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Over the past few days, the crypto world has seen a huge wave of new tokens flooding the market. Around 12,000 app tokens have popped up, and investors are struggling to figure out which ones are actually worth their attention. An expert, Yash Agarwal, says that most of these tokens aren’t about real ownership or long-term value — they’re all about capturing attention.
Not Real Ownership, Just Hype
Agarwal, co-founder of SendAI, shared his thoughts on X (formerly Twitter). He explained that real Internet Capital Markets (ICM) tokens should give people ownership in a company, just like shares on the stock market. But right now, most of the tokens launched through the Believe app on Solana (SOL) don’t actually give investors any ownership or share of revenue.
“These tokens aren’t tied to real equity,” Agarwal said. “They’re just attention tokens — and that’s okay, as long as you know what you’re buying.”
This is similar to the boom in meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu back in 2021. Those coins didn’t have much real-world use, but they got tons of attention and speculative trading.
How to Tell Which Tokens Could Succeed
Agarwal shared six things to look for if you’re trying to pick out tokens that might do well:
1️⃣ Virality: Does the app have features that make it easy to share and go viral, like social media integrations or fun challenges?
2️⃣ Founder’s commitment: Is the founder fully focused on the project, or is this just a side hobby?
3️⃣ Listening to feedback: Are the creators improving the app based on what users are saying, or are they just hyping the token?
4️⃣ Real crypto features: Does the app actually use blockchain in a useful way, or is it just using crypto buzzwords to get attention?
5️⃣ Long-term value: Are there features that keep users coming back, or is it just a short-lived trend?
6️⃣ Launch status: Is the app live and working, or is it just an idea that hasn’t been built yet?
Agarwal also pointed out that most launches don’t do well at first — they often don’t live up to the hype. This was true for a lot of NFT projects back in 2021 and 2022, where only a few survived and grew while most faded away.
Focus on Quality, Not Copy-Paste Projects
Another analyst, DeFi Mars, said people should focus on real projects with strong teams and avoid copycat tokens. “Only quality survives!” he wrote. This is a lesson that’s been repeated in crypto many times, like with DeFi in 2020, where only the most innovative protocols lasted.
Miya, another analyst, warned that the Believe app was supposed to replace traditional venture capital by helping startups launch with tokens. But instead, it’s become a hotbed for meme coins. “We need to get past the low-quality hype and focus on real projects again,” she said.
What’s Next for Internet Capital Markets?
Looking ahead, Agarwal said he believes that true on-chain equity is coming soon — where owning tokens actually means you own a piece of the project. This would be a major step forward for crypto, similar to when real-world assets like real estate and art started getting tokenized in recent years.
He also said that more specialized platforms will pop up to highlight quality projects, while new research firms and newsletters could start offering trusted analysis and ratings for tokens — similar to what we see in traditional finance.
While no one knows exactly how things will play out, Agarwal is confident that AI and better research will help the best projects rise to the top. Just like in past crypto cycles, only the strongest will survive and thrive.
