Encryption Bull Run Restart, Four Key Points for Selecting Potential Alts in 2025

Recently, the encryption market has shown a bull run atmosphere, and many investors are starting to think about how to find opportunities for excess returns among numerous alts. Unlike the previous bull run in 2021 when almost all alts surged, the current market has launched millions of new alts, making it particularly important to accurately select investment targets. This article will share a selection checklist for encryption projects and key points to pay attention to, helping you seize investment opportunities in the 2025 bull run.

1. Narrative Heat and User Mindset

Looking back at the best-performing tokens over the past 12 months, such as HYPE, VIRTUAL, and some well-known meme coins, we find that they share a common trait of having a very high user mind share on social media and a loyal supporter base. Additionally, the success of most quality projects is often closely related to strong market narratives. For example, VIRTUAL continued to rise during the peak of the AI concept, while meme coins benefited from the prevalence of online meme culture from the fourth quarter of 2024 to early 2025.

Therefore, it is recommended that investors pay attention to the current popular narratives and look for token projects with highly active communities on social media platforms.

2. Growth Metrics

Although market enthusiasm often outweighs fundamentals during a bull run, projects that have both high visibility and product-market fit may present excellent investment opportunities. This is especially true when the main indicators of the project show explosive growth.

Taking the stablecoin protocol Ethena as an example, its TVL grew by 50% within 30 days, attracting the attention of numerous analysts, resulting in its token ENA rising by 154% in a month. Therefore, it is recommended to focus on projects that are in the early stages, have continuously growing data indicators (such as TVL, revenue, transaction fees), and possess a certain level of community interest. Tools like DeFiLlama can be used to discover the fastest-growing projects.

3. Reasonable Token Economics

For medium to long-term investment, token economics is crucial. Before purchasing tokens, attention should be focused on the following aspects:

1. Token Unlocking Table: It is recommended to choose projects where the circulating supply reaches at least 30%, and the annual token release amount (inflation rate) does not exceed 20%-35%. At the same time, projects with large-scale token unlocks in the recent past (such as those exceeding 20% of the current circulating supply) should be avoided.

2. Token Utility: Assess whether the token can benefit from the success of the protocol and its potential for future appreciation. A dividend mechanism or token buyback plan is an ideal solution.

While strong token utility is a significant advantage, it is not a necessary condition. There are also some tokens in the market that have almost no utility but perform exceptionally well.

4. Community First

In the current market environment, projects that adhere to a community-first strategy are more attractive than ever. An increasing number of investors tend to support teams that care about the community, rather than vague and lackluster projects. This is also one of the reasons why tokens like HYPE and PENGU have performed well recently.

The characteristics of community-first projects include:

• Conduct large-scale airdrops
• The team focuses on fulfilling commitments
• The team is active on social media platforms and continuously interacts with the community.
• A large portion of the token supply is allocated to the community.

In addition to the above factors, upcoming major positive developments (such as protocol upgrades, improvements to the token economic model, or new product launches) may also drive the price of the token up, provided that these positives have not yet been fully absorbed by the market.

Finally, it is important to emphasize that even high-quality assets can become poor investments if the purchase price is too high. Therefore, investors are advised to patiently wait for the right opportunity and avoid blindly chasing prices.