A project can launch a token, attract attention and still leave its investors unable to exit. That gap between a promising narrative and a realizable return runs through a Wu Shuo Blockchain podcast published on November 10, 2026. The guests—Dashan, co-founder of Water Drip Capital, and Xiaoyang, who works at a smaller crypto venture fund—described different portfolios but similar difficulties tracking projects and recovering investments.
Water Drip: nearly 300 investments, far fewer healthy projects
Founded in 2017, Water Drip Capital has invested in nearly 300 projects, according to Dashan. He said roughly 60–70 met the firm’s standard for healthy operations: continued development, normal token trading and enough funding to sustain the business. That is fewer than one-third of its investments.
Dashan estimated that about 20%–30% of the portfolio involved some combination of teams disappearing, investments going to zero, contractual breaches or harm to investor rights. Those are distinct outcomes; the figure should not be read as a count of proven frauds or of projects whose founders fled. He also said more than half the projects had broadly fulfilled their obligations if those that later became inactive after launching tokens are included.
The problem is not limited to whether a product ships. Dashan described disputes over token unlocks, financial disclosure and teams selling tokens privately—issues that can prevent an investor from realizing a return even when a token trades. In one U.S. lawsuit, he said Water Drip spent more than $900,000 in legal fees and recovered more than $1.3 million.
Water Drip’s investment mix has shifted. Of the more than ten projects it backed in 2026, Dashan said only about three or four were crypto-related; most of the rest were in AI and chips. His view that crypto could serve AI agents through payments, privacy and auditable records is a proposed use case, not evidence of widespread demand. He said broader adoption of AI agents would need to come first.
A smaller fund: operating does not mean communicating
Xiaoyang’s fund manages about $20 million and has invested in roughly 100 projects, including more than 70 in 2024. It stopped making new investments after the first quarter of 2025, across crypto and other sectors. Xiaoyang estimated that about two-thirds of its portfolio was still operating, but said more than half the projects were difficult to communicate with effectively. Some could be assessed only through their websites and social-media activity.
Xiaoyang described the fund’s paper return as slightly positive and close to break-even, while warning that its eventual realized return could be negative. Tokens that have not unlocked and investments without an exit cannot necessarily be converted into cash at their recorded valuations. The fund also holds more than 20 pure-AI projects, but Xiaoyang cited an AI graphics-analysis investment of nearly $300,000 that was ultimately marked down to zero.
These are the guests’ accounts of their own portfolios, not an industry-wide failure rate. Their shared warning is narrower and more useful: fundraising, a live token or an apparently active project does not by itself establish durable operations, reliable disclosure or an achievable exit.
Original reporting: Wu Shuo Blockchain, published November 10, 2026, at 16:25 UTC+8.