Web3 Infrastructure Coins to Watch This Year

The article argues that Web3 infrastructure tokens merit attention as long-term, cross-ecosystem enablers but cautions investors about tokenomics, competition and security risks. It organizes infrastructure into categories (settlement/scaling, data availability, oracles, indexing, storage, cross‑chain messaging, compute, restaking), highlights example projects (Ethereum, Chainlink, Filecoin, Polkadot, Celestia, Render, EigenLayer) and provides a practical due‑diligence checklist (use case, adoption, competition, unlock schedules, liquidity, security). Market impact: useful infrastructure adoption can support token demand over time, but large unlocks, poor fee capture or thin liquidity can create persistent downside even as technical adoption grows. The piece recommends a category‑based watchlist, tracking 2–3 projects per category with monthly reviews, and stresses that infrastructure is a long‑cycle theme with mixed near‑term price implications.