How to use
- Set monthly marketing spend and the number of tokens distributed
- Specify current token price and monthly new users
- Adjust ARPU (average revenue per user), monthly churn rate, and gross margin
- The calculator shows CAC (including token component), LTV, and their ratio
- Watch for warnings: LTV/CAC < 3 is a risk zone, >70% tokens in CAC means dependency on token price
- Note: in token projects there is a circular dependency (token price -> CAC -> growth -> token price), so results are approximate
- LTV here is undiscounted — for NPV-adjusted LTV, divide by (1 + discount_rate)^months on the average lifespan
- Healthy unit economics: LTV/CAC >= 3 (David Skok rule); top-quartile SaaS reaches 4-6x with payback <12 months (Bessemer State of the Cloud)
- The >70% token-share threshold is a house rule of thumb, consistent with Tomasz Tunguz’s “Tokens as CAC” analysis (web3 CAC runs 3-7x web2 relative to enterprise value)
Calculator
Token Project Unit Economics
Formulas
CAC = (Marketing + Tokens_per_month × Token_Price) / New_Users
- CAC — cost of acquiring one user (computed)
- Marketing — monthly marketing spend ($)
- Tokens_per_month — tokens distributed per month
- Token_Price — current token price ($)
- New_Users — new users acquired per month
LTV = ARPU × Gross_Margin_% / Churn_rate
- LTV — lifetime value of a user, $ (computed)
- ARPU — average revenue per user per month ($)
- Gross_Margin_% — gross margin as a fraction (0 to 1); default 70% for SaaS-like crypto products
- Churn_rate — monthly user churn rate (fraction, >0 to 1)
- Note: this LTV is undiscounted (perpetuity). For NPV-adjusted LTV, divide by (1 + discount_rate)^months on the average lifespan (1 / Churn_rate)
LTV_CAC = LTV / CAC
- LTV_CAC — lifetime value to acquisition cost ratio (computed)
- LTV >= 3 x CAC — healthy unit economics (David Skok rule)
- LTV/CAC in 4-6x range — top-quartile SaaS (Bessemer State of the Cloud)
- LTV < CAC — project loses money on every user
Monthly_net = ARPU × Gross_Margin_% − CAC / Lifespan
- Monthly_net — monthly contribution per user after amortized CAC (computed)
- ARPU — average revenue per user per month ($)
- Gross_Margin_% — gross margin as a fraction (0 to 1)
- CAC — cost of acquiring one user ($) (computed above)
- Lifespan — average user lifespan in months: 1 / Churn_rate (computed)