Tokenomics is shifting from inflation-driven incentives like ICOs and liquidity mining toward models backed by real protocol revenue and sustainable cash flows.
Case studies such as GMX, Uniswap, Aave, Lido, and EigenLayer highlight five different paths, from direct fee sharing to strategic caution and frontier experimentation.
The next era of tokenomics will balance regulation, sustainability, and governance design, turning tokens into financial assets tied to verifiable performance rather than speculation.
FROM “TOKENS MEAN GROWTH” TO “CASH FLOW IS KING”
In the early years of crypto, tokens were seen as a quick fix for everything. Launch a token, and you could raise money. Add incentives, and TVL would shoot up. ICOs, liquidity mining, airdrops, governance tokens – each wave convinced people that issuance itself was the product, and inflation could buy adoption.
The ICO boom of 2017 was the first big example. Any team with a whitepaper and a token contract could raise millions within weeks. Token value came from narrative alone, not from revenue. When the 2018 bear market hit, most of those projects collapsed, leaving investors with worthless coins.
Three years later, DeFi Summer 2020 repeated the cycle. Compound launched COMP liquidity mining, and within weeks DeFi TVL exploded. Uniswap, SushiSwap, Yearn and many others followed, offering APYs of 100% or even 1,000%. OlympusDAO promised thousands of percent APY with its “3,3” meme. Terra’s Anchor protocol went further, paying 20% on stablecoin deposits. For a while, it felt like free money. But none of it was backed by sustainable revenue. When conditions changed, the collapse was brutal: OlympusDAO’s token lost over 99%, Anchor’s model ended in the UST death spiral.
These failures forced a blunt question: when the subsidies stop, will users stay and pay for the product itself? The answer was usually no. Inflation could not replace real demand. This painful lesson gave rise to a new narrative: “Real Yield.” Investors began to favor projects that paid sustainable cash flows from real revenue, not endless token printing. The focus shifted from telling stories to showing numbers, from hype to financial results.
THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF REAL VALUE
Real Yield is not just a slogan. It is a system that links protocol activity to tokenholder benefit.
The first block is sustainable protocol revenue. Just as companies need sales, protocols need transaction fees, lending interest, staking rewards, or liquidation penalties. Without paying users, there is no foundation for value.
The second block is value return. Revenue must flow back to tokenholders in some form. This can mean dividends in ETH or USDC, buyback-and-burn programs that reduce supply, or treasury accumulation that governance later reallocates. Binance’s quarterly BNB burns are a classic case. Ethereum’s EIP-1559 made ETH deflationary in high-demand periods by burning base fees.
The third block is governance alignment. Pure “governance tokens” with no revenue share proved weak in bear markets. Curve’s veCRV model offered a solution: voting power tied to lockup time, plus a share of fees. Long-term lockers had more say and received steady rewards. This turned governance into an economic game, creating the “Curve Wars” as projects bribed veCRV holders for votes. Governance became valuable because it controlled real incentives.
The fourth block is supply discipline. Inflation must follow a clear schedule and purpose. High inflation without revenue support leads to a death spiral. OlympusDAO showed this. By contrast, MakerDAO used revenue from stability fees and real-world assets (RWA) to buy back and burn MKR, creating a transparent and sustainable value cycle.
When revenue, value return, governance, and supply discipline come together, tokens stop being speculative coupons and start functioning as claims on cash flow. That means investors can value them like stocks, with P/E ratios, revenue multiples, and comparable analysis. Platforms like Token Terminal are growing because the market now wants to measure tokens with the same tools used in equity markets.
FIVE CASE STUDIES, FIVE DIFFERENT PATHS
GMX is the cleanest example of Real Yield. It runs a perpetuals DEX on Arbitrum and Avalanche. Seventy percent of fees go to GLP liquidity providers, and 30% go to staked GMX holders. Rewards are paid in ETH or AVAX, not in new tokens. This gives holders real income as long as trading continues. Investors can even apply valuation ratios, since revenue and distributions are visible.
Uniswap took a different path. Since 2020, UNI has only been a governance token. All trading fees go to liquidity providers. A “Fee Switch” parameter exists but has never been activated. The hesitation comes from fear – of losing liquidity, and of U.S. regulators treating dividends as securities. The outcome: Uniswap processes billions in volume, but UNI captures almost none of that value. UNI has become a perpetual option – it might be worth more if governance changes one day, but until then it is disconnected from cash flow.
Aave represents evolution. At first, AAVE was for governance and staking in the safety module. In 2023, the team introduced Fee Switch 2.0: lending spreads, liquidation income, and MEV revenue would begin flowing back to AAVE holders. The DAO would fund regular buybacks, and stakers would receive rewards in ETH or stablecoins. This marked a shift from chasing scale to focusing on profit. Aave became more like a bank that cares about its bottom line, not just TVL.
Lido chose caution. It is the largest Ethereum staking protocol. Users stake ETH, receive stETH, and earn yield. Lido charges a 10% fee: half for node operators, half for the DAO treasury. LDO holders govern that treasury but do not get direct payouts. The reason is partly legal and partly systemic. As the entry point for one-third of Ethereum staking, Lido cannot risk over-financializing its governance token. LDO’s value is tied more to strategy and expectation – the belief that governance could one day unlock direct returns – but not yet.
EigenLayer represents the frontier. It lets ETH stakers “restake” to secure external services like oracles or bridges. Those services pay fees. In theory, this is a new model: “security as a service.” But the EIGEN token’s role is still unclear. Is it a revenue claim, a governance tool, or both? The market does not yet know. If EigenLayer succeeds, it could push Real Yield into a new domain: turning security itself into a monetized public good.
Together, these five cases show five paths. GMX demonstrates direct revenue sharing. Uniswap shows restraint and delay. Aave shows reform and upgrade. Lido shows strategic caution. EigenLayer shows experimentation. Each is a different answer to the same question: how to give tokens real value.
THE ROAD AHEAD: BETWEEN REGULATION AND SUSTAINABILITY
The shift to cash flow does not remove all obstacles. The first is regulation. Once a token pays dividends, it looks like a security. That is why Uniswap hesitates. Many projects choose buyback-and-burn instead of direct payouts, hoping to balance value return with legal safety.
The second is sustainability. Real Yield only works as long as the business works. If trading drops or lending slows, revenue falls. During the 2022 bear market, even GMX’s ETH payouts shrank. Real Yield is not a magic shield; it is simply honest yield. Protocols need resilience: multiple revenue streams, reserves, and counter-cyclical buybacks.
The third is governance. veCRV created long-term alignment but also bribery markets. The challenge is designing governance that rewards commitment without creating distortions. Lockups, time-weighted voting, and contribution-based rewards are some of the ongoing experiments.
Meanwhile, new trends are expanding token cash flows. MakerDAO is investing treasury assets into U.S. Treasuries, bringing off-chain yield back to MKR. Frax links ETH staking yield to FXS buybacks. Cross-chain and modular protocols may need to aggregate revenue across many ecosystems. Each adds complexity in accounting and compliance.
If tokenomics before 2020 was driven by narrative, the new era is grounded in business fundamentals: cash flow, capital discipline, governance, and regulatory strategy. Stories still matter, but they must be backed by results. Growth is still attractive, but it must be measurable and sustainable.
The most durable token models will not reject inflation entirely. They will use it in early phases to spark adoption, then phase it out as revenue grows. They will not promise endless rewards. They will deliver verifiable cash flows.
Sitting idle for the next bull run is not enough. Protocols must build cash flow. Telling stories is not enough. They must show distribution. The next chapter of tokenomics will belong to builders who hardwire value loops into code and governance, turning tokens into real financial assets instead of speculative coupons.
〈The Next Chapter of Tokenomics: From Inflationary Stories to Cash Flow Reality〉這篇文章最早發佈於《CoinRank》。
