a16z crypto Paul Cafiero stated that the technology and crypto industries are entering the "Show Me" era, and the previous model of gaining market recognition through vision, white papers, tokens, and team backgrounds is becoming ineffective. With regulatory scrutiny, industry bad actor incidents, large-scale entry of traditional financial institutions, and the rapid deployment of AI products, external audiences' tolerance for "stories" has significantly decreased.

He believes that after institutions like BlackRock, Fidelity, JPMorgan Chase, and Franklin Templeton entered the crypto and tokenization fields, the threshold for serious projects in the industry has been raised. Project teams now need to showcase real data, on-chain transaction volume, active users, revenue, retention, deployed integrations, and verifiable collaborations. He states that in 2021, perhaps 80% of the market could be convinced by vision and 20% by facts, but now that ratio has been reversed.