I've been in the crypto space for many years and always keeping my eyes open for interesting projects. And when I find a project I dedicate countless hours to evaluating it, understanding its intricacies, and ensuring its trustworthiness. However, I feel like the majority of crypto investors are more drawn to hype and empty promises rather than doing their due diligence and investing in projects with real substance. Allow me to illustrate this point with (one of many) a recent comparison I came across. In this example I have removed the names of the projects as I do not wish to credit or discredit one of the projects. It is just an example to make my point.

Project A vs. Project B

Project A

Let's start with Project A. This project has a really great looking and flashy website (kudos to them as it honestly looks amazing), a promising whitepaper, and a laundry list of ambitious plans. They talk about everything from crypto payment gateways to debit cards and DeFi wallets. Sounds great, right? Well, yes, but they haven't released anything yet. The first release mentioned on their whitepaper with an actual utility is Q1 2025. Their final release, and perhaps the most important one (a crypto payment gateway) is being released in Q3 2026. Moreover, their promises include features like crypto debit cards with cashback and without KYC, which is already quite a challenge in today's regulatory landscape. Even more concerning considering they are being released in Q4 2025, when more regulation could be expected. Maybe if there was a great team behind it, it could gain some trust from me. But to top it off, the owners aren't even KYC! For me, this is a major red flag, and the project seems too good to be true. However, it has already raised over 30 million dollars in pre-sales with a starting MCap at launch of $150 million!

Project B

Now, let's turn our attention to Project B. This project may not have the flashy marketing yet and could be greatly improved, but what it does have is substance. Project B is a 2.5 year old project that's already achieved significant milestones. Unlike Project A, Project B already has a working crypto payment gateway processing millions a month, sells crypto debit cards (virtual & physical), offers crypto gift cards, and has a IOS & Android app currently in beta that includes the before mentioned utilities + DeFi and (soon) CeFi wallets. The team behind Project B is fully KYC and have been featured in many podcasts, ama's, etc.

The Revelation (of MCap)

Here's the kicker – despite Project B's achievements, its market cap is significantly lower than Project A's with around $20 million. So what Project A promises to have ready in 2025-2026 is almost completely developed by Project B already, but their MCap is 7x as low. It's mind-boggling to see how investors flock to projects like Project A, driven solely by hype and (empty) promises with a risk as the owners are not KYC, while projects like Project B, which actually deliver on their promises, are undervalued and overlooked. Yes, project B should invest more in marketing, but there is also the task for investors to do proper research.

This contrast between hype-driven investments and projects with substance highlights that the majority of crypto investors aren't doing their research. Instead, they're blindly following the crowd, chasing the next big thing without stopping to question its legitimacy. They do not actively search for new projects, but wait for the new projects to come to them. Let's shift our focus from hype to substance. Let's do our research and invest in projects that truly deserve our support.

What are your thoughts on this issue? What examples of this have you found? I'd love to hear your perspective.

TL;DR:

In my years in crypto, I've noticed most investors prioritize hype over substance. Take Projects A and B as examples: A, with its $150M pre-sale, hasn't delivered anything yet, while B, with only a $20M market cap, has already achieved almost everthing Project A promises to achieve in 2025-2026. This disparity highlights the need for investors to prioritize substance over hype and conduct thorough research before investing.