Nothing beats putting your money where your mouth is. When project teams actually hold their own tokens—especially with long-term lockups—it sends a real signal to token holders. Skin in the game changes everything.

Now, I'm not saying every dev needs to drop 10% of their portfolio into the project token. I get the practicality issues around that. But the principle matters: team incentives and community incentives need to point in the same direction. Without it, you're just hoping people care about your project, not ensuring it.

The specifics vary by project stage, market conditions, and individual circumstances. But when teams are genuinely committed holders, not just maintainers, the whole ecosystem tends to run smoother.