Until now, tokens have had a utility problem created by a hostile regulatory environment. As Vitalik put it in a recent blog post of his:
"a regulatory environment where the more useless your application is, the safer you are, and the more transparently you act and the more clear guarantees you offer to investors, the more likely you are to be deemed a security."
But things are changing, as regulatory signals become clearer and institutional tailwinds propel the industry; these structural issues are ripe for disruption. The largest protocols in crypto now look like global businesses: with revenues, treasuries, users, and balance sheets, and it is time they begin to act like them.
A generation of protocols built enormous economic engines while intentionally avoiding mechanisms that would allow value to flow to the network’s owners. Treasuries ballooned without oversight, and fee switches and burn mechanisms sat untouched despite billions in generated revenue. These were not accidents, they were design constraints imposed by regulatory uncertainty.
But the landscape is changing. With clearer frameworks emerging across major jurisdictions and institutions entering crypto markets through compliant vehicles, protocols are no longer forced to pretend they are not businesses. They can finally align incentives, formalize economic policy, and give token holders the rights they were meant to have. What was once regulatory risk has become regulatory permission.
Simultaneously, the capital base of the ecosystem is being reshaped. Institutions are establishing long-term exposure, bringing with them expectations of economic clarity and governance consistency. At the other end of the spectrum, Gen Z and Millennial investors participate in crypto at far higher rates than previous generations. As the investor base matures, the market naturally rewards projects that behave like accountable, economically rational entities and penalizes those that still rely on opacity, emissions, and inertia.
As the regulatory environment shifts and capital becomes more discerning, the gap between potential value and realized value is measured not in margins, but in multiples.
At Markets, Inc. we see this opportunity and position ourselves at the intersection of governance reform, economic alignment, and fundamental investing. Our strategy is built on the conviction that the most undervalued assets in crypto are not the newest or the loudest, they are the protocols with strong economic engines trapped behind weak governance. We identify these systems early, build meaningful positions, and work directly with their teams and within their governance frameworks to activate the mechanisms that surface intrinsic value. When economic alignment is restored, the market finally sees the business for what it is, and the token begins to reflect the fundamentals it has always had.