You can buy anything with crypto – except for reputation. It’s a quality that can only be earned through the passage of time and hard work. The best crypto projects didn’t just appear overnight and they won’t disappear overnight either. Through perseverance and a focus on shipping products rather than talking prices, they’ve developed a strong foundation and loyal community that will see them go the distance. If only all projects met this mold.
As the number of crypto projects and tokens rises exponentially, so does the rate of failures. On a long enough timeframe, most projects won’t make it, obliging users to be selective about which communities they join. Whether participating as an investor, user, or developer, no one wants to pour their time and resources into a crypto project whose team isn’t in it for the long haul.
This sounds obvious, but identifying projects that keep building come bear times or bull is harder than it seems. On cursory inspection, every blockchain protocol tries to look busy, churning out regular bulletins concerning new partnerships, integrations, and upgrades. While many of these projects are genuine in their efforts, some are merely going through the motions as users and volume slowly atrophy.
The following projects buck the trend, demonstrating clear signs of life and an assured future. Study their playbook and you’ll become adept at rapidly identifying projects whose star is in the ascendancy.
When you’re studying crypto projects for signs of life, skip their homepage and go straight to their blog. The news page should be your jumping-off point. What have they been up to lately? Have they been shipping updates and forming meaningful partnerships or is they’re blog showing tumbleweed? Are third-party developers using their technology and are there real-world use cases with real users? This is the stuff that matters when evaluating project strength.
The following blockchains all meet this criterion, showing signs of meaningful activity that can be used as a yardstick for gauging the communities you join and the tokens you trade.
Payments network Fuse is a hive of activity as a quick glance at a block explorer shows. Hundreds of millions of transactions have been made by businesses and consumers interacting with dapps operating on the Fuse network. The Fuse news page is filled with recent developments including plenty of examples of real-world adoption. From event tickets to savings, Fuse apps are powering a diverse array of use cases, particularly in Africa and the Asia-Pacific where mobile adoption is high.
Scalable blockchain Celo is also in rude health, with ample evidence that its team is building on a long time horizon. Its L2 testnet, powered by a scalable EVM framework, has attracted significant developer interest, while its L1 network has now recorded close to half a billion transactions. With over half a million X followers, regular content, and high engagement, Celo gives every appearance of a project that’s going places.
Stellar is another blockchain that’s been optimized for payments, with a particular focus on remittances. Its low fee environment makes it ideal for transferring digital dollars at negligible cost. As a result, a significant proportion of Stellar’s onchain activity represents remittances. Its recent Q2 report records some impressive benchmarks including growth in wallet addresses and an increase in RWA supply on its network. All of which augurs well.
There isn’t time to study every blockchain ecosystem in depth, but thankfully there’s no need. Finding projects that are actively building doesn’t call for inspecting Github repos and lurking on testnets 24/7. Familiarize yourself with more tangible evidence of meaningful activity. Check for regular community updates, genuine real-world use cases, and rising onchain benchmarks. Check for ecosystem reports, case studies, and new technical papers. And finally, compare the stated roadmap with the actual deliverables.
Once you know the signs, it’s easy to discern the crypto projects that will make it. Follow them and fade the rest.
Despite the bearish market sentiment, crypto whales are showing strong interest in Ethereum (ETH). Data…
March 2025 – In the dynamic world of trading, a solid understanding of key terms…
Even after Pi Network's listings on significant exchanges, its price swings and ongoing essential developments…
The cryptocurrency market has once again found itself under the spotlight, with Cardano (ADA) seeing…
Pi Coin has dropped to an all-time low of $0.51, marking an 83% drop since…
Grayscale, the leading cryptocurrency asset manager, has officially submitted an S-1 form to the U.S.…
