8Blocks (8blocks.base.eth)

📊According to CoinGecko, around 5.3 million tokens were launched in 2024 on Pump.fun alone. Not listings. Actual deployed tokens. In 2025, Solana launchpads averaged 26,000-56,000 new tokens per day. Even by rough estimates, that’s 10–15 million tokens a year in one segment. Here’s the key point: most of these tokens can’t have a product by definition. Not due to lack of effort, but because product development and distribution simply don’t scale as fast as token deployment. Tokens with real utility (fees, access, security, real cash flows) aren’t launched in millions. They’re launched in hundreds per year. Across sources, the split looks like this: • ~50–200 tokens with real utility • ~200–600 tokens with partial utility Everything else exists because launching a token is cheaper and faster than building even a basic product.

• 0 replies
• 0 recasts
• 0 reactions

CoinGecko analyst Shaun Paul Lee points out that memecoin prices fell sharply after the events of October 10. But the problem is not October. And it is not crises or Black Swans either. Meme coins, like many other tokens, fall for a much simpler reason. They have no utility. They are simply not needed. Demand for meme coins is driven by marketing budgets and market makers. As soon as the cost of keeping a meme alive exceeds the revenue from its trading, teams don’t improve the product. They launch a new meme. Crises can accelerate the fall to zero. But tokens stay there not because of macro events, but because of their irrelevance. We have already covered this earlier. Now look at the scale. 🤯 11.6 million tokens launched in a single year. That is 31,780 tokens every day. No weekends. No holidays. At that pace, you barely have time to come up with a name, let alone build real tokenomics.

• 0 replies
• 0 recasts
• 0 reactions

Why isn’t DeFi making money where the money already is? 💸🤔 Crypto prices today move with U.S. macro data. Trading feeds are full of strategies tied to the same indicators traditional markets watch: rates, inflation, jobs, even oil inventories. That’s because prices are driven by large, professional investors. And for them, crypto is just one option in a broader portfolio. Most DeFi projects still ignore this reality. The Fed cuts rates. Liquidity gets cheaper. Bonds and deposits stop paying. Capital looks for alternatives and flows toward crypto. Investors usually choose one of two paths: buy tokens, or park capital in DeFi. This should be DeFi’s moment. For investors leaving bonds, passive yield with relatively low risk is exactly the right offer. They buy USDT, deposit it into Aave, earn yield and leave. The AAVE token isn’t required. The money arrives. The token economy doesn’t. DeFi could extract far more value from rate-cut cycles. For now, it’s letting that opportunity slip.

• 0 replies
• 0 recasts
• 0 reactions

Everyone’s asking why Telegram is selling $TON. The more interesting question is how $TON got here in the first place. The story starts back in 2018. That’s when Durov launched the $GRAM token ICO and raised $1.8B from investors. At the time, it was one of the loudest rounds the industry had ever seen. Then 2019 happened. U.S. regulators stepped in. The GRAM launch was blocked. The ICO was ruled unlawful, largely because U.S. citizens had participated in the sale. That’s where the rollback began. Telegram had to return the money to investors. But Durov had already spent it. To deal with the fallout, Telegram raised $1B through eurobonds to cover part of the refunds. Not long after, a “non-affiliated” nonprofit showed up in Switzerland – the TON Foundation. Years pass. But debts don’t disappear. And that’s where things get interesting. In March 2026, Telegram has to repay that same $1B in bonds. If not from TON, where exactly is that money supposed to come from? 😈

• 0 replies
• 0 recasts
• 0 reactions