curve.

What does token-launch GTM include beyond the pool? How the project reaches participants, how the launch window is framed, public support during the window, token-launch advisory, and liquidity planning so the market can continue after the bootstrap.

Which Sonic metrics are past proof? Over $9M raised by ICP projects through Sonic LBP token launches; $200M+ cumulative exchange volume with a $13.4M peak month. These are past proof from the Sonic chapter on sunilvallath.com.

Related reading: who is Sunil Vallath?, privacy products and the Midnight wallet, and first funded trade. For more on the work described here, see Sonic, Sonic LBP, and Sonic exchange metrics.