Industry executives indicate that investors are now prioritizing the usage, economic viability, and value capture of crypto tokens instead of solely their market capitalization.
By Francisco Rodrigues|Edited by Nikhilesh De2 min ago4 min readMake preferred on ShareShare this articleCopy linkX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailMake preferred on CoinMarketCap table showing top cryptocurrencies by market capitalizationSummaryShow- Executives in the crypto space indicate that an increasing number of investors are evaluating tokens based on their market potential, adoption rates, and economic value rather than just their market-cap ranking.
- Wealth managers entering the crypto market are less concerned with CoinMarketCap rankings and more focused on analyzing individual projects.
- Hyperliquid serves as a case in point, as investors assess its HYPE token based on the platform's performance and economics.
According to industry leaders from Bitwise, Wintermute, and the Arbitrum Foundation, crypto investors are increasingly prioritizing metrics like revenue generation, usage, and value capture over mere market capitalization, particularly as perpetual futures continue to influence daily price movements.
During a conversation with CoinDesk, Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley noted that this trend signifies the decline of the era dominated by the "CoinMarketCap leaderboard". In previous cycles, new layer-1 networks were often valued as a fraction of the highest-ranking blockchain, leading to smaller projects being assessed at lower valuations.
Horsley explained that this approach is becoming outdated as investors shift their focus to addressable markets, adoption metrics, and the economic value a project can capture.
He pointed out Hyperliquid as an example, where investors are evaluating the trading activity and economic fundamentals of the derivatives platform when considering its HYPE token, which has appreciated approximately 20% over the past year.
“When we talk to wealth managers at firms that have recently allowed access to the crypto space, they are often unaware of a token's ranking on CoinMarketCap,” Horsley remarked. “That information is irrelevant.”
Perpetual Futures Influence Short-Term Pricing
Wintermute OTC trader Jasper De Maere shared with CoinDesk that fundamentals and trading dynamics vary significantly across different time frames.
He noted that perpetual futures volumes often exceed spot trading volumes for major tokens, while factors like funding, positioning, and liquidations dictate intraday market behavior.
Over the last 12 to 18 months, interest has shifted from infrastructure projects to applications and appchains that align more closely with traditional fintech and venture capital models, according to De Maere.
Fundamentals are gaining importance in sectors such as decentralized finance, perpetual-futures exchanges, and decentralized physical infrastructure networks.
“Fundamentals establish a baseline and shortlist, while trading flows determine the pricing,” De Maere stated. He added that revenue and usage metrics can influence which tokens endure market downturns or are included in investment portfolios, but they do not typically dictate daily price movements.
Data from Wintermute indicates a notable change in the nature of trading, with institutional players comprising about 72% of its spot over-the-counter flow in the first half of 2026, a rise from approximately 59% a year prior.
These trading flows have become concentrated in major cryptocurrencies and a select group of revenue-generating tokens, with tokenized real-world assets emerging as a significant new category, De Maere noted.
“The performance of revenue-generating tokens reflects the increasing importance of fundamentals, but it also indicates that fundamentals are currently the prevailing narrative, attracting more trading flows,” he cautioned. “Distinguishing between the two can be challenging.”
This divergence is also evident when comparing cryptocurrencies to publicly listed companies in the sector. While cryptocurrencies plummeted by 36% in the first half of the year, crypto-related stocks saw a 23% increase, according to a Bitwise market review.
This disparity does not necessarily imply that stocks will continue to outperform cryptocurrencies, but it demonstrates a growing separation between the two sectors.
Evaluating Verifiable Metrics
Brendan Ma, who leads investment strategy at the Arbitrum Foundation, stated that analysts are now more adept at understanding revenue sources, transaction volumes, and value capture than they were a year ago.
“The credible metrics are those that incur a cost to produce and can be verified on-chain,” Ma explained. He highlighted fee revenue, paying users, and capital retained on a network, including stablecoin balances and tokenized assets, as more challenging to fabricate.
Ma cautioned that metrics like address counts and total value locked can be inflated through incentives or automated bots. Increases in transaction volumes are more significant when they coincide with higher fee revenues and user retention rates.
He cited Arbitrum, the network he works with, as a prime example of the in-depth project analysis currently being conducted. The network has completed over 2.7 billion transactions to date, including more than 500 million in 2026, while the Robinhood Chain is generating approximately $40 million in annual revenue, according to the foundation.
As part of Arbitrum’s expansion initiative, 10% of the net protocol revenue from that chain is reinvested back into the Arbitrum ecosystem.
Bitwise’s Horsley mentioned that index products can provide investors with comprehensive exposure to the crypto market without requiring them to select individual assets. His firm, along with others like 21Shares, offers such products.
Grayscale’s head of research, Zach Pandl, noted that bitcoin remains a macro asset closely tied to the demand for alternatives to fiat currencies, while other cryptocurrencies will face more scrutiny regarding their underlying economic fundamentals.
According to Pandl, the future of the crypto sector appears “very bright, as stablecoins, tokenized assets, and decentralized finance tools will drive demand for digital assets beyond Bitcoin in the coming years.”
“A limited number of tokens with robust fundamentals will be pivotal in shaping the next chapter of digital assets,” Pandl added. “Weaker projects with inadequate fundamentals are likely to be left behind.”
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