From 2023 to 2025, the “altseason” was promised so many times that even the penguins across Antarctica must be tired of hearing about it. But first, let me repeat what I have already said and written before:

  1. There has never been any real altseason - at least not in the sense promoted by bloggers, influencers/KOLs, and others who benefit from that narrative. Never. Not once.
  2. Altseason itself is essentially the hope of the naïve for a miracle: you don’t need to analyze anything - you simply take an extremely broad portfolio of everything (from meme coins to completely exotic tokens) and wait. In simple terms, you invest $100 and, for no particular reason, become a millionaire. But you have to admit, there are obvious inconsistencies in this scheme.
  3. Finally, the negativity surrounding altseason has played its role: people have almost stopped investing altogether and moved into stablecoins, where - despite facing the same risks (technical, economic, and so on) - the returns are incomparably lower. In simple terms, in pursuit of 10–20% annual yield, they buried entire markets. True, for many these 10-20% feel like 30-40%, yet by 2025 even 10% has become “too large” a number for that same majority.
  4. But the main thing we have almost lost over these past 2–3 years is the most important element: the drive toward real decentralization. After all, the altcoin market is what Web 3.0 and Web3 truly are, while Bitcoin is merely their progenitor. It’s like taking a family of 100 people - including not just children, parents, grandparents, but also uncles, aunts, cousins, and extended relatives - cutting out 99 of them, and saying that this is a “perfectly normal outcome.” Perhaps for “economic” ;) maximalists that may be acceptable, but for the natural evolution of DeFi and other segments of the Web3 ecosystem, the reality is far less bright and smooth.

That is what I want to discuss below - along with investment strategies that actually work. Although, for that, I will also need to include a disclaimer.

Disclaimer

Although below I describe the financial strategy that I personally use (albeit without several important details that I cannot disclose for various reasons), this article is not financial, investment, or any other form of advice. It merely reflects my observations and conclusions.

In other words, you have no right to follow these materials blindly: only DYOR and personal responsibility should form the foundation of your own portfolios (or even indexes).

Maximalism vs. Decentralization

Let me make a reservation right away. For me, Bitcoin is one of the greatest inventions of humanity - comparable to the wheel, writing, or electricity. Moreover, it truly is digital gold, which I have been gradually investing in since 2012.

But! If every one of us becomes a Bitcoin maximalist, there will be no decentralization left, because we will simply turn the Bitcoin network into the only network and BTC into a golden idol. That’s it: yes, internally the network will still remain decentralized, but externally it will become a monolith - one that could cause far more harm than a much more decentralized (in such a scenario) fiat system.

From the perspective of a crypto enthusiast, this is not a reasonable scenario, because it contradicts everything that Satoshi and the early blockchain users started with (and let me remind you, they were not just anyone - they were cypherpunks).

Therefore, an altcoin portfolio is a necessity for each of us, if we truly want development through evolution rather than regression. What exactly those portfolios will contain and who will build them is a completely different question.

And yes, this does not mean buying everything you see. On the contrary! It means that only strict fundamental analysis and value analysis (based on tokenomics) should form the basis for selecting any portfolio or constructing an industry-specific or broader index.

25/4 - Easy to Remember, Easy to Apply

I arrived at this formula a long time ago, back in the era when mining was still something done exclusively by geeks. At that time, the distribution looked like this:

Depending on the stage of the market and other factors, of course, this allocation may change: sometimes you need more cash, and sometimes it makes sense to stash away Bitcoin “under the mattress.”

That’s why 25/4 is an ideal model rather than a one-time commitment, but it helps rebalance a portfolio simply, yet at the same time intelligently and in a timely manner.

Moreover, today it works roughly like this:

At the same time, this refers specifically to the crypto portfolio, since other assets are not included here. For them I use the 70/30 formula, where:

And this is not a “permanent” ratio either - it’s simply an ideal model. If your house suddenly triples in price, that is hardly a reason to sell it and buy more Bitcoin, even if you really want to. And vice versa.

But I have no intention of imposing this formula on you. For me, this level of risk is justified, and my entire cash flow is structured in a way that mainly revolves around crypto-offshore. For you, it may not work at all.

Therefore, my sincere wish is that everyone adds at least 1% of altcoins to their crypto portfolio.

For example, let’s say your total capital is $100,000:

If you add just $500 worth of altcoins, that would be the best possible decision from my perspective as a crypto enthusiast - the best decision in terms of preserving the Web 3.0 / Web3 ecosystem.

4T and Fundamental Analysis in General

Let me remind you that the 4T project evaluation method was developed in DAO Synergis almost 10 years ago. It means that you should gather as much information as possible on the following points:

If at least 3 out of 4 are strong, you can continue working with the project. If not, it’s worth reconsidering whether the risk is justified.

It is also useful to have a “zero filter” - projects you definitely do not work with. For me, that includes everything related to 18+ content, casinos, projects involving various substances (like Paragon), and similar categories. This way you won’t waste time, and when you analyze hundreds of projects per year, that becomes extremely important.

So what comes next? This is where the real selection of altcoins actually begins:

  1. Identify narratives, tendencies, and trends in the market (including side narratives).
  2. Define interesting niches, vectors, industries, or markets - for example DePIN or DeFi.
  3. Select projects where you have conducted a 4T analysis, and begin valuation based on tokenomics and how it connects to real usage.
  4. Only after that decide whether you want to buy the token or not.

At the same time, I always try to ensure that a token enters my portfolio at a price below or close to $0.00. In the crypto sphere there are many ways to achieve this.

Here are some obvious ones:

In this way, without massive investments, you can gain exposure to many more successful projects. With proper holding, this approach contains plenty of growth points.

Let me give several vivid examples: HYPE, MYX, UNI, 1inch, ENS, ARB, OP, STRK, ZK, JUP, APTOS, MON, ETHFI, ENA, ZRO, EULER, VELO, DYDX, and others.

The full list would be much longer. Sometimes the growth is “only” 2-4×, but sometimes it becomes those 100–1000× outcomes. Everything depends on what kind of holder you are and how you choose to evolve within the ecosystem.

Of course, there have been airdrops and reward campaigns that disappointed many people. But personally, I’ve never had a situation where I lost more than $100-$200 on them. Meanwhile, profits of $5k-$15k, even from every 10-20 projects, compensate for a lot - especially when followed by грамотные дальнейшие действия.

You can even find several such examples on the public wallet menaskop.eth (ENS, OP, etc.). And that wallet was originally created purely for testing, sometimes even rather risky experiments.

However, none of this works if you simply “farm airdrops” - meaning you don’t actually understand the project, the trends it follows, and instead try to speculate on the rewards you receive. Of course, even then tens of thousands may occasionally be available, but increasingly rarely, because such wallets are filtered out more and more often (and Sybil wallets even more so). And talking about anything larger becomes pointless.

All speculators, farm operators, and the surrounding “quasi-crypto” community - which is neither really crypto nor truly part of the ecosystem - usually end up with only crumbs from the overall growth. The reason is simple: they follow the same trivial “strategy” - earn as quickly and easily as possible, dump immediately, and move on.

This is precisely what allows people like me to gain something more from assets such as ETH, HYPE, STORJ, or ENS. And you don’t always have to wait years.

In other words, without fundamental and value analysis, this approach simply does not work.

And that is the key difference compared to those who promote the mythical altseason narrative. In that narrative, all you need to do is listen to some “wise guru” who is usually interested in promoting a specific token from a specific project - and then simply wait.

But where that leads, you’ve probably already seen: constant and inevitable losses.

You might argue that even technologically strong and genuinely good projects sometimes fall 90% or more. Yes, that’s true. But that is exactly where the difference between speculation and investing lies. For a speculator, averaging downis almost a meme - a sign that you’re on the verge of madness. For an investor, it is a well-thought-out strategy.

You can even practice right now:
Does it make sense today to buy more of ZRO? ENS? ETH? HYPE? ZEC?

Of course, the tickers that matter should be the ones closer to your own portfolio, not mine. But I think you understand the point.

Here is a concrete example.

Suppose I receive an airdrop worth $15k (from a non-public wallet).

This way the position remains balanced while still preserving upside potential.

What does this approach provide? Quite a lot:

But is this game worth the candle?

Let’s do the math and then turn to… ideology.

Examples from my own practice

RENDER

Even with a simple purchase at $0.04, when the price later reached a peak of $11-$12, one could achieve an enormous 3000% return. And to calm the critics: this is not hindsight reasoning, because even after the public analyses in 2020-2023, it was still possible to obtain a legitimate 3-4× return.

Although, to be honest, discussions framed purely in terms of “multiples” feel somewhat strange to me. In this case, however, the metric is necessary; otherwise, the examples would simply lose their practical relevance.

FET

The same category applies here as well, but in this case there was also token migration, which in itself increased the profit. In addition, there was staking, which, as I mentioned earlier, made even the purchased tokens effectively cheaper.

EULER

This is an example of a token that you didn’t even need to buy → you could earn it by providing liquidity. In essence, you were earning three times:

  1. Directly through the service itself;
  2. Through bonus rewards you received (there was a vesting period and so on, but that’s precisely about the ability to wait);
  3. Through the price growth of the token itself in the end.

For me, this is one of the clearest examples that the simple approach of “don’t sell everything” can bring solid profits. After all, selling at $3 and selling at $14.3 are completely different outcomes, wouldn’t you agree?

VELO

Here is another similar example: you provided liquidity, participated in ve-tokenomics, and received VELO. And then what? You simply waited. And again, the growth could effectively reach 10×. And again it was worth it.

Both examples (EULER & VELO) are an answer to those who try to dump all the incentives, bonuses, and other rewards they receive just to gain a few additional “paper” percentages on stablecoins.

In reality, you are selling your future cheaply.

Of course, you may counter this by saying that “the risks are high.” But I repeat: in DeFi, risks are rarely simple or low anywhere.

The difference is that you take risks for 1-2%, maybe 5% or even 10%, while I take risks for 100% or more.

Whether that difference is significant - that’s for you to decide.

ENS

This is an example of a token where you only needed to wait a little after the TGE to achieve a much higher valuation, although judging by the trading volumes, many participants didn’t make it to the second peak.

And again, the investments were not large. For 5+ domains, I probably paid less than $500 in total over the entire period, while the returns were measured not in four-digit but in five-digit amounts.

Of course, this is a top-tier case that is difficult to replicate, but nevertheless it is a real example from practice.

MYX

In this case there was also a lot of pumped liquidity → this is clearly visible on the chart → just like, for example, in OM. However, the MYX project clearly fit into the side trend of perp-DEXs, so I included it in my experiments and obtained it without direct investments.

Of course, I exited the position faster than most and almost completely, since it is largely outside my usual range of norms and standards. Nevertheless, as an experimental asset, it performed quite well.

HYPE

And finally, here is another example showing that dumping tokens immediately after TGE is not always a good idea: $3 and $53 are very different numbers. Especially considering that these tokens were distributed for trading volume and similar metrics, meaning that there was no need to buy them in the first place.

Taken together, the examples of ENS, MYX, HYPE, and similar projects tell us one simple thing: you never know where the market will go, let alone a specific sector of it.

Therefore, by keeping at least 1% in reserve, you always “risk” becoming a little richer over time.

But if you dump everything cheaply, you may consistently secure decent “golden parachutes,” yet you will never achieve true multiple growth in your portfolio.

DOGE

This altcoin also came for free to many people: through the community, and also through merged mining with LTC. In the end, it turned out to be one of the most effective assets, even outperforming BTC if you look at the lower and upper bounds of its price.

In reality, there are many more examples, but that would be material for a book rather than an article, so let’s move on. I will simply repeat one point: the claim made by speculators and other bad actors that “alts don’t grow” is simply a lie — and a far more blatant lie than statistics themselves.

On one side of the scale we have this narrative, while on the other we see the supposedly “endless growth” of pseudo-altcoins, such as memes, NFT pictures, and similar assets.

Between this Scylla and Charybdis, you will have to navigate more than once. But every successful passage means moving to a new level, because in reality only a tiny minority engages in this kind of disciplined approach.

Yes, there may be around 700 million crypto wallets in the world, hundreds of millions of active users, and tens of millions in DeFi - yet only a very small number of people are willing to build truly long-term and meaningful portfolios.

Just think about that.

So why do we need altcoins?

If earlier, when SOL, ETH, etc. showed multiple growth while Bitcoin delivered relatively small multiples, it still looked reasonable, now for many people it does not. But this is only for those who still stand in the position of a speculator: now he simply trembles not at the word TPS, but Bitcoin or ETF. That is the whole difference.

For an investor and enthusiast it is obvious that without the altcoin market nothing will exist. Not even digital darkness. Let us again turn to examples:

  1. DeFi was once attempted on Bitcoin, but it looked miserable and strange, while Ethereum and the chains that followed managed to implement it. The very bloggers who earn on Uniswap, AAVE, Morpho, Euler, Velodrome, etc. criticize the tokens of those same projects, yet without a token a Web3 service simply does not come into existence: Web2 yes, Web3 no. And this obvious truth is not obvious to many.
  2. NFTs are criticized even more often than decentralized finance, but people forget that: ENS and similar domains are NFTs; concentrated liquidity positions are NFTs; many do not want to accept that VE-tokenomics, so successfully implemented in recent years, is also about NFTs; and so on. And what about (B/b)itcoin? There were NFTs and even a whole concept of "colored coins", but all of it was primitive and insufficient for the market. Yet once these ideas developed in the EVM and non-EVM environment, inscriptions and other solutions appeared inside Bitcoin itself.
  3. Or here are more vectors: GameFi, DePin, DeSci, RWA and so on. I will not even describe them in detail for now - many of them are impossible on Bitcoin by definition, while others would simply never have been born. And all of them are unnecessary and unimportant? I do not think so.

Therefore everything we see in the crypto sphere appeared not thanks to Bitcoin, but largely despite Bitcoin. Yes, this sounds like metal scraping on glass for Bitcoin maximalists, but these are simply facts that are difficult to argue with.

The second risk, after the absence of evolution, is the dominance of stablecoins. It is very strange to watch people who call themselves crypto-something shouting at every corner that stablecoins are the future.

There is no future there: it is the past implemented in the present.

Fiat essence in a new wrapper and nothing more. And if we stop at this point, then everything was in vain: we will never create real electronic cash - we will return to the cash that already exists. Do we need that? I do not think so.

Already today many RWA and stablecoin markets require KYC, block wallets at the first request, freeze and burn tokens, and it will only get worse. Especially together with the emerging "crypto" legislation in the EU, the USA and other jurisdictions.

Therefore betting on altcoins is a bet on a truly decentralized future which on one side opposes the CBDC machine and on the other the stablecoin story which is not any better: the first is promoted by China, the second by the USA. And that is all.

Personally I have no desire to sort between such varieties. Do you?

Conclusions

So once again:

  1. I do not urge anyone to invest "all in" into useless coins and tokens (even leaving 1 percent already puts you ahead of most), but
  2. I say that a reasonable fundamental and value analysis helps to find worthwhile products even in an oversaturated market, and
  3. Moreover only altcoins can provide us with real Web 3.0 and Web3 rather than their substitutes:
  4. The right strategy, a workable plan for fixing profits and deep diversification are your best helpers.

But why then is there so much negativity around "alts"? Everything is simple:

Therefore your alt portfolio, as pompous as it may sound, is a contribution to our common future which can be open, secure, decentralized, interesting, worthy and many other things. But a future where we all "pray" to Bitcoin while forgetting about everything else is not a future but a return to what Satoshi fought against. If you forgot what that was, take a look at the genesis block - reliable storage for the first chain in the world is indeed a defining feature.

That is all from me and

Forward!

P.S.

It’s good that this article sat “in the drawer” for so long: now more than ever the divergence between speculators, investors, and enthusiasts is visible. While the latter two groups are accumulating assets, the former is selling off - and quite “successfully,” including trying to play shorts (and constantly getting caught in short squeezes).

As you can see, both the non-fundamental MYX and the fundamental EULER have dropped quite significantly, yet I kept them in the selection. Why? Because I got rid of MYX, since for me it’s too much hype, whereas I still earn from EULER through incentives, and at any price it, as before, effectively comes to me at 0 (vesting, etc. is merely a test of time and does not affect the entry price).

So now is the perfect time to check who you are: an enthusiast, an investor, or a speculator?..