When issuing currency becomes an assembly line

Original author: Liam, TechFlow

In 2025, the productivity revolution in the crypto market will not be AI, but issuing cryptocurrencies.

Dune data shows that in March 2021, there were approximately 350,000 tokens on the network; a year later, this number rose to 4 million; and by the spring of 2025, the number had exceeded 40 million.

In four years, it expanded a hundredfold, with tens of thousands of new coins being created, launched, and then wiped out almost every day.

Although the myth that issuing tokens guarantees profits is being shattered, it hasn't deterred the determination of project teams to launch their own tokens. This token issuance assembly line has also supported a large number of agencies, exchanges, market makers, KOLs, and media outlets that provide services. While it may be increasingly difficult for project teams to make money, every cog in this factory has found its own profit model.

So how exactly does this "coin issuance factory" operate? And who actually profits from it?

Coin issuance in six months

"The biggest change in this cycle compared to the last one is that the token issuance cycle has been compressed to the extreme. From project initiation to TGE, it may only take half a year," said Crypto Fearless, a crypto KOL with 200,000 followers who has long been concerned about project issuance, in an interview.

In the previous cycle, the standard path for project teams was to spend a year refining the product, then another six months building the community and promoting the market, until a certain scale of users and revenue data was formed before they were qualified to launch TGE.

However, by 2025, this logic will be completely reversed. Even for star projects listed on top exchanges or teams working on underlying infrastructure, the cycle from concept development to launch can be compressed to within one year or even half a year.

Why?

The answer lies in an industry-open secret: the importance of products and technology has declined significantly, data can be fabricated, and narratives can be packaged.

"It doesn't matter if we don't have users. We can generate millions of active addresses on the testnet, or go to a niche market and boost the download and user numbers on the App Store. We can then find an agency to repackage the rest. There's no need to keep working on the product and technology," Crypto Fearless bluntly stated.

As for Memecoin, it takes "speed" to the extreme.

A cryptocurrency can be launched in the morning and its market value may exceed tens of millions of dollars by the afternoon. Nobody cares about its use; they only care whether it can ignite emotions within a minute.

The project's cost structure was also completely changed as a result.

In the previous cycle, most of the costs for a project, from its inception to its listing, were spent on research and development and operations.

In this round, the project's costs changed dramatically.

The core costs are listing fees and market maker-related costs, including the profits of various intermediaries; secondly, there are marketing expenses such as KOLs, agencies, and media. From project initiation to listing, the money actually spent on products and technology may be less than 20% of the total cost.

Issuing cryptocurrency has transformed from a startup activity that requires long-term accumulation into an industrialized, streamlined process that can be quickly replicated.

From the fervor of "Mass Adoption" to the "Attention is King" mentality, what exactly has happened in the cryptocurrency world in just a few years?

Collective Demystification

If you had to sum up the last cryptocurrency cycle in one word, it would be "demystification".

During the last bull market, people believed that L2, ZK, and privacy computing would reshape the world, and that "GameFi and SocialFi" could bring blockchain into the mainstream.

But two years later, those once highly anticipated technology and product narratives have fallen one after another. L2 is not being used, blockchain games are still burning money, and social networking is still trying to attract new users. Their common feature is that they have no real people.

Instead, the most ironic protagonist was Memecoin. It had neither product nor technology, yet it became the most effective narrative.

Retail investors have been demystified, and project teams have also come to understand the rules of the game.

In the last round, the worst off were not the project teams that "did nothing", but rather those that worked diligently.

For example, a certain blockchain game project raised tens of millions of dollars, and the team invested all the money in game development, hiring top game designers, purchasing AAA-level art assets, and building a server cluster. Two years later, the game was finally launched, but the market no longer cared, the token price plummeted by 90%, the team had no money in its accounts, and announced its disbandment.

In stark contrast, another project, which also raised tens of millions of dollars, employed only a small team and outsourced the demo development, using the remaining funds to buy Bitcoin. Two years later, the demo was still just a demo, but the account balance had tripled.

The project team not only survived, but also has money to continue "telling the story".

Tech-driven companies perish during long development cycles, product-driven companies perish the moment their funding chains break, while speculators, having seen the truth, find "certainty" in a simpler way: create chips, capture attention, and exit liquidity.

After being repeatedly exploited by projects that supposedly "do real work," retail investors have long lost patience and no longer care about so-called fundamentals.

The project team knows that users don't care, and the exchange knows all this too, and the power dynamics are being quietly reshaped.

Winner takes all

Regardless of changing cycles, exchanges and market makers remain at the top of the food chain.

Exchanges don't care about price fluctuations; they care more about trading volume. The profit model in the cryptocurrency world has never been based on price, but on volatility capture.

If we were to choose the most iconic product innovation of this round, the Binance Alpha would undoubtedly be the watershed moment.

According to industry insider Mike, it is a "brilliant design" and even comparable to Binance's second business model revolution.

"It killed three birds with one stone, completely revolutionizing the spot listing model," Mike commented. First, Binance overtook OKX Wallet through Alpha, incorporating on-chain asset issuance into its own ecosystem; second, it revitalized the entire BSC chain, even posing a threat to leading public chains like Solana; and finally, Alpha dealt a devastating blow to second- and third-tier exchanges, causing their listing business to plummet.

The most ingenious aspect is that all Alpha projects essentially serve as fuel for BNB; the popularity of each Alpha project translates into demand for BNB. The fact that BNB prices continued to break new highs in 2025 was no coincidence.

However, Mike also pointed out the side effects: Binance Alpha made listing tokens completely streamlined and industrialized, with many participants not caring what the projects were for, but simply accumulating points, receiving airdrops, and selling.

Mike understands Binance's motivation. Binance had previously attempted to list games and social products that claimed to have millions of users, but the tokens not only performed poorly but also faced ridicule and criticism. "So, we simply used Binance Alpha + Perp to create a standardized listing model that would benefit BNB holders, BSC holders, and exchange users."

The only cost is that the market has gradually abandoned the pursuit of "value" and turned to a full-scale competition for "traffic and liquidity".

With fundamentals becoming less important, price itself has become the new fundamental factor, making market makers, who work closely with candlestick charts, increasingly crucial.

In the past, market makers were more often referred to as "passive market makers," who provided buy and sell quotes on the exchange's order book to maintain market liquidity and earn bid-ask spreads.

But by 2025, more and more active market makers will begin to play a leading role behind the scenes.

They don't wait for market trends; instead, they create them. The spot market is a tool, while the futures market is their main battlefield.

Market makers accumulate shares at low prices while simultaneously opening numerous contracts in the futures market. They then continuously drive up prices in the spot market to attract retail investors to chase the rally. The long positions in the futures market are closed out for profit, followed by a sudden sell-off. Retail investors are trapped in the spot market and their contracts are liquidated. The market makers then use short positions to reap the profits. Once the price falls to the bottom, the market makers accumulate shares again, starting the next cycle.

This volatility-driven model has spawned numerous legendary cryptocurrencies during altcoin bear markets, from MYX to the recently popular COAI and AIA. Each "myth" is a precise double kill for both long and short positions.

However, pumping up prices requires funds, so off-exchange margin trading has become a new big business in this cycle.

This type of financing differs from traditional leveraged trading; it is a "pump and dump financing" specifically for market makers and project teams. The funding party provides cash, the market maker provides trading capabilities, and the project team provides tokens. The profits are then shared among all parties.

KOLs enter the game

Pumping up prices is often the best marketing tactic, but it also requires someone to take over the losses.

Especially as the token issuance cycle shortens, project teams need to quickly generate buzz and build consensus. Under this logic, Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) and the agencies that can recruit and manage them become even more crucial; they act as the "flow valves" in this token issuance pipeline.

Project teams typically collaborate with KOLs through agencies. CryptoFearless claims that the cryptocurrency issuance pipeline is filled with various agencies that can help project teams generate buzz, build market presence, acquire users, conduct promotion, and build consensus.

In his view, "In the current market environment, earning intermediary fees is much easier than developing projects. Developing projects doesn't guarantee profits, but the money spent on issuing tokens is essential. Currently, the agency industry includes people who came from exchanges and VCs, as well as those who transitioned from KOLs and media..."

The reason why project owners are willing to pay intermediary fees instead of directly finding KOLs is twofold: firstly, for efficiency, and secondly, to avoid risks.

Within the agency, there are three levels of traffic classification for KOLs.

Firstly, there's brand traffic. This refers to the fact that top-tier KOLs command different prices than ordinary KOLs because top-tier KOLs have already established their own personal brands, naturally commanding higher prices.

Second is exposure traffic. This refers to the number of people reached by the content, which is mainly determined by the number of KOLs' followers and the number of views generated by the posts.

Thirdly, there's the traffic from buyers. This refers to the number of transactions or conversions completed with the content. Project teams typically calculate the weight of these three traffic tiers based on their needs; spending more money doesn't necessarily guarantee better results.

In addition, in order to form a strong bond with KOLs, the project team has now set up a KOL round in the early stage, giving KOLs a certain amount of chips at a lower price so that KOLs can better complete the "calling" (selling/recommendation).

This cryptocurrency issuance pipeline has become the "new infrastructure" of the crypto industry.

From the exchange's listing review to the market maker's control methods, from the off-exchange margin financing to the agency and KOL/media attention capture, every link has been standardized and proceduralized.

Ironically, this system is far more efficient at making money than the traditional path of product development, user acquisition, and value creation.

Will the crypto market continue like this?

Perhaps not. Each cycle has its own main storyline, and the next cycle may be quite different.

But the form may change, but the essence will not.

Because from its inception, this market has been competing for two things: liquidity and attention.

For each person involved, the more pressing questions are:

Do you want to be the one who creates liquidity, or the one who provides liquidity?