What Still Matters In Crypto Without Tokens? Solv Ceo Names 3 Key Protocols

What Happened

In an interview with BeInCrypto, Ryan Chow, CEO and co-founder of Solv Protocol, said that if tokens stopped mattering tomorrow, priorities would snap back to fundamentals. He also shared 3 crypto protocols he believes would still clearly matter in 2026, even if tokens no longer existed.

He added that a project’s real progress is better measured by the strength of its infrastructure, the security of its operations, and its ability to earn trust from institutional participants. Chow explained that if tokens are removed:

What User and Developer Behavior Looks Like Without Crypto Tokens

Market Context

Crypto discussions often default to token price, market cap, and short-term performance. But if tokens are taken out of the equation entirely, what actually remains valuable?

Are Token Prices a Reliable Measure of Value in Crypto?

Crypto is often defined by its tokens and volatile price swings. Much of the industry conversation revolves around price speculation.

What top coins will do next, when altcoin season might begin, or which token could be the next 100x winner? These narratives dominate headlines, social media, and market sentiment.

While prices dominate mindshare, what do they actually say about whether a project is actually working, being used, or delivering real value?

Chow mentioned that price can be informative when it’s backed by sustained usage and revenue. However, most of the time, he described it as a “lagging, noisy proxy.”

The real test, he said, is when it’s backed by sustained usage and revenue, and becomes infrastructure that people build on, and institutions can trust, regardless of market charts.

“Token price tells you what the market feels, not whether the system works,” he stated.

According to Chow, price movements often run ahead of fundamentals or diverge from them entirely. Tokens can rally on expectations alone, while protocols that are steadily gaining adoption may see little immediate price reaction.

“Value then comes down to adoption, usability and security. Metrics like onchain adoption, integration with other protocols, compliance readiness and the ability to scale reliably for institutions are far stronger signals of impact than market cap alone.”

But if tokens, and with them trading, were to disappear, would users leave as well? Chow suggested that without the ability to profit from holding or trading tokens, most speculative activity would vanish almost immediately.

This includes momentum trading, airdrop, points farming, mercenary liquidity, and governance.

“What would remain is purely instrumental use: stablecoins for payments and treasury, onchain credit for capital efficiency, and institutions using verifiable rails for issuance and collateral. I am seeing genuine demand in crypto for capabilities, settlement, custody, verification, distribution, and risk-managed yield, not for tokens. This tells us that real utility is what sustains a project beyond price incentives,” he told BeInCrypto.

The current structure rewards what is easiest to market, such as new narratives, incentives, points programs, and short-term total value locked (TVL), rather than what is hardest to build: security, risk controls, reliability, and clear unit economics.

Why It Matters

“One of the most proven sustainable revenue models in DeFi is lending protocols. Well-designed lending protocols generate revenue through interest rate spreads and borrower fees, with income scaling based on utilisation and risk management rather than token emissions.”

Details

The executive also stressed that such a theoretical scenario would fundamentally shift developer priorities. According to Chow, token performance has pushed builders to focus on short-term gains rather than long-term infrastructure.

“If tokens stopped mattering tomorrow, priorities would snap back to fundamentals. Builders would focus on systems that earn trust, such as verifiable reserves and accounting, execution and management, auditability, uptime, governance, and compliance-ready workflows. You’d see more work on distribution rails across wallets, exchange integrations, settlements, identity, and business models that work on fees,” he remarked.

Lending, Settlement, and Custody as Core Crypto Use Cases

Chow also argued that crypto would continue to exist even in the absence of tokens.

“In a token-agnostic world, crypto survives as paid infrastructure, with revenue tied to measurable work,” he commented.

He pointed to several business models that are already operating sustainably. These include usage-based fees for settlement, execution, minting, and routing, as well as financial primitives such as lending protocols. According to him,