Income Capture: From Meme Coin Decline to New Logic of Encryption Investment

Recently, the success of the Pump.Fun platform has sparked a strong demand in the market for tokenized assets. Users hope to conveniently tokenize various things for different scenarios. The revenue scale of Pump.Fun has become the most explosive revenue event on-chain, following traditional perpetual contracts and spot markets.

However, the pure Meme coin era is coming to an end. In the future, it will become increasingly difficult, if not unsustainable, to issue a purely meme, non-revenue token. The market is moving away from newly launched pure Meme coins and towards those that claim to have real value.

The two most common value return models in the current encryption market are buybacks and dividends. The buyback model is particularly popular because it directly returns project value to token holders. Projects like Hyperliquid have demonstrated their sustainability and market appeal through the buyback model.

From the perspective of market expectations, users have already accepted: for a token to have value, it must capture protocol revenue. A token project that is "high market cap, low circulation, and without value support" is now a dead end.

In the current market environment, only projects that truly possess products, revenue, and users can build token value. The entire market has entered a high-quality development cycle.

New investment logic has emerged in the venture capital field. Early-stage financing has become more difficult, but projects that truly want to develop in the long term still have the opportunity to gain support. Areas such as stablecoins, DeFi, and consumer-grade wallets are forming an on-chain economic flywheel.

Consumer-grade encryption applications are also receiving renewed attention. Projects that allow users to stay on-chain and establish self-asset sovereignty are the most favored.

At the same time, some funds that only invest in infrastructure are criticized for their actions. They are accused of being arbitrage tools that do not create long-term value for the industry.

For venture capitalists, the role of individuals and teams in the encryption sector is more important than in any other field. The original intention of a project may change, but the team's capability often determines the success or failure of the project.

However, the level of respect for the spirit of contracts among encryption founders is generally lower than that in traditional industries. Even if a legal contract is signed, the terms may be modified once the project is successful.

The encryption market is highly volatile and unpredictable, which can lead to extreme gains, but there are also many failure cases. Investors need to learn emotional regulation and have a long-term perspective.