Succeeding as a crypto CFO: Tom Wu, CoinList

If you’re a crypto CFO or work in #web3 finance… You’ll want to read the highlights from our interview with Tom Wu—CFO of CoinList. 

Tom brings years of TradFi expertise to web3, with previous stints in M&A, Equity Capital Markets, FP&A, and more. 

He currently serves as the CFO of CoinList, and we chatted about: 

→ how to handle the hardest parts of crypto compensation 

→ what it means to lead as a web3 CFO

→ his approach to leading web3 finance teams

Tom joined CoinList as CFO in 2023, after a stint at SuperRare that showed him the opportunity to make a larger impact on the crypto industry writ large—and to help projects launch tokens. 

CoinList exists to “accelerate the advancement of blockchain technology” by finding “the best emerging blockchain projects and helping them succeed.” In the past, they’ve supported projects like Filecoin, Solana, Celo, and Algorand connect with hundreds of thousands of new token holders. 

Today, they support “the full lifecycle of crypto investment, from token sales through token distribution, trading, lending, and crypto-specific services”—like staking and other DeFi opportunities. 

As CFO, Tom’s day-to-day role involves charting CoinList’s strategic vision, leading and managing his financial team, as well as maintaining strong internal controls and accurate financial records. 

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The most important qualities for a CFO — especially in web3

For Tom, 2 things matter most: the ability to set strategic vision and the ability to up the best internal control.

1. Strategic vision → the best CFOs ensure that their company or project has “sufficient runaway, such that all other teams can execute their tasks without needing to worry about running out of money.” 

2. Building internal controls → CFOs must know how to build a team of quality accountants and controllers, all of whom can ensure that books and records are kept in the best way possible. This is especially important in web3, given the speed at which things move, the way regulations can change, and the novelty of the technology itself.” 

Ultimately, he explained:

“The best CFOs don’t just collect and store data—they’re able to use all the data they’ve collected to tell the story of what the company can or should do in the future.’"

How to lead as a CFO 

Tom’s most proud of putting the right people in the right position to help them grow.

"We forget that everyone is replaceable, and you want the person working closest to you to actually want to take over eventually. That desire gives them the motivation to do an excellent job—even if they don’t necessarily want the exact position you have, they can go elsewhere and be successful.” 

This sentiment ties in with Tom’s philosophy on team-building generally:

"Great products are built by great teams, which means you can’t attribute everything to the finance person—even if we’re the person who ‘put the numbers together. Sales, operations, compliance, engineering, and product—they all work together to make the engine run. And the finance team empowers them to go ahead and try things, make mistakes, and eventually be able to succeed.” 

Tom views finance as a “team effort—especially in web3, where the finance teams need to navigate a host of complex regulatory and incentive-based hurdles.” 

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Why finance teams are so vital in crypto organizations 

Finance teams are often the unsung heroes of crypto orgs, and that’s because “crypto itself is like a foreign language to many people.” 

Tom explained: “it can be incredibly hard to translate the industry jargon into layman’s terms, but the finance team is in a great position to do that—and it's a huge part of the role.” 

Within a web3 org, the finance team “understands the in’s and outs, gains and losses, and they can translate that data—and its implications—to leadership and to the company.” 

The best web3 financial leaders “take the publicly available information and convert that into something that—hopefully—a normal person can understand.”

To Tom, successful web3 CFOs don’t just “understand the language, but they can translate it in a way that makes sense, and in a way that still abides by traditional rules of bookkeeping accounts, and traditional financial planning and analysis.” 

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How to handle the hardest parts of crypto & token compensation — seeing the full picture

Oftentimes, web3 finance leaders or CFOs need to “set things up from scratch,” and Tom faced this challenge in his early days in crypto: “there just weren’t many great accounting tools—the industry had moved so fast.”

Today, he explained, the hardest part about handling crypto compensation is distribution.

“It’s one thing to write an email telling people you’re giving them X amount of tokens. It's another thing to actually execute that—distribution, and everything that goes along with it, is a huge issue.”

You need to think about: 

• Collecting all their addresses 
• Building or finding a platform that lets you drop those addresses in, or send tokens out via bulk batch transactions 
• Typically, token grants or payments aren’t a “one-time thing,” which means you need to know how to compensate people over 6 months—and how to manage all of that securely and compliantly. 

All while, somehow, maintaining a 30,000 foot view of “everything that’s happening.”

These challenges (and more) make distribution a “massive challenge” for web3 CFOs—many of whom come from TradFi backgrounds, and might be working in web3 for the first time. 

Tom explained how web3 CFOs “need a tool that lets you not just manage the process in terms of calculations (i.e. a spreadsheet that shows you what’s been paid), but a tool that lets you see the whole lifecycle of the process—from initial grant to distribution approval and everything in between.

“You want to see and display all that information visually to really have a handle on the process—and to be able to quickly answer any questions from beneficiaries or regulators.”

The future of web3 finance 

From Tom’s perspective, as we leave the bear market, “we’ll see web3 companies begin to invest more and more into building out dedicated finance teams—and we’ll see a consolidation of tools available to those teams.

To him, financial teams will always play an absolutely crucial role in crypto organizations, as they manage technically complex processes, and translate what’s happening onchain to all members of the team.”

We’re grateful for the chance to chat with Tom, and for the chance to highlight his work at CoinList!

If you're interested in learning more about Tom's perspective and experience, connect with him on LinkedIn.

If you’re looking for tools that help you manage and visualize the entire token distribution and vesting process, drop us a DM, or schedule a demo.

We’d love to show you what Liquifi can do for your finance team!

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