Believe App’s $BELIEVE Token Launch Backfires Over “Math Error” and Supply Confusion

Believe App’s latest rebrand from $LAUNCHCOIN to $BELIEVE was meant to mark a new chapter for the Solana-based launch platform, but it has instead triggered frustration across the crypto community.

The controversy centers around a supply increase that the team framed as a 25% rise, though simple math shows it’s actually 33%, a discrepancy that quickly became a meme across X.

Token migration turns contentious

The rebrand, announced on October 15, 2025, introduced a migration period running until October 29, giving users time to swap their old tokens for $BELIEVE on a 1:1 basis.

The update was pitched as a necessary move to support “ecosystem growth” and “long-term alignment,” with the total supply set to 1.33 billion tokens, up from the original 1 billion under $LAUNCHCOIN.

However, community reaction was swift and largely negative. Many holders accused the Believe team of inflating the supply while downplaying the increase. Influencers like @cobie weighed in sarcastically: “Personally I believe that 100×1.25 is 133,” calling out what users saw as misleading math.

Others were more direct. One user wrote, “rugging your ecosystem after six months of silence is incredible,” while another called the move “a grift.”

Part of the frustration stemmed from timing, $LAUNCHCOIN’s price dropped nearly 29% shortly after the announcement, and from the perception that Believe failed to communicate transparently about the changes.

The team’s post on X stated that 17% of the new supply would incentivize contributors, 5% would go to early investors, and 3% to the foundation.

Contributor tokens would vest over four years with a one-year lock, while investor tokens would remain locked for a year. Unclaimed tokens, the team said, would later be burned, reducing supply toward 1 billion.

The foundation’s 3% allocation would be unlocked immediately to fund ecosystem operations. The team clarified that any operational spending would come from protocol fees or open-market purchases rather than direct sales of foundation tokens. Despite these explanations, many users remained skeptical.

Founder responds to community backlash

Believe founder Ben Pasternak stepped in to clarify the reasoning behind the token restructuring, acknowledging the communication misstep. “The 25% figure represented the total new supply allocated across groups, not the increase from 1 billion,” he explained on X.

Pasternak defended the change as necessary to reward contributors and sustain growth, noting that Believe had previously avoided early insider allocations to prove traction before distributing tokens.

Pasternak, who originally launched “Pasternak Coin” in January 2025 before it evolved into $LAUNCHCOIN, emphasized that the project had since handled over $6 billion in trading volume and now required a more structured incentive model.

He added that all vesting and lockup periods begin from the upgrade date, and that revenue from Believe’s operations would be used to buy back $BELIEVE tokens o-chain as part of its post-upgrade “flywheel” plan.

The team insists that any unclaimed $LAUNCHCOIN will be permanently burned, and that the token migration aims to strengthen governance and contributor alignment going forward.

Still, the rollout highlights a recurring theme in crypto governance, how tokenomics and communication can make or break community trust.

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