Recently, I’ve been pondering a question: why do some people only focus on hundredfold tokens, while ignoring the allocation value of tenfold tokens? This is actually a matter of balancing risk and reward.

First, the conclusion: in a bull market, altcoins are less likely to go to zero, but there are indeed cases where they underperform in gains. Those targeted hundredfold tokens tend to have small market caps and are not yet fully recognized by the market. Later on, they either skyrocket far beyond a hundred times or perform poorly or even result in losses. The problem is that, due to lack of capital attention, institutional hype, or major team mistakes, the token price can be temporarily sustained by bullish sentiment, but the project is actually already dead—just waiting for the bull market to end and reveal the truth.

Therefore, my strategy is to allocate both tenfold and hundredfold tokens simultaneously. Tenfold tokens are likely to ensure you profit in a bull market, even if their upside isn’t huge, they have a guaranteed lower bound. The criterion for choosing tenfold tokens must be projects whose fundamentals are already recognized by the bull market. The benefit of this approach is to use the stability of tenfold tokens to hedge the risks of hundredfold tokens.

Regarding the standards for tenfold tokens, I first exclude a few tracks: leading public chains like Bitcoin and Ethereum, privacy coins, IoT, wallets, and other concept tracks, as well as decentralized derivatives, lending, storage, and DAO sectors that lack innovation. Besides these, the leading projects in other sectors are very promising as tenfold opportunities.

Take DEXes as an example. The all-time high market cap was $110 billion, now it’s only $14.57 billion, still nearly 8 times below the previous high. Uniswap itself has innovations like V3 and UniswapX, so a tenfold upside isn’t a problem. The same applies to new sectors: L2 solutions like OP, with a current market cap of $2 billion, and Polygon, which once reached $26 billion at its peak, still has about 3.5 times room to grow. I am optimistic about the undervalued status of Layer 1 projects like Polygon, and simple buys can start at tenfold potential.

So, how to select tenfold tokens outside of Layer 1? My criteria are three dimensions.

First, confirm the project is still alive. Check CoinMarketCap for trading volume, whether the price trend is normal, and which exchanges list it. On-chain, look at liquidity, social media activity, and genuine interactions on Telegram and Discord.

Second, assess the background strength. See if there’s real discussion and high attention on YouTube and Twitter. It’s better if the project has its own channel, and if the founders or team have appeared publicly, that’s even better. Check ChainBroker for whether investment institutions are reputable, and visit the official website and Dextool to see if trading volume and TVL are steadily increasing.

Third, examine tokenomics. Look at the FDV and MC of circulating supply versus max supply. If the token will be released in large quantities soon and approach full circulation, focus on FDV; if the number is too high, it’s not conducive to explosive growth. If the token release is limited, then look at MC. The best projects in the sector may not be top-ranked now, but their technical and fundamental expectations reflect undervaluation.

Another detail is the token price. The lower the price per token, the stronger the retail investor’s buying psychology. So try to find tokens priced below $1, like SHIB back in the day, where hundreds of dollars could buy billions of tokens. This kind of feeling is very attractive for later investors to follow the trend. Regarding listing methods, fair launch is fair but may lack subsequent funding, so project hype becomes critical; pre-minted tokens depend on VC and team lock-up periods—conscientious projects won’t sell large amounts early.

Check whale holdings on blockchain explorers. Early large whale accumulation can actually help the token price, indicating a market maker controlling the supply, which is good for price manipulation. Token utility is crucial—look into the whitepaper. Projects with strong utility tend to have larger upside potential; air tokens with no utility, no matter how good the project, can’t move the price.

By strictly following this sector screening standard, you’re likely to find your hundredfold tokens. But after finding them, continuous observation is necessary—regularly check news and project updates, compare progress against the roadmap. Pay attention to news about token utility and token burn mechanisms, as these are short-term positive signals. Frequent news reports suggest the project is gaining popularity or spending on marketing, both of which are worth monitoring for secondary price movements.

This is my entire framework for selecting tenfold tokens. The criteria for hundredfold tokens are similar but more stringent; I’ll elaborate on that next time.