Web3 Market Correction: Focus on Promising Projects and Risks of Low-Quality Airdrops

This summer, no plans to relax. Projects like Blum, Humanity Protocol, Hyperlane, Zora, Rivalz, Kiloex share a common trait—they distribute low-quality airdrops and then fade away quietly. Interestingly, Binance Alpha isn't solely responsible for this trend. Instead, it's viewed as a correction in the 'normalization' of airdrops, reflecting a broader restructuring of the entire Web3 market. The industry appears to have overheated with countless new Layer 1 and 2 solutions, DEXs, and re-staking protocols. Over the past 2-3 years, thousands of projects attracted massive investments, launching countless startups and bringing millions of ambitious individuals eager for profit. This led to a significant hype cycle, with projects launching weekly in 2024, resembling mass production. The early phase, where drops from Starknet or Polyhedra created weeks of buzz, has shifted to a much quicker, less impactful cycle—people now focus less on individual projects because of the sheer volume. Many projects now aim to profit from this pump, often giving minimal or no drops, and the community's attention shifts swiftly from one project to another. The market is flooded with low-quality projects that exploit naive investors, especially when high-value projects are listed on lower-tier exchanges while lesser projects manage to distribute airdrops via Binance Alpha. This ongoing pattern will likely persist until investor disillusionment peaks, with projects merely collecting funds and disappearing—like Kiloex, Humanity, Rivalz, and others. Therefore, selecting projects carefully for future gains is crucial, with a high risk of encountering scams. Fortunately, some projects still show real potential, such as Superchain, L0, Plume, various nodes, Farcaster, Base, testnets, and platforms like OpenSea. Notably, Kaito has recently caught attention—after talking with insiders, it shows promise as an undervalued project. Despite the market's chaos, this could be an interesting avenue for exploration, and progress can be followed on Twitter.