2024’s Low-Funded Crypto Launches Delivered Top Returns

A new analysis from Tokenomist released today, June 6, has identified last year’s major token launches that identifies a sharp divide between their massive fundraising and actual investor returns.

The report, which covers ten major 2024 projects like ZK, ATH, and Swell that collectively raised over $1 billion, shows that a few of the most successful investments came from projects with the least initial funding, whereas the largest raises left investors deep underwater.

The impressive aspect of ATH is that it attracted just $9 million in investments, yet its Investor fully diluted valuation now stands at $221 million, equivalent to a 24.51x return. Swell, which has just raised $3.75 million, now has an Investor FDV of $24.22 million, providing a 6.45x return. IO and Blast likewise managed to get at least a 4x return with an investment of $30 million or less.

High Funding, Low Returns: Some Projects Fail to Deliver

At the other end of the spectrum, some of the projects with the highest funding have delivered poor returns so far. ZK, for example, received a massive $458 million in funding, but its Investor FDV is now priced at less than half its initial value. Similarly, SCROLL and AVAIL are also struggling to meet expectations, with current returns sitting at just 0.61x for SCROLL and 0.65x for AVAIL.

These projects raised a lot of money before launching, yet they still haven’t met the expectations of their investors. The fact that their performance suffers despite investments proves that raises do not always result in stronger returns.

Small Investments, Big Returns: How Limited Capital Drives Success

The Tokenomist analysis clearly highlights that projects can achieve significant success with more limited initial capital. The impressive returns from ATH and Swell, for instance, came from relatively small raises.

Likewise, the report notes that IO, Blast, and Cloud also delivered strong results for their early investors from fundraising rounds of less than $30 million each. These examples demonstrate that smaller, targeted capital raises can still yield substantial rewards for projects and their backers.

Upcoming Token Unlocks

Investors are also now watching a series of upcoming token unlocks, scheduled between June and November 2025. These events often introduce new market volatility as a large new supply of tokens becomes available to be traded.

Related: June Token Unlocks Top $3.2 Billion: Altcoins SUI, APT, ZRO Brace For Volatility

Several of the analyzed projects have unlocks scheduled soon. ZK, ZRO, Blast, and ATH are scheduled for unlocks in June, followed by Avail, Cloud, and IO in July. Later in the year, Eigen, Scroll, and Swell are scheduled to unlock tokens between October and November.

These approaching dates will likely have investors reevaluating their portfolio strategies in anticipation of increased supply and potential price shifts.