Recently, I’ve been looking at projects, not just how well they can spin a story in their PPTs, but first checking their treasury spending records. Where the money is spent basically reveals everything: whether they are continuously investing in development, security audits, community tools—things that are “not so glamorous but useful”—or if they start holding big meetings, shooting promotional videos, and releasing merchandise as soon as they hit milestones... To put it simply, milestones are not just written in the roadmap; they are reflected in the spending rhythm.

Another small detail: teams that are serious about their work will clearly explain “how much money was spent, what services were purchased, and what will be delivered next,” not afraid of questions; those that are less stable tend to hide behind the phrase “ecosystem development.” Recently, everyone has been complaining about miner/validator income, MEV, and fair ordering, which I also understand well—when on-chain rules change, retail investors are the first to get hurt… So now I care more whether the project has genuinely allocated its budget to these hard issues, rather than just storytelling. Anyway, I’d rather go slow than get involved in those hype-and-run projects.