Crypto Assets Market Status: Alts Continue to Fall, Searching for Real Returns Becomes Key

Since early 2025, the overall performance of the cryptocurrency market has been sluggish. Not only have the alts on exchanges continued to fall, but even the on-chain tokens that performed well in the fourth quarter of last year have also faced significant declines.

Taking AI Agent related tokens as an example, the main coins have seen an astonishing fall in less than three months:

• Virtual fall 79.2%
• Ai16z fall 85.5%
• AIXBT fell 68%
• Griffain fall 80.3%
• Buzz fall 72.4%
• Fartcoin falls 67.5%
• ARC fell by 62%
• Swarms fall 45%

Although it cannot be definitively concluded that the AI Agent track has failed, the loss of investor attention has become a fact, and it will be difficult to attract it back in the short term.

The fall in the celebrity coin sector is even more severe. Since the peak, the fall of major coins is as follows:

• Trump falls 77.1%
• Melania fall 91%
• Vine fall 92.7%
• jailstool fall 93.5%
• Jellyjelly fell 98%
• CAR fell by 98.5%
• Libra fell 94.3%

Compared to AI Agents, the fall in celebrity coins is more severe. In the current market environment, which lacks new narratives, what problems are these two once-popular tracks facing? Is there still a possibility for a resurgence?

Current Narrative Dilemma: Concept Hype Prevails, Lack of Substantive Applications

The main issue in the AI Agent track is that most projects are still in the conceptual stage, lacking usable and scalable products. Even when some projects launch operational services, there are issues such as complex interfaces and poor user experience, making it difficult to attract ordinary investors for long-term use. Worse, some project teams overly exaggerate their promotions to cater to market expectations, while actual applications have yet to materialize. Over time, investors lose patience, funds begin to withdraw, leading to a significant fall in the prices of related tokens.

The celebrity coin track is facing the problem of "diminishing celebrity effect." Although Trump initiated this wave, the subsequent participation of other politicians, internet celebrities, and stars could not replicate the initial heat. The market's enthusiasm gradually weakened, leading to the ephemeral characteristics of the celebrity coin track, and investors' confidence quickly dissipated.

The deeper reason for the significant fluctuations in these tracks lies in the fact that most projects remain at the level of hype concepts, lacking real sustainable revenue models. Whether it is AI Agent or celebrity coins, their core narratives overly rely on short-term funding and popularity, lacking the motivation to encourage long-term user participation. Once the hype fades, it becomes difficult to maintain the price and attract new funds.

Finding real yield projects has become key

In the current market environment where the narrative is weak, the key to standing out lies in finding projects that offer "real returns" and are "willing to share with users." The so-called "real returns" refer not only to short-term gains at the time of listing but also to the ability to continuously generate returns through actual business models and trading behaviors, and to feedback these returns to token holders or ecosystem participants.

A certain decentralized perpetual contract trading platform is a very good example. The business model of this platform is similar to that of centralized exchanges, with the main revenue coming from contract trading fees. However, the difference is that the platform uses 100% of the fee for repurchasing platform tokens. Since trading fees are directly related to trading volume, this model closely ties the coin price to the product usage.

According to data platform statistics, the 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 current market downturn, the platform still maintains a very high level of activity. This is also why, in the recent general fall of alts, the platform's token price remains relatively strong.

No matter how popular a narrative is, it will eventually pass. What can exist in the crypto market for the long term are those projects that find product-market fit ( PMF ), have high user stickiness, and possess real profit. When choosing investment targets, investors need to pay more attention to the actual application value and sustainable development capabilities of the projects.