Analyst Identifies 3 Altcoin Sectors Positioned to Survive Market Shakeout

The days of altcoins making money from token launches and hype alone are over.

This is according to CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju, who says there are now only three categories that can survive into the future.

The Era of Narrative-Only Tokens Is Over

The analyst made his blunt assessment in an early Wednesday thread on X, where he started by pointing out that “altcoins aren’t dead,” but those that only made money from selling narratives would soon disappear from the crypto world.

He then made a structured case for why a selective exposure to a small subset of the asset class still makes sense in 2026, putting emphasis on those with real revenue, real businesses, and alignment with where global finance is actually heading.

The first category he identified is what he called “global internet companies with tokenized market layers,” where he pointed to Binance’s BNB Coin and the TON blockchain’s recently rechristened GRAM token. According to Ju, such tokens are backed by businesses with revenue, have an established user base, and have shown long-term operational commitment. He suggested that for such companies, it sometimes made more sense to issue a token and list it on a crypto exchange than to pursue traditional equity listings.

The second group the market watcher identified were DeFi protocols also with actual revenue. Here, he namechecked Hyperliquid’s DEX, noting that tokens from such “high-quality” projects can still offer huge upside, especially if the teams behind them are credible, they have money coming in, and their governance systems respect holders.

Highlighting Hyperliquid was no mistake on Ju’s part, considering the HYPE token associated with the platform has been doing crazy numbers lately, jumping over 31% in the last seven days and almost 70% across the last month. That push, supported by ETF inflows and strong trading activity tied to SpaceX-linked perpetual contracts, saw it reach a new all-time high just above $76 on June 16.

Lastly, the analyst also suggested that projects “aligned with broader financial trends,” including stablecoins and real-world asset tokenization, as well as AI agents, which he believes could be a “major growth area.”

Market Shifts Push Investors Toward Utility and Revenue

Ju’s take reflects a wider change in crypto markets, with the speculative sectors that dominated past cycles currently struggling for traction. For instance, data recently published by CryptoRank showed that meme coins, which once boasted a collective market cap north of $135 billion, have seen their value shrink to just $24.5 billion in the last two years, with the sector falling by about 31% this year alone.

Meanwhile, according to the on-chain technician, there’s been growing interest in stablecoins and tokenized stocks, sectors which, in his view, are showing where blockchain technology can support actual business activity rather than just speculative trading.