Which assets are worth focusing on in a bear market?

A total of 12 categories and 132 investable tokens have been identified, with 45 of them providing dividends to holders.

Written by: Ignas | DeFi Research

Compiled by: Saoirse, Foresight News

CoinGecko tracks 17,148 tokens.

But in the current crypto market environment, how many “investable assets” truly meet the following criteria?

1. Generate returns for holders;
2. Have protocol revenue, even if not yet distributed;
3. Have strong narratives and market recognition, capable of surviving a bear market.

I’m trying to clarify this issue.

Most data comes from DefiLlama, CoinMarketCap, and some protocols reflecting market heat (Dexu, Moni, Lunarcrush, etc.).

I processed the data using Claude Code to minimize personal bias ——

I initially would exclude certain tokens (like XRP, ADA, BCH, etc.), but they have gone through multiple cycles and maintain ongoing vitality thanks to sufficient liquidity.

Claude still made many errors; debugging took ten times longer than writing the article, so the table data is for reference only (link at the end).

Final results:

• A total of 12 categories and 132 investable tokens;
• 45 of them distribute dividends to holders (excluding those with extremely low yields);
• Annualized returns flowing to holders: $1.8 billion.

These classifications are entirely based on my subjective judgment of “can survive and have future potential,” which you may not agree with.

The first key insight: The truly investable crypto market is painfully small.

And the tokens that can actually make money for holders are almost monopolized by two projects. Details below.

It’s funny—while organizing this list and verifying each token, I concluded:

After repeated reflection on how to approach the crypto space, review old and new tokens, and study new narratives, I believe the optimal risk-reward (R/R) choice in crypto is:

Buy Bitcoin (BTC) directly.

Then, use “play money” to experiment with new protocols while continuously learning to use AI tools.

There will always be new opportunities.

Most worthwhile tokens to invest in: Revenue-sharing types

The current mainstream narrative is:

Projects without revenue will eventually die!

Even ETH struggles to escape this “value based on income” narrative.

Therefore, the most valuable tokens for investment are those that can return profits to holders through buybacks, burns, fee sharing, etc.

I’ve relaxed the threshold to: DefiLlama holder yields ≥ $50,000 over 30 days.

These 45 tokens generate $153 million monthly for holders,

totaling $1.8 billion annually.

Top 10 in revenue sharing:

Note: Revenue sharing ≠ holder income on DefiLlama.

For example: EtherFi isn’t on the holder income list, but it has buybacks.

L1 chains like Tron are categorized separately.

After the top five, monthly yields quickly drop below $3 million.

If the crypto market continues to follow the “tokens = stocks” logic,

then P/S (market cap / revenue) ratios will become increasingly important.

• Pump.fun: 1.4x
• Aerodrome: 3.4x

From a traditional finance perspective, these are extremely cheap.

At current income levels, they can recoup their entire market cap in less than three years.

Meanwhile:

• Uniswap: P/S as high as 121x
• Aave: even higher at 341x

Because market valuation far exceeds “current earnings.”

Aave recently started buybacks, but only distributes $412,000 monthly, while protocol monthly revenue is $10 million. Future governance changes could alter this.

Tokens with the lowest P/S (market-to-sales ratio):

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

All can recover their market cap within three years through earnings.

Key conclusion:

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

Among the 45 tokens, just two projects contribute over two-thirds of the cash flow.

This concentration is worth considering.

A tweet from Ansem nicely summarizes HYPE’s investment philosophy:

HYPE:

• Business is continuously growing, tokens are highly tied to revenue;
• Has diversified growth leverage;
• Comparable projects perform well;
• Benefits from a market environment with scarce quality tokens and capital集中于头部项目；
• Strong team execution, steady pace, impressive track record.

Projects with protocol revenue but no dividends yet

There are 16 such tokens, each with protocol revenue ≥ $100,000/month, with income retained in the treasury.

Top projects:

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

A notable comparison: Lido vs ether.fi:

• Lido’s TVL is 10x higher, revenue 3x higher, but LDO holders get nothing;
• ether.fi distributes $1.5 million monthly via buybacks.

If you want to survive a bear market, you’d prefer the one that pays you.

The investment logic for these assets is:

These protocols will eventually turn on the “dividend switch.”

Lido has been promising this for years.

Jito’s total monthly fees are $5.3 million, but only $544,000 go into the treasury.

The gap between total fees and holder returns represents opportunity and risk.

Other sectors overview

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

Profitable in both bull and bear markets. CEX trading volume may decline but won’t go to zero.

• BNB: $85 billion
• LEO, OKB: held up well during 2022 and 2024 bear markets.

Many have buyback plans, just not reflected in DefiLlama data.

CEX tokens have high circulation ratios, further reducing downside risk.

L1 chains (19 tokens, total market cap $1.8 trillion)

L1 is the foundational layer.

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

I’ve relaxed standards for XRP, ADA, especially Cosmos, as they have survived multiple cycles, with believers and liquidity, maintaining ongoing vitality.

You might dislike TRON (TRX), but it generates $26 million in fees monthly—more than Solana and Ethereum.

This cycle also performs strongly; check the K-line yourself.

L1 chains won’t disappear, but valuation volatility will be huge. Invest at your own risk.

AI and computing (8 tokens, total market cap $510 million)

Most have no real income, except one:

Venice (VVV): the only AI token supported by subscription and API revenue, having burned 43% of its supply.

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

Note: Some unlisted AI tokens are surging now, suitable for short-term trading, but whether they are “investable” is uncertain.

RWA tokenization (7 tokens, total market cap $13.5 billion)

Growing quietly; I believe the true RWA bull market has not yet arrived.

Canton Network controls 88.57% of on-chain RWA, about $372 billion in tokenized assets. But real-world assets are not as simple as they seem.

Chainlink is the key oracle underlying RWA, but LINK staking rewards come from inflation and fixed reward pools, not protocol revenue sharing.

Chainlink’s revenue is good, but flows to node operators and treasuries, not directly to holders.

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

High-risk sector: either becomes more important with stricter regulation or gets outright banned.

But demand remains stable regardless of market conditions.

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

Meme coins (6 tokens, total market cap $20.8 billion)

Classifying them as “investable” may be controversial.

But like Bitcoin, they survive on community support.

• DOGE: $15.2 billion, over ten years old;
• SHIB, PEPE, BONK, FLOKI, WIF also listed.

If the market rebounds, they might outperform high-yield tokens.

Because they have no income ceiling, and almost no cap.

And they are almost fully circulating, with little selling pressure.

Other categories

• L2 chains (7 tokens, $370 million);
• DePIN (5 tokens, $50 million): decentralized storage, data collection;
• Oracles / infrastructure (7 tokens, $1.8 billion);
• Stablecoin infrastructure (4 tokens, $1.1 billion): Ethena leading.

Projects that make huge money without tokens

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

• Tether: annual revenue over $6 billion, more than the sum of the 45 yield tokens, all going to shareholders;
• Polymarket: $3.8 million/month, no token;
• Base: revenue goes to Coinbase shareholders, may issue tokens in the future;
• Phantom: millions of users, very high fees;
• Circle: issuer of USDC, benefits reflected in IPO;
• Kalshi: regulated by CFTC, no token;
• Farcaster: acquired, airdrop expected to be significantly reduced, but may still issue tokens.

So, how should you use this information?

The most ideal holdings in a bear market meet four criteria:

1. Have holder returns
2. Low P/S ratio (market cap / revenue)
3. High MC/FDV (circulating market cap / fully diluted valuation)
4. Stable ongoing demand

Few tokens satisfy all four.

Closest options:

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

Low-risk choices:

Exchange tokens: LEO, OKB, GT

Almost fully circulated, supported by exchange profits and buybacks, most stable in bear markets.

High-risk, high-reward:

HYPE: leading in yields, but only 25% MC/FDV.

According to new Coingecko stats excluding long-dormant and burned tokens, it drops to 41%.

Trading opportunities:

Monitor governance changes:

Bet on projects with revenue but no dividends yet, turn on the “dividend switch.”

Focus on:

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 so, but are these tokens the right bets?