A token’s position in a market-cap table has long been treated as a rough proxy for relevance. That shortcut is losing favor. Industry executives say investors are beginning to judge crypto assets by usage, economics, and value capture rather than where they sit in a market-cap ranking, according to the original report from CoinDesk.

The distinction matters because market capitalization can be a badly distorted indicator. It is simply circulating or fully diluted supply multiplied by price. Low-float launches, locked allocations, airdrop vesting schedules, and meme-style supply mechanics can push a token high in the rankings without anything close to corresponding user demand or fee generation. When executives describe a shift back to…