Exclusive Interview with RaveDAO: With TGE just around the corner, how strong is the consensus formed through offline "play"?

Original article by Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )

Author｜CryptoLeo ( @LeoAndCrypto )

As of November 2025, there were over 13,000 crypto DAO organizations, with their market capitalization and total value (TVL) continuing to grow. However, problems persist, with weak governance and regulatory pressure driving the optimization and transformation of DAO organizations. Many people's understanding of DAOs may still be limited to traditional communities, such as Uniswap DAO, which emphasize governance and voting to determine the future development of the community and tokens.

But have you ever seen a community that combines innovation with crypto popularity? Beyond DeFi, new DAO communities are exploring even more innovative frontiers. RaveDAO is a prime example of this innovative community. RaveDAO aims to become a global sandbox for Web3 adoption by partnering with cryptocurrency ecosystems, ticketing technologies, wallet providers, and entertainment brands—pioneering use cases for NFT ticketing, cryptocurrency payments, on-chain identity, and cultural entertainment. Fostering community belonging through NFTs and attracting more real people with music beats—it all seems more novel and appealing.

RaveDAO combines memes and DAOs, using the entertainment industry as a connecting point to create a seamless on-chain and off-chain community with a large number of real people and strong cultural cohesion. Between 2024 and 2025, RaveDAO attracted over 100,000 participants through entertainment activities, generating $3 million in revenue, and donated 20% of its profits to charitable causes (such as cataract surgeries in Nepal).

The initial signs are emerging, a grand extension of a 200-person afterparty.

RaveDAO originated from an afterparty at DevCon in Istanbul in 2023. According to Ron, the core planner of RaveDAO, there were about 200 participants at the afterparty. "That day's afterparty had no banners, no sales pitches, and no white paper. There were only lights, rhythms, and people."

Fortunately, the impact of this afterparty transcended everything at the time. The day after the event, many people asked Ron, "Are you guys going to do this again? This was the first time I felt a deeper connection between people in the crypto community."

Speaking of which, we have to mention Ron's background—Ron majored in psychology, and later at Harvard majored in organizational psychology, studying the motivations behind people, the resonance between groups, and so on. His professional background made him realize that this afterparty brought him more than just the anticipation after the event ended. He felt more clearly that the motivations and resonance behind people are not only applicable to psychology, but even more so in Web3.

Ron previously worked in investment firms, incubators, and venture capital funds, where he was responsible for strategy and organizational management. He has witnessed many projects go from zero to one and back again. This rich experience made him realize an important truth: " Web3 doesn't lack funding, technology, or ideas; what it lacks are real-world application scenarios and engaging experiences. Many projects raise tens of millions of dollars, but the number of real users doesn't match the funding, perhaps not even a thousand. Technology can't be put on the blockchain on its own; project teams must have the initial intention to continuously build and actively engage users, and people are the most important part of that."

From that moment on, RaveDAO was born. RaveDAO is dedicated to using entertainment as a connection point, enabling real people to seamlessly connect to the blockchain. Now, RaveDAO has evolved beyond just an event brand; it has become an entry point for culture and experience, using real-world entertainment scenarios to bring Web3 back to the "human" dimension.

How Meme+DAO and RaveDAO became top-tier communities with global reach.

From 200 people in 2023 to now, RaveDAO has attracted over 20,000 participants. From its humble beginnings as a community to its current status as a global entertainment IP, RaveDAO has experienced many remarkable milestones.

The first milestone was the inaugural RaveDAO event at Token2049 Dubai in 2024. The event coincided with Dubai's worst rainstorm in 75 years, resulting in power outages, artists stranded in Milan, and audiences being flooded on highways… Everyone thought the chances of successfully holding the event were slim. But RaveDAO ultimately succeeded. The energy of that night made the RaveDAO team realize for the first time: "People are the protagonists, the environment is just a backdrop, and resonance itself is the greatest productivity."

The second milestone was the 2025 Dubai Token2049 x Tomorrowland Terra Solis, a resort of the world’s leading entertainment brand. RaveDAO created an immersive event for more than 4,000 people in the desert. It was also RaveDAO’s first battle as a cutting-edge decentralized community. The event was reported by The Wall Street Journal. RaveDAO went from a “Web3 side event” to a real cultural phenomenon and officially stepped onto the global stage.

The third milestone was the collaboration between RaveDAO and WLFI at the Korea Blockchain Week (KBW). At that time, RaveDAO achieved the first offline payment chain for the stablecoin USD1—from buying tickets and ordering drinks to booking rooms, all of which could be paid for with crypto. This was also the first time that crypto payment was "used" in reality, marking the beginning of Web3 technology truly entering the real world and entering mass entertainment.

The fourth milestone was the RaveDAO ENL1GHT Festival during Token2049 in Singapore in 2025. It was also a landmark event after RaveDAO became a wildly popular community. The event was supported by DeCard by DCS. The venue was packed with 5,000 people that night, and the event almost dominated social media in Singapore. It was so popular that many people posted, "My WeChat Moments, Instagram, and Xiaohongshu are all talking about RaveDAO."

The day after the Singapore event, several traditional entertainment companies and top global record labels approached RaveDAO to discuss collaborations.

Starting with an afterparty for 200 people in Istanbul, it grew into a 5,000-person party in Singapore in just one year. Ron said, "After that night, everyone saw for the first time a brand from Web3 could truly break into the mainstream entertainment industry."

However, music festivals and other events have always been a way for crypto projects to promote themselves. The difference between RaveDAO and traditional events is that RaveDAO is not "organizing events" but creating an open entertainment sandbox for Web3.

Most projects hold events for exposure, marketing, or to invite KOLs to check in, but RaveDAO's core is "co-creating scenarios," turning every entertainment event into a real testing ground for the industry—whether it's DJs, production teams, public chains, wallets, or payment systems, they can all test products, refine experiences, and validate the market here.

RaveDAO's current model is similar to TED and TEDx. Flagship events are planned and executed by the core team to ensure quality and production standards; while community events (RaveDAOx) are spontaneously organized by local communities around the world, such as in Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, and even future locations like Tokyo and Los Angeles.

Communities can apply to use RaveDAO's brand IP and independently decide on the venue, lineup, and style. RaveDAO will provide brand guidance, promotion, and resource links. Communities can also choose a charity focus based on local characteristics and select outstanding producers or performers to perform on stage.

"In other words, RaveDAO was not created for exposure, but to let technology find people and let people experience technology. This is a difficult but right thing to do, but it is worth doing precisely because it is difficult. Every RaveDAOx is a high-frequency establishment of offline consensus and an extension of brand culture and trust."

RaveDAO fosters community engagement by tokenizing tickets as on-chain NFTs. Each NFT represents an on-chain identity, not just a ticket. It also serves as an on-chain record of every real entertainment experience a user has—which event, which city, and what identity they participated in. In the future, RaveDAO will leverage this data to unlock more benefits for users, including priority ticket purchases, limited-edition merchandise, RAVE rewards, airdrops from partner brands, and artist collaborations.

More importantly, NFTs connect the data across the entire ecosystem. The traditional entertainment industry suffers from fragmented data, ticket fraud, and disjointed fan relationships—all of which can be addressed on the blockchain. Organizers can see real user profiles, and participants' historical records will continue to be identified and rewarded in future events. This is the biggest difference between RaveDAO and the traditional entertainment industry: "making every offline experience continue, be recorded, and transformed into cultural consensus."

Data shows that over 100,000 people have already attended RaveDAO events in person. More than 70,000 tickets have been minted on-chain. The ecosystem has attracted some of the most influential figures in the entertainment and cryptocurrency worlds. Partners such as Tomorrowland Terra Solis, 1001Tracklists, Amsterdam Music Festival, NEON Countdown, Red Bull, Tiger Beer, Maison Perrier, and Codigo & Pernod Ricard have integrated their cultural influence into the system.

In the crypto space, RaveDAO has become a real-time sandbox for many platforms, including OKX, BNB Chain, Bitget, World Liberty Financial, DeCard, Polygon, and APTOS.

Through these activities, RaveDAO generated over $1.3 million in revenue in 2024, and its cumulative revenue to date has exceeded $3 million. The strong growth since 2023 demonstrates the feasibility and potential of RaveDAO's business model, with its entertainment tokenization and painless blockchain integration model exhibiting strong scalability.

A community that rides the Web3 wave and stays at the forefront of the cryptocurrency world.

In addition to the aforementioned collaborations with the crypto industry, RaveDAO also capitalizes on the latest trends in the crypto world. Due to its massive user base and strong reliance on crypto payment infrastructure, RaveDAO partnered with WLFI, becoming the first project to implement a USD1 offline payment use case . RaveDAO collaborated with the ticketing platform PLVR to enable payment for events using USD1.

Ron stated, "We believe the core of crypto payments isn't 'whether it works,' but 'whether anyone wants to use it.' To get people willing to use it, you first need to create the 'desirable scenario.' Through our ticketing and data partner PLVR, users only need to register with their email address to automatically generate their first wallet. Furthermore, payments can be easily completed using Alipay, WeChat Pay, credit cards, or Apple Pay. After purchasing a ticket, it is immediately and automatically minted into an NFT, permanently stored on the blockchain. The entire process is painless and seamless, yet far surpasses the traditional ticketing experience."

"This is the true meaning of going on-chain: letting the technology hide in the background, while making the experience simpler and more natural. In the future, we will expand to more scenarios, such as artist income distribution, fan points system, brand co-branded consumption, and global event integration, to create an entertainment-driven crypto ecosystem closed loop (Entertainment-Driven Crypto Adoption)."

Aside from WLFI's practical applications, RaveDAO is also a pioneer of the x402 protocol . Before the recent x402 hype, RaveDAO already supported payment transactions for its events via the x402 protocol, allowing users to purchase tickets through the ticketing platform PLVR using AI Agent + USDC. To some extent, the hype surrounding x402 in the crypto world is largely about profiting from purchasing x402-related memes, which is essentially PvP. Few people truly care about what x402 can bring to crypto, but RaveDAO is a project that perfectly aligns with the essential use cases of x402.

In the long run, Coinbase's endorsement and integration with Google A2A may make the x402 protocol the future crypto payment infrastructure. RaveDAO has the best scenario to realize x402 use cases. There is no hype, only a seamless connection between crypto payments and entertainment. Technology serves people, and people experience technology through activities and participate in activities through technology.

With TGE approaching, what benefits can holding RAVE bring?

RaveDAO's biggest recent attention stems from its announcement of the RAVE token economic model—a total supply of 1 billion RAVE tokens, of which:

The community 30% empowers local chapters, builders, and loyal fans to develop the global community through governance grants, incentives, and rewards;

Ecosystem 31% provides the technological infrastructure that drives brand/ecosystem integration, partner activation, and global user acquisition and onboarding.

20% of the rewards go to the team and co-builders, incentivizing the founding team, core contributors, strategic advisors, and long-term partners who drive the ecosystem's development; (locked up for 12 months, linearly unlocked over 36 months)

5% of early supporters are recognized and rewarded for their early followers and partners who helped launch the movement;

A 5% liquidity level is maintained to ensure smooth market access for exchange participants and to maintain market stability.

3% will be airdropped as an initial airdrop to previous RaveDAO participants and contributors;

The foundation and charitable pool comprise 6% of the long-term reserve for charitable causes (such as Rave for Light) and other initiatives managed by the DAO.

Approximately 23.03% will circulate after the token generation event (TGE), with the remainder having a 12-month cliff and a 36-month linear unlocking period.

The RAVE token is reportedly highly practical, with core uses including governance voting, event ticket payments, artist collaboration licensing, and staking incentives. Event organizers can stake RAVE to obtain brand licensing and participate in revenue sharing; users can stake to unlock VIP privileges, collect digital artifacts, and earn content incentives. A portion of event revenue will be used to buy back and burn RAVE to achieve a deflationary cycle for the token.

The RAVE token model shows that a large proportion of tokens are used for ecosystem and community building. The team's tokens are locked for one year, then linearly unlocked over three years, eliminating selling pressure. Proceeds from RaveDAO activities will be used for RAVE retrofitting and burning. Official data predicts that RaveDAO revenue will reach $6 million in 2026 and $12 million in 2027. The RAVE token has strong growth potential.

Furthermore, for a project with a large number of real fans, RAVE's utility also promotes its liquidity and holding trend, with token staking to unlock rights and token payments having a very large number of application scenarios.

In response, Ron stated that entertainment is one of humanity's most primal and enduring economic drivers. The RAVE token is not a speculative tool, but rather a participation token representing a user's contribution, engagement, and cultural affiliation.

RAVE will also be integrated throughout the entire RaveDAO ecosystem: used for ticketing, consumption, governance, points, rewards, and RaveDAOx community incentives. As the RaveDAO IP expands and ecosystem partnerships increase, the use cases and value of RAVE will continue to grow.

RaveDAO aims to build a participation economy—where participants, producers, brands, sponsors, and volunteers can all gain value and rewards within the ecosystem.

The Future of RaveDAO: Becoming the "Beam" Connecting Web3 and the Real World

Live entertainment events already attract billions of viewers and billions of dollars in spending annually, projected to exceed $40 billion by 2025. However, the culture fostered by live events is rarely used to build communities, accelerate innovation, or generate broader impact beyond the event itself. The impact of simply buying tickets, watching a show, and leaving often ends abruptly when the lights go out, leaving only fleeting moments and memories that rarely translate into long-term community or systemic effects. The widespread adoption of Web3 and the fragmented experience outside the dance floor inspired the creation of RaveDAO, a "bridge" connecting music, community, and Web3. This connection can generate a greater impact than if they existed independently.

RaveDAO was born in a bear market, relying not on fleeting trends, but on execution and unwavering belief. Its successful navigating both bull and bear markets stems from its consistent creation of real value. Every event is a win-win for brands, sponsors, artists, and the community. Between 2024 and 2025, RaveDAO achieved stable profitability, maintained a small but highly efficient team, and continuously expanded its influence. From 200 to 5,000 people, RaveDAO took only one year; from 5,000 to 50,000, it may not take long either.

RaveDAO is becoming the first native entertainment IP originating from Web3 to be recognized by the mainstream entertainment industry. This is not just a cultural experiment, but a cultural movement. Speaking about this, Ron stated that RaveDAO will continue to explore the application of AI in content generation and immersive experiences, but the core remains human. AI handles efficiency, while emotions and resonance still belong to humans.

"In the future, regardless of the market conditions, as long as music exists, Web3 exists, and RaveDAO will exist. RaveDAO wants the whole world to see that Web3 is not just a story on the blockchain; it can be the light that connects people in the real world."