Why Some Crypto Projects Succeed (and Others Fail): The Power of Real Incentives & Adoption.

Most of the time, if a project isn’t willing to sacrifice part of its funds—whether from its foundation or treasury—for future incentive programs, then you shouldn’t stress yourself trying to hold that token.
Let’s take a look at coins like Solana, BNB, and Ethereum.
If you study them closely, you’ll notice something important behind their success and why they are leading in the crypto market.
For example:
Before Solana gained massive adoption, the team made serious sacrifices. They invested real money from their revenue and allocated a percentage of their tokens from the foundation to support incentives and ecosystem growth.
Same with BNB—they constantly focus on retaining users on their blockchain. They distribute funds (either in cash or BNB) regularly, especially to developers. Every year, you hear about grants and incentives being given out to support builders.
Ethereum has done the same over time—supporting developers and funding growth consistently.
This kind of sacrifice is what strong blockchains did in the past—and what serious upcoming blockchains are trying to replicate today. Some succeed, others fail.
Take TON as an example. Their airdrops like Notcoin and DOGS brought massive attention. Today, even small updates from them get global attention. That’s one of their biggest early wins—millions of users and strong awareness.
Now imagine if Sui or Aptos did something similar. Adoption would come much easier. Right now, many people don’t even know them—but they know TON and how to use it. That’s the power of real adoption.
Unfortunately, many projects fail here because of greed.
When vesting periods unlock, the team dumps tokens.
They don’t support builders.
No grants, no developer tools, no incubation programs.
Even when revenue comes in, they don’t reinvest it into the ecosystem.
So how do you identify a project worth holding?
Look for this:
Are they supporting builders?
Are they providing incentives?
Are they actively pushing for adoption?
This is especially important for Layer 1 networks.
But if you’re holding a token where:
Investors keep dumping
The team keeps selling their allocations
There’s no real ecosystem support
Then honestly, there’s no strong reason to keep holding it.
Most tokens are created just to solve a specific problem.
But for L1 blockchains—if they come with a unique use case (not copy-paste), and they are putting in real effort like mentioned above—you can judge their future direction yourself.
You don’t need to rely on hype or people’s opinions. Just watch their actions.