Article Highlights
- Accelerated Token Issuance: Significantly reduced time to launch tokens.
- Shift in Cost Structure: Lower importance of R&D, increased listing and marketing costs.
- Collective Disillusionment: Shift in focus from technology and products to memes and hype.
- Dominance of Exchanges and Market Makers: Exchanges and market makers gaining more power.
- Emergence of KOLs and Agencies: The role of KOLs and agencies in marketing and generating attention.
Introduction
The real innovation in the cryptocurrency market in 2025 is no longer driven by AI, but by the ability to issue new tokens. Dune data shows that the number of tokens has surged from approximately 350,000 in March 2021 to over 40 million by the spring of 2025. Despite the fading dream of getting rich quickly through token issuance, countless teams are competing to launch new tokens. This has led to the flourishing of service agencies, exchanges, market makers, KOLs, and media outlets that support this "token issuance factory." While teams are finding it increasingly difficult to profit, each cog in this machine is finding its own profit model.
How Does the 'Token Issuance Factory' Operate?
Compressed Time Cycle
According to a crypto KOL, the most significant change in this cycle compared to the previous one is the extreme compression in the token issuance timeline. It can take as little as six months from inception to token generation event. In the previous cycle, the standard path for a team was to spend a year polishing the product, followed by six months of community building and marketing. However, in 2025, this logic has been completely reversed. Even prominent projects launched on leading exchanges or foundational infrastructure can have a one-year or even six-month cycle from concept to launch.
Shift Away From Product and Technology
The answer lies in an open industry secret: the importance of product and technology has significantly decreased. Data can be faked, and narratives can be embellished. It doesn't matter if there are no users – they can create millions of active addresses on the testnet or inflate the number of downloads and users on a small app store. An agency can handle the rest. There is no need to focus so heavily on product and technology.
Changing Cost Structure
The project's cost structure has also changed dramatically. In the previous cycle, the majority of costs were spent on research and development and operations. In this cycle, costs have shifted significantly. The primary expenses are listing fees and market-making costs, including various intermediary profits. The second is marketing, including KOLs, agencies, and media. Less than 20% of a project's total cost may be allocated to product and technology.
Collective Disillusionment
If we could summarize the previous crypto cycle in one word, it would be "disillusionment." In a previous bull market, people believed that Layer 2, ZK, and private computing would reshape the world, and that GameFi and SocialFi would bring blockchain into the mainstream. However, after two years, the technical narratives and products that were once promising have failed one after another. No one is using Layer 2, blockchain games are still burning money, and social networks are still attracting new users. The common denominator is that they don't have many real users.
Dominance of Exchanges and Market Makers
Exchanges and market makers remain at the top of the food chain regardless of the cycle. Exchanges don't care about price increases or decreases; they care more about trading volume. The profit model in the crypto space has never been about coin prices; it's about capturing volatility. If we had to choose the most representative product innovation of this cycle, Binance Alpha would undoubtedly be the turning point. An industry insider believes it is a "genius design" and was akin to Binance's second business model revolution. First, Binance achieved a leapfrog over OKX Wallet through Alpha by integrating on-chain asset issuance into its ecosystem. Second, it revitalized the entire BSC chain and even threatened leading blockchains like Solana. Finally, Alpha delivered a dimensionality reduction strike to second- and third-tier exchanges, causing their listing business to decline. Most importantly, all Alpha plans were essentially feed for BNB, as the heat of each Alpha plan translated into demand for BNB.
The Role of KOLs and Agencies
A pump is often the best marketing, but it also requires someone to pick up the slack. In particular, as the token issuance cycle becomes shorter, teams need to gain momentum and garner consensus in a short period of time. In this context, KOLs and agencies that can gather and manage KOLs have become even more important. They are the "flow control valves" in the token issuance production line. Teams typically collaborate with KOLs through agencies. According to a crypto KOL, the token issuance production line in the crypto circle is filled with numerous agencies that can help teams generate hype, do marketing, acquire users, do public relations, and build consensus.
Conclusion
Will the crypto market continue like this forever? Maybe not. Each cycle has its own main storyline, and the next cycle may be very different. However, the form may change, but the essence will remain the same. Because this market has been about competing for two things since its inception: liquidity and attention. For everyone involved, the most important question to consider is: do you want to be the person who creates liquidity or the person who provides it?
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