I've spoken with several Alts project teams over the past few days, and they all mentioned launching futures and spot trading this year. Most said they'd break even or make a small profit. Breaking even means the selling portion of the tokens covers spot margin, channel fees, early investment, and other related costs. Making a small profit means they've secured funding from active market makers; otherwise, they have a profit on paper but can't cash it out; or they've amicably parted ways, receiving a small share of the profits. Times have changed. It's much harder to make large profits from Alts launches now.

So the real problem lies in the upfront costs.