Just had a chat with the GP of a Web3 fund I invested in a few years ago. Since there hasn’t been any returns yet, I wasn’t feeling too optimistic initially, but after the conversation, I feel much better. To sum it up: projects that have already issued tokens and listed on CEXs mostly didn’t survive long enough for institutional unlocks—they’re basically dead. However, a small number of projects pivoted in time to focus on generating revenue and have reached profitability or better. These projects now have more confidence for future token issuance or IPOs. Especially a few AI-related ones—they’ve completely abandoned plans to issue tokens. As pure AI projects, their valuations could increase dozens of times. This feels like a snapshot of the industry as a whole. Web3 has already gone through two to three years of the “bad money driving out good money” phase, peaking during the pump-up frenzy. After another year or two of bad projects naturally fading out—like when most second-tier and below CEXs shut down—only then will valuable projects have a chance to be rediscovered and properly priced by the market. Until then, just mess around with AI or hold onto $BTC and chill.