The alts market is sluggish, and investors need to cautiously look for projects with real value.

Since the beginning of 2025, the cryptocurrency market has shown overall weak performance, with not only alts on exchanges experiencing significant declines but also previously high-performing on-chain coins not being spared. This downward trend is reflected not only in AI-related projects but also in the celebrity token sector, which has suffered a heavy blow.

Taking AI projects as an example, several well-known tokens have experienced a decline of over 60% in just three months. Among them, Virtual fell by 79.2%, Ai16z dropped by as much as 85.5%, and AIXBT also decreased by 68%. Although this significant pullback cannot directly determine that this sector is worthless, it does reflect a noticeable decline in market attention towards this field.

The situation in the celebrity token market is even more severe. Following the surge brought by Trump-related tokens, various celebrity tokens have emerged, but they subsequently faced even more brutal declines. The Trump token has fallen 77.1% from its peak, Melania has dropped by 91%, while some lesser-known projects like Jellyjelly and CAR have evaporated over 98% of their value.

The main reason for this situation is that many projects are still stuck in the conceptual hype stage, lacking substantial applications and sustainable revenue models. AI projects often have grand visions but lack user-friendly and widely promotable products. Celebrity tokens face the issue of diminishing "celebrity effect," making it difficult to continuously attract the attention of investors.

In the current market environment, investors should focus on projects that can generate real returns and are willing to share with users. These projects not only profit from the rise in token prices but, more importantly, continuously create value through practical business models.

A typical example is a decentralized perpetual contract trading platform. This platform adopts a business model similar to centralized exchanges, with its main revenue coming from contract trading fees. The difference is that the platform uses all the fees to buy back its native token, thereby closely linking the coin price with actual business performance. According to data platforms, this platform occupies about 45% of the 24-hour trading volume share in the perpetual contract DEX market, with an average daily trading volume of $3.78 billion and daily revenue of about $1 million. Even in the overall market downturn, this project has maintained a relatively high level of activity, and its token price remains relatively stable.

Overall, no matter how hot a concept may be, it will eventually cool down. Projects that can exist long-term in the crypto market must have a good product-market fit, possess high user stickiness, and be able to continuously generate actual profits. Investors should pay more attention to these fundamental factors when choosing projects, rather than blindly following short-term hype.