Funded ciphers for 2024 were released and top returns were distributed

A new analysis from Tokenomist, released on June 6, identified the major token launches from last year and identified sharp disparities between their large funding and actual investors’ returns.

The report covering 10 major 2024 projects, including ZK, ATH, and SWELL, shows huge investments raised over $1 billion, but some of the most successful investments emerged from projects with minimal funding, while the largest promoted investors are deep and deep underwater.

The impressive side of ATH is that it attracted only $9 million in investments, which the investor has a completely diluted valuation of $221 million, equivalent to a 24.51x return. SWELL, which has just raised $3.75 million, has now won $24.22 million from investor FDV, which offers 645 times the return. Similarly, IO and BLAST were able to obtain at least four times the return on investments below $30 million.

High funding, low returns: Some projects cannot be provided

At the other end of the spectrum, some of the best-funded projects have so far brought poor returns. For example, ZK received a significant amount of $458 million in funds, but the price of the investor FDV is less than half its initial value. Similarly, scrolling and Avail have struggled to meet expectations, with current returns sitting at just 0.61 times the scrolling and 0.65 times the available.

These projects raised a lot of money before launching, but still do not meet the expectations of investors. The fact that their performance is struggling despite the investments means that rising doesn’t always result in stronger returns.

Small investments, big returns: how limited capital drives success

Talknomicist analysis clearly emphasizes that projects can be significantly successful with more limited initial capital. For example, impressive returns from ATH and SWELL came from relatively small pay increases.

Similarly, the report notes that IO, Blast and Cloud also had strong results for early investors from a funding round of less than $30 million each. These examples show that smaller, targeted capital raises can still provide greater rewards for the project and its supporters.

Future token lock unlock

Investors are currently watching a series of token unlocks scheduled for June to November 2025. These events often introduce new market volatility as large supply of tokens can be traded.

Related: Top $3.2 billion to unlock June tokens: altcoins sui, apt, zro brace for bolatility

Some of the analyzed projects have unlocked soon scheduled. ZK, ZRO, BLAST and ATH are scheduled to be unlocked in June, followed by Available, Cloud and IO in July. Later this year, Eigen, Scroll and Swell are expected to unlock tokens between October and November.

These approaching dates are likely to lead investors to reevaluate their portfolio strategies in anticipation of increased supply and potential price shifts.