The emerging sectors of the crypto market are experiencing a chill, and investors need to choose real return projects cautiously.

Since 2025, the overall performance of the crypto market has been poor, with not only small coins on exchanges under pressure, but also the on-chain tokens that performed well in the fourth quarter of last year facing significant declines.

Data shows that mainstream AI-related tokens have seen astonishing declines this year: Virtual down 79.2%, Ai16z down 85.5%, AIXBT down 68%, Griffain down 80.3%, Buzz down 72.4%, Fartcoin down 67.5%, ARC down 62%, and Swarms down 45%. In less than three months, these once-popular projects have dropped by more than 80%. Although it cannot be definitively concluded that this sector has failed, the significant decrease in market attention is an undeniable fact.

Another once-hot track - celebrity coins have also encountered a Waterloo. After falling from their peak, Trump is down 77.1%, Melania is down 91%, Vine is down 92.7%, jailstool is down 93.5%, Jellyjelly is down 98%, CAR is down 98.5%, and Libra is down 94.3%. Compared to AI tokens, the decline of celebrity coins is even more severe.

What are the main issues currently facing these two tracks? In the absence of new narratives, is there still an opportunity for the market to break through?

The dilemma of AI-related projects lies in the fact that most are still in the conceptual stage, lacking practical and easily promotable products. Even if some projects have launched usable services, they often struggle to retain users due to complex operations and poor user experiences. Worse still, some project parties exaggerate their promotions to meet investor expectations, resulting in actual applications failing to deliver on their promises.

The celebrity coin track has encountered the problem of "celebrity effect decay." Although the joining of a certain political figure once sparked a frenzy, subsequent celebrities found it difficult to replicate the initial heat and market sentiment. As the following effect weakened, this track has shown characteristics of being short-lived.

The fundamental reason these sectors have fallen into significant volatility is that most projects only stay at the level of hype concepts and lack sustainable profit models. Whether it's AI or celebrity coins, their core narratives overly rely on short-term capital and popularity, lacking the motivation to engage users in the long term. Once the hype fades, it becomes difficult to maintain prices, let alone attract new funds into the market.

In the current market environment, investors should focus on projects that have "real returns" and are "willing to share with users". The so-called "real returns" are not merely reliant on speculative bubbles at the time of listing, but instead can continuously generate returns through actual business models and trading activities, and feed these returns back to token holders or ecosystem participants.

A certain decentralized perpetual contract trading platform is a typical example. The business model of this platform is similar to that of centralized exchanges, with the main revenue coming from contract trading fees. The difference is that this platform uses all the fees for repurchasing the platform's tokens, closely binding the token value to the product usage.

According to data, the platform accounts for about 45% of the total trading volume of all decentralized exchanges for perpetual contracts in a 24-hour period, with an average daily trading volume of $3.78 billion and daily revenue of about $1 million. Even in the current market downturn, the platform still maintains a high level of activity, and its token price has therefore performed strongly in the recent environment where altcoins are generally declining.

No matter how hot the narrative is, it will eventually fade. What can exist in the crypto market for the long term are those projects that find the product-market fit, have high user stickiness, and generate real profits. When choosing projects, investors should pay more attention to these factors rather than blindly following short-term trends.