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For over a decade, crypto markets have oscillated between narratives, hype cycles, and bursts of liquidity-driven speculation. Valuation frameworks were thin, inconsistent, or absent. Price action moved ahead of fundamentals because fundamentals themselves were either immature or impossible to measure. But that era is ending. The next phase of crypto’s evolution will be defined not by imagination alone, but by measurable performance. The fundamentals are coming to crypto, and in some corners of the ecosystem, they are already here.
Decentralized finance is leading the way. In fact, DeFi may be the first area of crypto to achieve durable, repeatable, traditional-like fundamentals. The recent Greenfield Capital DeFi Fundamentals Study makes this transition explicit: the most influential metrics for forecasting DeFi valuation growth in 2024–2025 are now total value locked (TVL), protocol fees, revenue, active users, transaction volume, DEX volume, and treasury holdings. These signals mark a visible shift in how investors analyze DeFi, from liquidity-driven hype cycles to sustainable, fee- and usage-based valuation models.
In other words, DeFi is becoming predictable. Not fully, not perfectly, but directionally. TVL mirrors assets under management. Protocol fees look increasingly like revenue. Transaction counts and user activity are proxies for product-market fit. Treasuries provide balance-sheet stability. When these inputs grow consistently, the outputs, valuations, follow. This aligns DeFi more closely with financial primitives than speculative experiments. The sector, which once thrived on yield incentives or retail frenzy, both detached from economic substance, is converging toward real business fundamentals: usage, efficiency, and economic value creation.
This makes DeFi the first evidence that crypto can be understood, measured, and valued in ways familiar to traditional markets. And it opens the door for the rest of the industry to follow.
Not all blockchains share the same DNA. Some are, by design, closer to businesses than public goods or infrastructure. These chains, whether purpose-built or centrally steered, operate with a revenue-extraction mantra. Their economic foundation resembles that of SaaS or platform businesses, where the chain operator, or a small governing group, captures a meaningful share of the value created on the network.
For these blockchains, traditional valuation tools make sense. Discounted cash flow (DCF), revenue multiples, and profitability metrics are entirely applicable because these systems are built to monetize user activity directly. Chains like Solana or Tempo exemplify this category: strong, opinionated architectures with centralized coordination and clear revenue extraction paths. They run like businesses, price like businesses, and can be modeled like businesses.
This is not a criticism; it is simply the correct analytical lens. If a chain is designed to capture value the way a corporation does, then corporate valuation frameworks fit naturally. In fact, this emerging clarity will help investors distinguish between extractive chains, utility platforms, and public goods.
Bitcoin stands alone, a category unto itself. It is the special snowflake that continues to defy the fundamental laws of gravity. It is not valued based on cash flows, user activity, or protocol fees, because it does not generate any of them. Its purpose is narrower yet profound: to be a store of value, a form of digital gold.
Bitcoin’s value is anchored in non-economic fundamentals: monetary credibility, predictability, censorship resistance, and a belief in its future scarcity premium. Its valuation behaves more like a macro asset than a technology protocol. Bitcoin is priced by conviction, FOMO, monetary policy, and global risk perception more than by measurable operational fundamentals.
This distinction matters because Bitcoin’s success does not validate or invalidate fundamentals-based valuation in crypto; it simply occupies a different universe, where monetary premium is the fundamental.
If DeFi is the beginning of fundamentals in crypto, and corporate-style L1s are the business sector, then Ethereum is something else entirely: a global public good. Its closest analogue is not a corporation but the Internet, a permissionless, non-rivalrous, systemically enabling platform on which trillions of dollars of economic activity will ultimately depend.
As a public good platform, Ethereum’s valuation is becoming quantifiable not because it aggressively extracts revenue, but because it enables value creation at scale. Its economic foundation increasingly rests on three measurable dimensions: captured value (fees, burn, staking returns, and protocol-level economic flows), flow value (the magnitude of assets, transactions, and economic activity moving through Ethereum and its L2 ecosystem), and trust surplus (the market premium generated by credible neutrality, decentralization, and global settlement assurance).
These three pillars mirror how the Internet would be valued if priced as an investable asset: the value it captures, the value it enables, and the societal surplus it generates through its openness and reliability.
Fundamentals clarity is coming. Crypto is entering its financial adulthood, and this time, the market will finally have the tools to understand it.
DeFi shows potential for stable, repeatable fundamentals—but without proper financial education, users may stumble. The internet might be our best teacher yet. ⚠️
A clear shift is underway: crypto’s next era will be driven by measurable fundamentals, not narratives — with DeFi, corporate-style chains, Bitcoin, and Ethereum each revealing distinct valuation models for a maturing industry. https://wamougayar.xyz/the-fundamentals-are-coming-to-crypto