The biggest issue with projects on alpha lately is that the opening market cap for alpha targets is set way too high, leaving the project teams with zero motivation to pump. In this kind of market, opening with a market cap of several hundred million means the project team feels safe and has no incentive to pump. Of course, they’re going to dump—coins are just air, but the USDT they sell for is real cash. Projects that pump: low market cap at launch + hype around contract expectations + retail investor sentiment.