Interview | How to discover a successful DeFi token in 2025: CoinTerminal

CoinTerminal executive Maximiliano Stochyk breaks down the key factors that make a DeFi project successful.

Token launches are easier than ever, which makes good projects harder to spot than ever. As capital becomes more selective, investors are going back to the basics. This means looking at projects with transparency, strong tokenomics, and critically, real revenue.

To gain more insights into what it takes to launch and discover a successful project, crypto.news spoke to Maximiliano Stochyk, an executive at the token launchpad CoinTerminal. Stochyk, who helped crypto founders raise more than $25 million since 2014, breaks down the main factors that make a token succeed.

When you evaluate token launches, what factors make you confident that a project will succeed?

There are three main elements we look at — we call them social proof indicators. They’re critical for building trust with retail and investors.

First is your backers, who are investing in your project. Strong VCs or angel investors give you immediate credibility. If top-tier names are behind you, people take notice.

Second is exchange listings. Liquidity matters. If your token is only on a low-volume DEX, it’s hard to attract serious buyers, and you’ll likely have volatility issues. We prefer projects that have at least one solid CEX listing lined up. It gives your token the exposure it needs and helps balance the natural sell pressure that comes from launchpads and early participants.

Third is distribution — who’s promoting your project? We advise founders on KOLs and influencer strategy. In our experience, smaller KOLs often perform better than the big names. They have tighter communities, better engagement, and more trust. Big influencers can look good on paper, but often underdeliver.

What are some of the fundamentals you look for in a strong token project?

The best projects don’t rely on their token to survive — that’s the first thing we look for. Ideally, the team already has a revenue-generating business model, usually something Web2-based like SaaS or another product with paying users. In that case, the token becomes a tool for governance, growth, or user incentives — but it’s not essential to the survival of the company.

If your entire treasury is being built by selling tokens into the market, you’re creating long-term sell pressure with no natural buying pressure. Eventually, the token value collapses. That’s not sustainable.

Whenever I speak with teams, one of the first questions I ask is: “What’s your revenue model?” Most of the time, they don’t have an answer. They’re just thinking in terms of token price action, hype, and listings. That’s dangerous. You need to have a business, not just a whitepaper and a roadmap.

At CoinTerminal, we’re seeing more Web2 companies come to us with real traction — revenue, users, product-market fit — and they want to expand into Web3 to raise capital, grow their user base, or experiment with tokenomics. That’s a much stronger foundation than trying to build everything around the token.

Transparency is also critical, especially when it comes to treasury management and communication with your community. Founders should be open about how much of the token supply they’ve sold, how they’re using those funds, and what wallets are holding treasury assets.

Ideally, treasury wallets are public, and token movements are visible on-chain. But more importantly, teams should communicate proactively. If there’s a listing delay, or a token sale, or a change in plans — just say it. Silence creates fear, rumors, and community distrust. We’ve seen that the best-performing teams are the ones that stay transparent and consistent, even during tough times.

What’s your take on Web2 companies launching tokens to raise revenue? Is that model working for them?

It’s actually one of the strongest models we’re seeing right now. A Web2 company with an established customer base and revenue is in a great position to enter Web3. They don’t need to rely on token sales to survive, and they already have money for marketing, devs, and operations.

When we talk to these companies, we look at how they plan to use the token. Some want it for governance. Some want it to share revenue with their community. Others use it for user acquisition. The key is that the utility must be real — not just a fundraising excuse.

From a positioning standpoint, it’s much easier to market a profitable Web2 company entering Web3 than a crypto-native project with no traction. The credibility is already there.

Web3 can be much faster. In many cases, it’s easier to raise capital through token launches and launchpads than traditional venture rounds — especially if you have a good narrative and real traction.

That’s why Web2 companies are exploring tokenization. Even if they’re generating millions in revenue, they often still need funding to scale — and Web3 provides a capital market that’s fast-moving, global, and open.

The trick is to enter the space responsibly. If your tokenomics are broken or your utility is unclear, retail will lose trust fast. But if you get it right, you can raise capital and build a strong community at the same time.

You’ve mentioned transparency. What’s the real solution to the lack of transparency in crypto? Is it something teams need to fix themselves, or is this a tech or regulatory problem?

It’s a mix. Some of it is technical — you can build dashboards and tracking tools to show where treasury funds go. A lot of this can be visible on-chain, but as soon as tokens or funds move to exchanges, the visibility drops. That’s where things get murky.

At the same time, teams need to take ownership of transparency. If there’s a delay in a listing, say it. If you sell part of your treasury, explain why. Founders think silence protects them, but it just creates more fear and speculation.

Long term, I think regulators will force this anyway. They’ll start asking projects to disclose how much of their token supply has been sold, where the money is going, and who has control over funds. It’s better to get ahead of that now.

What narratives are driving the market right now? Which ones are hot, and which are cooling down?

Right now, the hottest narrative is RWA — Real World Assets. Anything that bridges real-world value into blockchain — whether it’s tokenized stocks, real estate, or commodities. That’s gaining traction fast.

AI is also still hot, but we’re starting to see some saturation. Everyone wants to attach “AI” to their project, even if there’s no real use case. So the novelty is wearing off a bit unless the AI use is actually meaningful.

GameFi is cold. After the play-to-earn boom and bust, most GameFi projects are struggling. Even the ones with new mechanics aren’t seeing much market traction right now.

How about quantum computing?

Yeah, that’s a good one. There are a lot of new layer-1s coming out that are focused on quantum processing and data computation. We’ve seen at least three or four projects approach us recently that are building around quantum computing concepts. It’s definitely a strong emerging vertical — I think it’s going to grow, 100%.

What’s your biggest advice for DeFi investors — especially those new to the space?

First: Always do your own research. Don’t just trust what’s written on a website. Look at contracts, wallets, volume, TVL — and verify it on-chain if you can.

Second: Diversify. Even if you love a project, don’t overexpose yourself. Hacks happen, exploits happen, and even trusted platforms can disappear overnight. FTX was a huge wake-up call. I had funds stuck there myself, and I was only able to get them out because I had a direct contact and acted fast — but I almost lost everything.

Third: Be skeptical of yields. If you’re seeing double-digit APYs on stablecoins, you need to ask yourself where that yield is coming from. Most of the time, it’s not sustainable. High APYs often mean high risk.

And lastly: Security matters. Many DeFi platforms still require you to manually connect wallets, sign transactions, and store seed phrases. For most users, that’s just too risky or too confusing. The platforms that simplify all of this — where the DeFi backend is invisible — are the ones that will drive adoption.