I noticed an interesting trend in the crypto market — it seems the era of pure speculation is slowly fading into the past. More and more investors are shifting to strategies where the main focus is on real income and rewards in tokens, rather than just hoping for a price increase.

According to Castle Labs, this shift is quite noticeable. Prices are falling, money is leaving ETF funds, projects are shutting down, and venture funds have become much more cautious. Key events from October of last year shook the market significantly, and simultaneously gold is steadily outperforming Bitcoin — this also prompts a reevaluation of investment approaches.

The most telling data comes from DeFiLlama. Out of the five and a half thousand protocols they track, only 3.5% earned more than one hundred thousand dollars in the last month. And less than one percent of the income is distributed among token holders at all. This indicates that most projects in the crypto market have yet to learn how to generate real value.

But there are positive examples. Hyperliquid, Pumpdotfun, Tron, Sky, Jupiter, Aave, Aerodrome — these are protocols that truly earn and share profits. Investors are beginning to evaluate them using price-to-sales ratios and yield for holders, similar to traditional economics.

I also note that major financial players like NYSE, Robinhood, BlackRock, and Franklin Templeton are increasingly entering the crypto market. This is a sign that the market is maturing. Now, the value of a project is determined not only by hype but also by its actual ability to generate income. It’s worth keeping an eye on protocols demonstrating real profitability — they could become the new leaders in this cycle.