A phrase circulating in the Web3 community is: airdrops are the peak, and then comes the long downward road. But Walrus seems to be breaking this curse.

Let's first look at its underlying logic—the deflationary token model. Most projects have a fixed initial supply, with continuous token issuance later on, which leads to long-term inflation pressure; Walrus goes against the grain, with every network storage transaction destroying a portion of WAL tokens. It sounds simple, but what does this mean? As the ecosystem applications increase and storage demand grows, the number of tokens destroyed also increases.

What are the actual data projections for 2025? The CUDIS health data platform and the Alkimi advertising data platform alone can destroy over 100,000 $WAL each month. More importantly, RWA (Real World Asset) projects are gradually coming on board, and the destruction rate is expected to accelerate. From an economic perspective, supply contraction plus demand growth creates a dual force pushing up asset value.

But just explaining the mechanism isn't enough; the key is who is buying in. In June 2025, Grayscale launched the Walrus Trust, which means traditional investors can participate without directly managing token private keys. Before that, Standard Crypto led a $140 million funding round, with top institutions like a16z and Electric Capital also participating. The intensive involvement of institutions essentially signifies recognition of the project's long-term value.

After the mainnet launches in 2025, dozens of exchanges will open trading simultaneously. In the short term, there are airdrop profits to cash out; in the long term, the deflationary mechanism, institutional endorsement, and application deployment are all variables worth tracking. Anyway, there is indeed an opportunity to participate now.