Revenue Comes to Crypto

If I have a dollar to invest in a stock or a crypto token, how do I decide? I need to compare across the two.

Historically, that comparison was impossible. Crypto traded on a potent cocktail of hype, narrative, & the promise of a decentralized future. Perception drove valuations.

That’s changing. The word “revenue” is no longer verboten in the world of crypto. It’s becoming the goal.

This trend will unlock the next wave of institutional capital because investors can compare the risk/reward of crypto with the same metrics as other software companies.

Look at Hyperliquid, a decentralized options/perpetuals exchange. It’s on a $650M+ annualized revenue run rate, trading at a 60x multiple. This valuation is rich compared to public fintech companies like Coinbase (13x) or Robinhood (24x), but it’s based on comparable tangible financial performance.

The same is true for blockchains: Optimism & Arbitrum trade at 40-60x revenues. Amazon Web Services or Azure, if they were to be spun out as separate entities, would trade at 20-30x.

Phantom, a brokerage app¹, has generated $394m in lifetime revenue, most of it in the last 6 months.

The list is still small. Fewer than 40 apps generate more than $1m. But the ones that do can generate hundreds of millions.

This is the future of crypto. A future where revenue generation is the goal.

This does not mean the attention economy is dead. Hype will always be part of crypto. But the projects that attract the next wave of capital will combine a compelling narrative with a sustainable business model. They will show a clear path to revenue & trade on revenue multiples - likely elevated relative to the rest of software because of the explosive growth potential.

The message for builders is clear: focus on fundamentals. Build a product people want, that solves a real problem, & that generates real revenue. That revenue provides the capital to fuel crypto’s next chapter.

Read the original post that inspired this one here.