A couple of weeks ago, @Delphi_Digital published our state of token markets report. Putting it together took months of digging through data to diagnose what was happening in token markets. For the first time in a while, we see the path forward for tokens as an asset class and couldn’t be more excited to play a driving role in manifesting this into reality via Delphi Consulting Here are some of my favorite slides from the report: (1) 2024-25 saw a raging bull market, but a fickle one. Most Investors who made medium-to-long term conviction bets ended up on the wrong side of the market. The market participant cohort that won the most were traders that rotated from coin to coin with little conviction. (2) The most positive sign out of this cycle is that the top performers have been tokens with real revenue and cash flow. It’s too early to call for the death of narrative-centric token performance, but the market is very clearly moving into a regime of real capitalism, where revenue speaks the loudest. Narrative-centric token appreciation is short lived and often ends with a drawdown just as violent as the swing up. It becomes obvious that tokens whose platform consistently generates meaningful revenue will win over the longer term. The short-term narrative pumps aren’t going anywhere. In fact, they’ve permeated equities and commodities too. But it’s obvious that these are trades and not multi year holds. (3) The core issue plaguing token markets are emissions and the way they come online. This should be no surprise to anyone. Tokens with upcoming emissions almost always get punished, especially when there are no real catalysts on the horizon. There are a number of creative solutions to mitigate this problem. Performance and liquidity gated vesting are the most powerful, whereas retroactive supply destructions are more posturing than genuine market impact. And tinkering with this is the single most important thing we can do around token markets. (4) Buybacks are now the gold standard in value accrual, but buybacks alone aren’t enough. If supply gets diluted at a rate higher than buybacks take supply off the market, the token’s price still suffers. So the real solution is two pronged: as a project, you must both make a meaningful amount of revenue and allow that revenue to really have an impact on the market (by minimizing supply overhangs). The era of the crypto vibe market is coming to a close. Your business model will be more important than your narrative. And we're already seeing signs that the market will close this loop sooner than most expect.