Web3: reroute the energy.
Web3 is cheap to build and slow to close, the most over-tagged sector on the site.
Scope: On-chain infrastructure, stablecoin rails, wallets, DeFi tooling, restaking, MEV, RWAs, tokenisation platforms.
TL;DR, Web3
Web3 is cheap to build and slow to close, the most over-tagged sector on the site.
Quadrant: Reroute the energy , Low cost-to-build, low deal-velocity. Cheap to ship, slow to close, most founders should re-route into adjacent sectors with cleaner deal mechanics.. Data refreshed weekly.
Build-vs-invest scoring measures engineering cost-to-velocity ratio across GitHub organizations: a sector where high commit velocity co-occurs with low cost-per-commit is a build signal (founder-addressable); high velocity with high cost is a fund signal (capital-intensive, institutional). All scores are derived from the SSRN panel dataset and update with each weekly data refresh.
Cost-to-build
42/100
Open infrastructure means build cost is low; what's expensive is regulatory positioning and the legal opinion stack.
Deal-velocity
32/100
Outside stablecoin-rails and tokenisation, engineering-acceleration windows commonly run 20+ weeks before any revenue evidence.
Live signal: 42 web3 startups currently tracked for Q3 2026. See the roster →
Where Web3 lands
Build
Build it yourself
Fund
Write the cheque
Avoid
Reroute the energy
Wait
Wait or partner
Low cost-to-build, low deal-velocity. Cheap to ship, slow to close, most founders should re-route into adjacent sectors with cleaner deal mechanics.
The honest version
What the score is really saying.
The 2021 mania conditioned founders and funds to expect deal velocity that the sector has not delivered for two years. Engineering acceleration still happens, but the signal-to-revenue path is the longest on the site outside hardware. Most indie attempts here are time taxes; the institutional sub-niches (stablecoin rails, custody, RWAs) reward capital but require regulated-finance fluency.
If you are building
The indie playbook.
Fits when: You are shipping developer-tooling-for-web3-engineers, not an end-user product.
- 1Stay dev-side; the end-user side has not paid software-style revenue at scale.
- 2Anchor on stablecoin or institutional rails, they have the only real revenue evidence in the sector.
- 3Treat 'crypto-native distribution' as a meme; sell to engineering teams the same way as any other dev tool.
If you are funding
The investor playbook.
Fits when: You have a dedicated web3 thesis with comfort around regulatory and counterparty risk.
- 1Underwrite stablecoin rails and tokenisation separately from the rest, they are effectively fintech with a web3 tag.
- 2Read engineering acceleration with suspicion, most web3 commit bursts do not predict revenue.
- 3Avoid retail-end-user products; the unit economics still do not close.
Frequently asked questions.
Is web3 dead?▾
No, but most of it is not investable on conventional venture timelines. The honest framing is: stablecoin rails and tokenisation are fintech-shaped and fundable; the rest is a long-fuse research bet.
What about restaking, MEV, RWAs?▾
RWAs follow the stablecoin / tokenisation rails curve. Restaking and MEV are infrastructure plays where revenue is concentrated in a handful of incumbents; new entrants face a brutal slope.
Same quadrant, different sectors.
See the full matrix.
Every sector we track lives somewhere on the 2×2, the index page groups all 20 verdicts in one place.
When the verdict isn’t enough
You read the quadrant. Now you want the names.
The free Monday email tells you which way the wind is blowing. If web3is the call you’re weighing this quarter, two faster moves: pull the live teardown on this one sector, or watch every sector week over week so you see the team pulling ahead before it shows up in someone’s deck.
Pressure-test one sector
€7
One sector, one teardown, one sitting. The same read your analyst would spend an afternoon on, who’s shipping like they’re about to raise, and who just looks busy. Cheaper than the coffee you’d buy to ask around.
Test one sector, €7 →Watch it move every week
€49/mo
The standing dashboard across every sector we track, so the team that quietly doubled overnight lands in front of you, not in front of the partner who beat you to the term sheet. The deck lags the work by 21 to 47 days; this is where you spend that head start.
Get the dashboard, €49/mo →