Have you ever wondered how Web3 projects that have no real revenue and no visible products can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each month on events? How their valuations can easily reach billions? Tiger Research has dug into the survival logic behind this, and frankly, it’s a business built on investors’ losses.

**99% of projects are basically naked**

Looking at Token Terminal’s data is enough to be heart-wrenching—there are only about 200 Web3 projects worldwide, and in the past 30 days, their revenue has exceeded $0.10. What does this mean? The vast majority of projects can’t even cover the cost of renting servers. They’re not really doing business; in simple terms, they’re just relying on issuing tokens and fundraising to stay afloat.

**TGE is like an early "great escape"**

Traditional corporate IPOs aim to grow bigger and stronger, but Web3 projects’ token issuance (TGE) often serves the opposite purpose—exit. Many teams haven’t even developed their products yet, but they rush to issue tokens. Taking advantage of inflated valuations, they attract liquidity. For founders, once the tokens are issued, whether the project succeeds or fails doesn’t matter; what matters is they’ve cashed out through the tokens and achieved "financial freedom." Isn’t that ironic?

**A dilemma with no way out**

Projects face two paths. Focus on the product? Development takes a long time, market enthusiasm cools, and funds run out. Focus on marketing? Short-term traffic can be generated, but eventually, the project will collapse due to lack of real support. Most projects choose the latter—very simple, because coding is much harder than marketing, and short-term results are invisible.

**The top 1% is the true mirror**

The real survivors are just a small handful. What makes them different? That’s what’s worth paying attention to.