Opinion: The Era of rAlts Is Here—And It’s Time to Call Out the Pretenders

Altcoins Cryptocurrency DeFi

CEO / Co-Founder of SKALE Labs

Jack O’Holleran

CEO / Co-Founder of SKALE Labs

Jack O’Holleran

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Jack O’Holleran is a tech entrepreneur focused on developing blockchain and decentralized systems.

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January 9, 2025

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The Meme vs. Altcoin Debate

Crypto is hot again. BTC is off to the races, and you are now getting texts from friends and family members asking how they can deploy ASAP. These are the same people asking if you were “OK” a few years ago. This energy has brought the “meme coins or Alts” debate to the forefront of many conversations among industry leaders and CIOs of the major funds.

Alt purists say that memes have no intrinsic value and will be gone when the music stops. Meme advocates say that alts are just memes with nice tech window-dressing hiding their predatory economics. The reality is both those perspectives are wrong when expressed in a binary manner. There are and will be more great meme tokens that create a real community. In a way, they are next-generation NFT projects but are more egalitarian. It is just as true that there are phenomenal alt projects with real intentions, value, and delivery. There is clearly a lot to unpack here.

Hype Over Substance: The Problem with Many Alts

To get to the answer, one must honestly ask, “Is the altcoin market just a meme market wrapped in technological jargon”? Meme advocates would have you believe that’s the case. And, to an extent, there’s some truth to that perspective. There are plenty of projects in the space that prioritize hype over substance, where short-lived narratives overshadow long-term utility. But reducing the entire altcoin market to “meme coins with tech labels” is an oversimplification that misses the forest for the trees. Not all alt projects are shallow imitations; some are genuinely innovative ventures laying the groundwork for the next wave of blockchain-based advancements.

However, there’s no denying that the altcoin market is flooded with bad actors. Many projects launch with inflated, fully diluted valuations (FDV), set up tiny circulating supplies to inflate demand, and invest more in PR spins than in delivering genuine value. These projects work hard to secure headlines, not case studies. The focus on grabbing attention over building substance leads to projects that prioritize “narrative market fit” instead of “product market fit.” Their aim is to tell a good story rather than solve a real problem.

As the founder of a blockchain project, I’ve witnessed this dynamic up close. The reality is striking: too many projects devote minimal energy to growing solid fundamentals, instead channeling resources into community building and token marketing alone. They prioritize hype cycles and social media trends, hoping to ride waves of investor enthusiasm rather than develop technology that delivers tangible utility.

This type of project is exactly what the meme coin advocates cite as Ponzi schemes for VC funds and project founders. They admonish and condemn the early price discounts of the insiders and say that these are just meme coins in disguise. In many cases, they are right.

For the past four years, innovation in Web3 has faced an uphill battle within the traditional business ecosystem, with government regulations and enforcement often more punitive than progressive. This atmosphere has inadvertently allowed unprincipled projects, which have no genuine ambition of bringing valuable products to market, to steal the spotlight. Regulatory uncertainty created an environment where speculators could dominate, crowding out legitimate innovation.

But we’re at a turning point where traction and fundamentals will matter. This will be driven by projects that prioritize real technology, transparency, and principles over marketing gimmicks. These aren’t just tokens; they’re backed by communities, users, developers, and teams genuinely committed to building valuable platforms that solve real-world problems. These projects are also making significant strides to attract developer ecosystems and build communities that value substance over flash.

The Era of rAlts: What Sets Them Apart

It is time for the wheat to separate from the chaff. Or, to put it another way, it is time for the real alt (rAlt) projects to deliver and separate from the pack of snake oil salesmen.

The era of the “rAlts” is upon us: These are mature and decentralized alt projects with tokens that carry intrinsic value, sustainable tokenomics, and the ability to navigate markets with liquidity and fundamentals to back them up. These rAlt projects don’t just talk the talk—they walk the walk, delivering measurable progress, fostering meaningful collaborations, and positioning themselves to make a lasting impact. In the next few years, it’s these projects that will stand out as the true leaders of the altcoin space, bridging the gap between blockchain technology and practical, real-world applications.

The rise of the rAlts isn’t just a trend; it’s a movement toward a more sustainable and impactful crypto landscape. Crypto experts, developers, and the wider public should take note—because these are the projects that will shape the future.