LinksDAO Announce LINKS Token and Buy U.S Golf Course

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LinksDAO Primer ⛳️ 

LinksDAO - The Crypto Golf Club - is an online golf community that launched in 2021 with the goal of owning and operating a golf club.

It’s a goal they achieved when they purchased Scottish Golf Club Spey Bay in early 2023, for a reported price exceeding $750,000.

The community of thousands of golfers raised ~$10.5 million worth of Ether by selling NFTs that provide two levels of membership; Global and Leisure. Their popularity extended into the secondary market, where they have seen 10s of millions of dollars of secondary market NFT sales. The early days of success also saw golf brand Kallaway take an equity stake in the Links Golf Club holding company.

The NFTs provide varying levels of DAO governance and a provide numerous perks. Most notable of which is access to ~450 golf clubs in the Links Play network. The NFTs also give holders access to limited-edition merchandise and discounts from a variety of leading golfing brands.

LinksDAO, the decentralised organization, doesn’t own or run the club. Links Golf Club is a standard company on the front end that takes care of that. The DAO itself is an organisation that votes on whether to move forward with acquisitions and other relevant proposals.

Even though LinksDAO have a predominantly US audience, and the golf clubs their holders have access to are based in the states, the purchase of Scottish golf club Spey Bay received a 88% ‘yes’ vote. More than 4300 votes were cast regarding the proposal to place a bid on Spey Bay, from 953 voters. Despite the NFT market bleeding and many DAOs struggling, LinksDAO have shown impressive retention rates from voters throughout their existence.

After the Spey Bay purchase, LinksDAO turned their attention to scaling through regular ‘Web2’ means — using more traditional membership models.

Fast forward to Q1 2025 and Links have announced two big announcements

1. They’re launching a token — $LINKS

2. They have bought Hillcrest Country Club, doubling their golf club ownership tally.

Before we get into that, let’s summarise what has made LinksDAO a success up until this point:

1. Use NFTs to 1) Raise money and 2) Provide on-chain governance rights for your community: LinksDAO raised $11m in primary sales and have had 10s of millions in secondary sales, which gave them strong runway for their lofty ambitions whilst empowering NFT holders with governance rights to the direction of the DAO.

2. Create tangible value for holders: LinksDAO NFT holders have access to 450+ golf and social clubs in North America. They get discounts from leading brands in the golf leisure and equipment market. They get governance on something tangible; buying a golf course, the goal at launch.

3. Agnostic of market conditions: LinksDAO, unlike many others, didn’t let depressed markets, inflation or NFT interest drying hinder their goal.

4. Achieve your goal: LinksDAO bought a golf course. They found a niche, raised funds via NFTs, created tangible value for their NFT holders and most importantly - achieved the lofty goal they set: buying a golf course.

5. Create Cashflow: The most important point. Most NFT projects thought that continually selling collectibles or relying on secondary market volumes was sustainable. The opposite was proven to be true unless you are in the 99th percentile NFT projects. LinksDAO got ahead of this by opening up their membership offering beyond NFTs, to attract a broader offering — and are now tokenising their offering.

Since its inception, the operational excellence and level of execution they have maintained has been awesome to see.

Everything is done with purpose and at a top-class level. Everything from their social posts, the branding, the NFT holder dashboard — it’s all best in class in the world of NFTs, and most definitely DAOs.

Psst. we interviewed their Co-Founder and head of community Cooper Sherwin on the Sporting Crypto Podcast which you can watch below! 👇️ 

$LINKS Launch 🏌️ 

Now that you're up to speed with what Links is and why it has succeeded to date, let’s discuss their most recent announcement; launching $LINKS — a fungible token. It coincides with the partial acquisition of Hillcrest, a Donald Ross-designed course in Kansas City, subject to DAO voter decision.

The token will launch on the Base blockchain, with a third of its supply earmarked for LinksDAO NFT holders and smaller allocations for members of other prominent NFT communities such as Pudgy Penguins and Bored Ape Yacht Club.

NFT trading volumes have plummeted - with CryptoSlam's NFT Index down nearly 97% since January 2022, so it makes sense that LinksDAO is adapting their strategy to the current market conditions. It’s also unknown how much success the Links team have had with their non-Web3 related growth, and the positioning now changing to ‘The Crypto Golf Club’ — they are doubling down on those who straddle an interest in both the sport and the emergent technology.

Co-founder Mike Dudas said $LINKS will act as “a community token that has deep culture, embedded in the game of golf, whilst ensuring regulatory compliance”.

Fungible tokens and the Base Layer 2 scaling network on Ethereum have been huge winners in this crypto cycle, so directionally this makes sense for Links.

Co-founder Cooper Sherwin said “The goal is to have every single golfer have LINKS in their crypto wallet".

Analysis & Concluding Thoughts 🧠

Until now, LinksDAO have demonstrated that their 'company in the front, community in the back' approach is how online collectives can get stuff done. Unlike many failed crypto projects, they have avoided over-engineering DAO mechanics — limiting member voting to several meaningful decisions per year.

This is crucial because one of the primary failure points I've observed in crypto DAOs is governance fatigue. When projects try to engage their community with weekly or even daily voting, it creates exhaustion instead of meaningful participation. LinksDAO understood that having too many cooks when trying to execute as a top-class business can hinder execution speed.