My position was part equity, part token warrant. Selling it meant solving two deals at once.
A secondary sale is complicated enough with one instrument. Mine had two.
Angel investor in crypto/web3, ~5 checks in the category
Illustrative composite. A representative scenario built from how angel secondaries commonly play out — realistic numbers, written in the first person, not the record of a specific named person or company.
Deal snapshot
- Side
- Selling
- Sector
- Web3 infrastructure
- Instruments held
- Preferred equity + token warrant (SAFT-style)
- Original check
- $25,000
- Hold before sale
- 4 years
- Equity sold at
- 15% below last round
- Token warrant
- Sold separately, negotiated case-by-case
Two instruments, two different buyers
My original check bought preferred equity plus a warrant for a future token allocation, common structure for infrastructure-layer web3 companies at the time. When I went to sell, I discovered these needed to be handled as two almost entirely separate transactions: most equity secondary buyers had no interest in or ability to value the token warrant, and most crypto-native buyers interested in the token piece didn't want the equity.
Why the token warrant was the hard part
The equity sale was routine — standard ROFR, standard transfer paperwork, a buyer who understood exactly what he was getting. The token warrant had no comparable market price, an uncertain vesting and unlock schedule that depended on a network launch that hadn't happened yet, and murky regulatory status that made several potential buyers walk away entirely.
I eventually sold the warrant separately, months later, to a crypto-focused fund willing to underwrite that uncertainty — at a price built almost entirely on their own model of the token's eventual value, not any market comparable.
What I'd tell someone holding a similar structure
Don't assume one buyer, one process, one price. If your position has a hybrid equity/token structure, budget for two separate sale processes, likely to different types of buyers, on different timelines, and get specialized counsel for the token piece specifically — general startup-secondary knowledge doesn't fully cover it.
What to take from this
- Equity and token-warrant components of a hybrid position usually need separate buyers and separate processes.
- Token warrants often have no comparable market price — expect the buyer's own valuation model to set the price.
- Get specialized counsel for the token piece; general secondary-sale knowledge doesn't fully cover it.
Every angel who has held a position long enough eventually faces a version of this decision. For the mechanics behind stories like this one, see the guide to how secondaries work.