Written by: Ignas | DeFi Research

Translated by: Saoirse, Foresight News

CoinGecko tracks 17,148 tokens.

But in the current cryptocurrency market environment, how many "investable targets" truly meet the following criteria?

1. Can generate income for holders;
2. Have protocol income, even if not currently distributed;
3. Have a strong narrative and market recognition, capable of surviving a bear market.

I tried to figure this out.

Most of the data comes from DefiLlama, CoinMarketCap, and some protocols that reflect market heat (Dexu, Moni, Lunarcrush, etc.).

I used Claude Code to process the data, aiming to minimize personal bias —

I would have excluded some tokens (such as XRP, ADA, BCH, etc.), but they have gone through multiple cycles and possess sustained vitality due to ample liquidity.

Claude also made quite a few mistakes, and the debugging time was ten times that of writing the article, so the table data is for reference only (link at the end of the article).

The final results:

• A total of 12 categories and 132 investable tokens were filtered;
• Among them, 45 will give dividends to holders (excluding those with extremely low returns);
• Annualized returns flowing to holders: $1.8 billion.

These classifications are entirely based on my subjective judgment of "surviving and having future potential", and you may not agree.

The first key finding: the truly investable cryptocurrency market is tragically small.

And the tokens that can truly make money for holders are almost monopolized by two projects. More details will follow.

Ironically, while compiling this list and checking the tokens one by one, I came to this conclusion:

After repeatedly considering how to approach the cryptocurrency field, examining old and new tokens, and studying new narratives, I believe the optimal risk-reward ratio (R/R) choice in the crypto world is:

Directly buy Bitcoin (BTC).

Then, use "fun money" to continuously try new crypto protocols while continuously learning to use AI tools.

New opportunities will always arise.

Most Worthy Tokens to Invest: Revenue Sharing Types

The mainstream narrative of the current market is:

Projects without income will ultimately die!

Even ETH has a hard time escaping this "value based on income" narrative.

Therefore, the most investment-worthy tokens are those that can share revenue with holders through buybacks, burns, and transaction fee distributions.

I relaxed the threshold to: DefiLlama's 30-day holder income ≥ $50,000.

These 45 tokens bring $153 million in monthly income to their holders,

with an annual total of $1.8 billion.

Top 10 by revenue sharing:

Note: Revenue sharing ≠ holder income on DefiLlama.

For example: EtherFi did not make it to the holder income list, but it has buybacks.

L1 public chains like TRON have been categorized separately.

After the top five, the monthly income quickly drops below $3 million.

If the crypto market continues to move towards the logic of "tokens = stocks",

then the P/S (price-to-sales ratio, market cap/income) will become increasingly important.

• Pump.fun: 1.4 times
• Aerodrome: 3.4 times

By traditional financial standards, these are extremely cheap.

At the current income rate, it can earn back the entire market cap in less than 3 years.

Meanwhile:

• Uniswap: P/S as high as 121 times
• Aave: P/S is even 341 times

Because the market values them much higher than "current income".

Aave finally started buybacks recently, but it only distributes $412,000 per month, while the protocol's monthly income is $10 million. Future governance changes may alter this situation.

Tokens with the lowest P/S:

• Farcaster’s Clanker: 0.9 times
• ORE: 0.9 times
• Yield Basis: 0.8 times
• Pump.fun: 1.4 times
• QuickSwap: 1.4 times

They can all earn back their market cap through income within 3 years.

The most important conclusion:

Hyperliquid + Pump.fun = 69% of all holder revenue!

Among the 45 tokens, only two projects contributed over two-thirds of the cash flow.

This concentration is very thought-provoking.

Ansem's tweet summarizes the investment philosophy of HYPE well:

HYPE:

• Business is growing steadily, with tokens closely linked to income;
• Possesses diversified growth leverage;
• Existing comparable projects perform well;
• Benefits from a market environment of quality tokens scarcity and capital concentration in top projects;
• Strong execution capacity of the team, steady pace, and impressive past performance.

Protocols with Income, But No Dividends Started

There are a total of 16 tokens in this category, with monthly protocol income ≥ $100,000, with income retained in the treasury.

Top projects:

• Lido: $4.3 million per month, TVL $32 billion (proposed staking dividends last year);
• CoW Protocol: $3 million per month;
• Meteora (Solana): $2 million per month;
• Virtuals Protocol: $1.4 million per month;
• Drift: $868,000 per month.

Lido vs ether.fi is an interesting comparison:

• Lido has 10 times higher TVL and 3 times higher income, but LDO holders receive nothing;
• ether.fi distributes $1.5 million to holders through buybacks each month.

If you need to navigate a bear market, you would want the one that can give you cash.

The investment logic for such targets is:

These protocols will eventually turn on the "dividend switch".

Lido has been saying this for many years.

Jito has total monthly fees of $5.3 million, but only $544,000 goes into the treasury.

The gap between total fees and holder income represents opportunity, as well as risk.

Overview of Other Sectors

Exchange tokens (7, total market cap $99 billion, including BNB)

Can make money whether in a bull or bear market. CEX trading volumes may decline, but they won't go to zero.

• BNB: $85 billion;
• LEO, OKB hardly dropped in the 2022 and 2024 bear markets.

Many have buyback plans, but they are not reflected in DefiLlama data.

CEX token circulation ratios are high, further reducing downside risks.

L1 Public Chains (19, total market cap $1.8 trillion)

L1 is the foundational layer.

• BTC: $1.36 trillion
• ETH: $245 billion

I relaxed the standards for XRP, ADA, and especially Cosmos because they have survived multiple cycles, have believers, and possess liquidity, showing sustained vitality.

You may dislike TRON TRX, but it generates $26 million in fees each month — more than Solana and Ethereum combined.

Its performance in this cycle has also been strong, you can check the candlestick charts yourself.

L1 public chains will not disappear, but valuation fluctuations will be immense. Holding risks are the holder's responsibility.

AI and Computation (8, total market cap $5.1 billion)

Most have no actual income, with only one exception:

Venice (VVV): the only AI token supported by subscription and API income for buybacks and burns, having destroyed 43% of its supply.

• Bittensor: $1.9 billion market cap, 128 subnetworks, no protocol income;
• Render, Akash: sell GPU computing power, cheaper than centralized platforms;
• Grass: provides decentralized network data for AI training.

Note: Some AI tokens not listed are currently surging and may be suitable for short-term trading, but it's hard to say whether they are "investable".

RWA Asset Tokenization (7, total market cap $13.5 billion)

Growing quietly, I think the true RWA bull market has yet to arrive.

Canton Network holds 88.57% of RWA on-chain, about $372 billion tokenized assets. However, real-world assets are not as straightforward as they seem.

Chainlink is the key oracle for RWA, but LINK's staking rewards come from inflation and fixed reward pools, not from protocol income sharing.

Chainlink has good revenue, but it goes to node operators and treasury, not directly to holders.

Privacy Tokens (2, total market cap $9.7 billion)

High-risk avenue: either become increasingly important as regulations tighten or be outright banned.

But demand has remained steady regardless of the market conditions.

• Monero: $6.2 billion
• Zcash: $3.6 billion

Meme Coins (6, total market cap $20.8 billion)

Categorizing them as "investable" may be controversial.

But like Bitcoin, they survive on community support.

• DOGE: $15.2 billion market cap, existing for over ten years;
• SHIB, PEPE, BONK, FLOKI, WIF also made the list.

If the market rebounds, they may perform better than high-yield tokens.

Because there is no income ceiling, rather there is no upper limit.

Moreover, they are almost entirely in circulation, with little selling pressure.

Other Categories

• L2 public chains (7, total market cap $3.7 billion);
• DePIN (5, total market cap $50 million): decentralized storage, data collection;
• Oracles / Infrastructure (7, total market cap $1.8 billion);
• Stablecoin infrastructure (4, total market cap $1.1 billion): Ethena leads.

Super Profitable Projects without Tokens

Some of the most profitable crypto businesses have no investable tokens at all.

• Tether: annual income over $6 billion, more than the total of those 45 revenue tokens, all going to shareholders;
• Polymarket: $3.8 million monthly income, without tokens;
• Base: income goes to Coinbase shareholders, may issue tokens in the future;
• Phantom: millions of users, very high fees;
• Circle: USDC issuer, income reflected in IPO;
• Kalshi: regulated by CFTC, no tokens;
• Farcaster: has been acquired, expected airdrop significantly reduced, but tokens may still be issued.

So, how should these insights be used?

The ideal holding targets in a bear market satisfy four points:

1. Have holder income
2. Low P/S ratio (market cap/income)
3. High MC/FDV (circulating market cap/fully diluted market cap)
4. Steady and stable demand

Very few tokens can meet all these criteria.

The closest targets:

• PUMP: 1.4 times P/S, 33% MC/FDV
• AERO: 3.4 times, 50%
• JUP: 7.3 times, 51%
• SKY: 16 times, 98%
• CAKE: 15.1 times, 96%

Low-risk choices:

Exchange tokens: LEO, OKB, GT

Almost entirely in circulation, supported by exchange profits for buybacks, performing the most steadily in a bear market.

High-risk, high-reward:

HYPE: revenue far ahead, but MC/FDV is only 25%.

After excluding long inactive and burned tokens, Coingecko's new statistics drop to 41%.

Tradeable opportunities:

Focus on governance changes:

Bet on projects with income that haven't started distributing dividends yet, turning on the "dividend switch".

Key focus:

Lido, Meteora, Drift, CoW Protocol

Everything else relies on faith.

Do you believe AI computation will go on-chain?

Do you believe RWA tokenization will continue to grow?

I believe it will, but are these tokens the right bets?