I just discovered a "strange" phenomenon related to a certain Alpha platform. Sharing it here for some logical deduction and to avoid pitfalls.

Recently, some seemingly "valuable" products have started appearing on this platform, but upon closer inspection, their types are extremely strange, looking just like "assembly line projects."
In simple terms, these teams create a project within the ecosystem of mature protocols like ASTER or HYPE, but the underlying operation still relies on ASTER/HYPE. What do they do? They just set up a front-end webpage. Users generate transactions on this webpage, and they take a proportional cut of the fees. Essentially, it's no different from KOL referral commissions or creating a super app as a shell to attract traffic—purely a free ride.
The key vulnerability lies in the profit-sharing ratio. Normally, when KOLs bring in new users, the platform is willing to give up about 50% of the profit because the traffic is genuine. But these shell projects on HYPE only get a 25% profit share.
Let's do the math: if they don't rely on "selling projects" to make money, just earning from this 25% fee, with the current extremely high customer acquisition costs in the crypto space, it's almost impossible to cover the costs of user acquisition and promotion. The ROI is unthinkable; they are basically losing money to attract attention.
So, what are they after? The most probable truth is—they make money by selling projects.
This kind of shell front-end has no technical barriers at all. Skilled people can just use current AI tools to generate an identical webpage in about half an hour, with almost zero cost. Their business model becomes: zero-cost shell ➔ packaged as "new Alpha" ➔ issuing tokens or selling shares for profit ➔ leaving a trail of chaos. The underlying protocol remains solid as ever, but the retail investors who jump in become pure liquidity.
This approach seems to leverage the momentum of popular ecosystems, but in reality, it's a game of traffic resale disguised as innovation. In the future, whenever you see "just changing the front-end to promote a new project," be extra cautious.
⚠️ Finally, I want to emphasize: the above is purely my personal speculation and logical deduction, with no hard evidence. Do not take it as any investment advice. DYOR! $HYPE $ASTER ‌ ‌