IOST's recent market performance has indeed been eye-catching. A once-overlooked veteran public chain project, after undergoing a deep adjustment, suddenly surged by 14.52%. Subsequently, it launched the 3.0 mainnet upgrade plan, claiming that on-chain data would increase by 150%. This wave of market activity has left many investors confused.

However, behind this rebound, it’s worth a deep examination. First, let’s look at the strategic shift—The core of IOST 3.0 is not to continue competing head-to-head with Ethereum or Solana in the general public chain track, but to decisively pivot towards RWA (Real-World Asset Tokenization) and PayFi (Payment Finance) in these two niche areas. The logic behind this choice is clear: general public chains are already overcrowded, and direct competition is both difficult and unprofitable. Instead, it’s better to focus on vertical fields that mainstream public chains have yet to fully penetrate. RWA aims to bring traditional financial assets on-chain to solve liquidity issues; PayFi focuses on ultra-low-cost cross-border payments, directly addressing pain points in traditional finance.

But it must also be said—although these niche tracks face less competition, their ceiling is also limited. Ultimately, whether they can break through depends heavily on the project team’s execution capability.

Looking at the data: 2.5 million active addresses, 1 million daily transactions. At first glance, these figures are impressive, but what is the actual quality behind them? Are they driven by real users or just internal ecosystem circulation? This is the key question. The market is often misled by attractive on-chain data, only to find out later that it’s just inflated figures. Before bottom-fishing, it’s best to understand the true substance of these data.