Why are all top projects betting on "participating in financialization"?

Author: CryptoBrand

On the eve of TGE, OpenSea has clearly stated that the trading activity of historical contributions will become an important indicator for measuring airdrop weights. Such stories are continuously unfolding in Web3. From the bustling activities of infoFi to the behavioral incentives of task platforms, the concept of behavioral finance is reconstructing the way value distribution occurs through reliable behavioral mapping mechanisms and incentive systems.

“Participating in financialization” is a deeper evolution, focusing on how to retain people and enhance their value. Each user's participation is no longer a one-time event but transforms into long-term value that is accumulative, quantifiable, and redeemable. It turns “participation → value → re-participation” into a growth flywheel, fundamentally reshaping the retention logic.

01｜The Shift: From “Speculative Growth” to “Participatory Financialization”

In the past five years, we have experienced: narrative-driven, airdrop-driven, sentiment-driven. And currently, the hottest is attention-driven.

Behind the narrative of attention competition provided by infoFi, we find that: with the joint promotion of attention economy and on-chain verifiability, user behavior has for the first time acquired a “measurable price,” and participation itself is becoming a measurable and settleable asset.

We have previously discussed that the financial spectrum of Web3 expands the expression of value from “assets” to a sum of information, attention, emotions, and trust. This is precisely the core proposition of the “Value Internet”: everything that can be perceived, communicated, and traded can be financialized.

In BTCFi, AI, InfoFi, social protocols, L2, DEX, and even RWA, every top project is doing the same thing - transforming user participation behaviors into user pathways, with a greater focus on the value contained in retention and sustained contributions.

Whether it's BTCFi users participating in Aura Mining, contributors feeding data to AI Agents, governance participants on Optimism Superchain, active traders in the Solana ecosystem, or content nodes in social protocols, each interaction will become a part of future rights.

Participating in financialization is not an abstract concept; it is being toolized by growth products. The POX Score recently launched by the growth platform TaskOn is a representative attempt to measure user behavior and retention in the growth field. The higher the POX score, the greater the chances of earning rewards, driving users to enhance their POX scores through future expectations, outlining a path for users to obtain high rewards and encouraging them to put in more effort. This is a precise user retention system, a positive growth flywheel.

02｜Why does participation become an “asset”?

It sounds a bit like the project side is PUAing users into working for free, doesn’t it? In fact, participating in financialization is more like an added value content on the “X-to-Earn model”. It evolves from users contributing to the project to obtain profits, to users continuously contributing within the project ecosystem, leading to a points system / on-chain footprints, and co-building and sharing the ecosystem, transforming from singular incentives to deep binding of value and incentives.

Let's break down a few of the most popular tracks to see how to achieve “participation in financialization.”

A. BTCFi: Participation = Yield Rights

BTCFi, represented by BounceBit, SatoshiVM, Babylon Protocol, Pendle, etc., is directly binding “participation” with “entitlement to profits”:

• Staking → Yield Stream
• On-chain Contribution → Allocation Priority
• Governance Participation → The Value Expression of Decision-Making Power

The essence of BTCFi is to use BTC as a “underlying yield engine,” allowing every on-chain participation by users to be mapped as “future revenue distribution rights.”

B. AI × Web3: Participation = Data Dividend

Platforms like Bittensor, FLock.io, Aethir, and ChainGPT have already regarded “participating in training / providing data” as assets.

• 数据贡献 = Data Credits
• Interaction with AI Agent = Measurable “Engagement Curve”
• Continuous participation of training nodes = Long-term benefits and permissions

The AI's “participation equals value” is already more thorough than InfoFi.

C. Layer2 & Airdrop Banking: Participation = Discounted Value of Future Airdrops

In top L2s such as Arbitrum, Base, zkSync, Linea, Starknet, and Mantle, users are no longer focused solely on the benefits of a single action, but rather view the “participation path” as a form of accumulative future entitlement expectation.

Each Bridge, Swap, DeleGate, and vote becomes a “discount signal” for potential future rights.

D. DEX / Trading: Participation = Fee Discount + Rebate + Level

Trading platforms represented by Hyperliquid, Jupiter, Raydium, Uniswap, etc., are all capitalizing trading activities:

• XP / Points represent potential future airdrops
• Level determines rates, priority, maker/taker rewards, etc.
• Activity level determines subsequent rewards

Trading is no longer just an action, but a “deposition of future rights.”

E. SocialFi: Participation = Relationship Chain Assets

For example Farcaster, Lens, Friend.tech, Fantasy:

• Content interaction becomes “identity credit”
• On-chain relationship chains have asset-like properties.
• Scene participation enables accounts to have Social Capital

F. Growth Platform: Participating in the Financialization of the Verification Layer and Incentive Layer Infrastructure

Growth platforms represented by TaskOn are reshaping the value of user data, becoming traceable, verifiable, and incentivizable participation assets:

• Accumulated Assets: Points / EXP / Level / Milestone
• Redeemable rights: WL, qualification, Allocation, lottery probability, additional trading rewards
• Display identity: Leaderboard, Contribution, Public identity
• Compound Interest Cycle: Level → Benefits → More Participation → Higher Level

This can drive short-term growth while also solidifying long-term relationships. It grants rights to user behavior, serves as an entry point for behavioral assets, and builds a long-term incentive system.

03 | How to Promote “Participation in Financialization”?

In the entire Web3 growth paradigm, how to transform participation behavior → confirmation → quantification → settlement → ultimately consolidate into quantifiable long-term value.

Whether it is BTCFi, DEX, AI×Web3, InfoFi, or more traditional trading and governance activities, a complete user participation cycle usually includes three things:

• Action
• Proof of Behavior
• Value Redemption (Incentive)

Guide interactions at the product layer, automate verification, and make participation executable, traceable, incentivizable, and compoundable. At the incentive layer, anchor users' behavioral value through systems like points and NFTs, allowing users to have clear goals for long-term pathways.

Decrypt the Web3 prediction market protocol Myriad incubated by the parent company, allowing you to earn Points by completing daily check-ins, content sharing, and other tasks to participate in the prediction market. High points and high win rates will elevate you on the leaderboard, and this reputation may translate into community recognition or special rewards in the future.

1. Optimism RetroPGF: Participation = Retraceable Long-term Value

Optimism's RetroPGF upgrades “participation” from an immediate action to a long-term asset that is traceable, quantifiable, and settleable. The actions of contributors are preserved in a public contribution graph, where reviewers can reassess past contributions in the future, tracing back to actual OP governance, incentives, and fund allocation.

The core logic of RetroPGF is: Participation Path = Public Contribution Assets = Future Redeemable Value

• Participation is not an instant reward, but is systematically accumulated;
• Contribution curves will be quantified, reviewed, and recorded;
• Future earnings depend on the quality and influence of past participation;

The value of projects, communities, and individuals is reflected over the long term, rather than being driven by short-term behavior.

Optimism makes “participation” a measurable, governable, and sustainable asset, allowing participants to gain true long-term value through institutional design.

2.TaskOn: Gamified Design of User Retention System

On the growth platform TaskOn, in the bidirectional growth of projects and users, their growth tools include: intelligent, results-oriented Quest setup templates and intelligent verification tools, allowing users to “know what to do” and “do it along the path,” making user behavior “real, credible, and measurable.”

At the end of the event, TaskOn's incentive system begins to have a retention effect:

• Points / EXP: Provides instant incentives
• Level: Long-term growth mechanism
• Milestone: Phased Achievement
• Benefits Shop: Points Redemption Rights
• Leaderboard: Amplifying the value of participant identities

TaskOn plays the role of infrastructure in the “participation behavior → assetization” process. It can be said to be a standardized implementation of financialization in the user growth field.

At the same time, TaskOn has launched a new POX scoring system that cross-scores user identity and participation behavior across five dimensions:

• POH (Proof of Humanity): Trust signals, such as wallet/social binding and KYC.
• POC (Proof of Contribution): The frequency, quality, and consistency of task completion.
• POE (Proof of Exploration): The breadth and depth of exploration for new chains, functions, and events.
• POV (Proof of Value): On-chain asset scale and transaction activity.
• POS (Proof of Stake): Real interactions on X/Discord/Telegram.

Through multi-dimensional cross-validation, the authenticity of participation and the anti-witchcraft capability have been significantly improved, providing users with a clear growth path: increase ratings → unlock more features/rewards.

4｜Conclusion: Participation itself is an asset

Participating in financialization is not a small narrative, but a grand trend of Web3 moving from “short-term activities” to “long-term value systems.”

Different tracks require different behaviors, but all tracks need a complete participation cycle of “trigger - verify - incentivize.” Web3 projects need to start from their own product characteristics and use tools that can verify, grow, and retain to link this cycle together, allowing behaviors to be executed, verified, and incentivized.

Participating in financialization is not a tool trend, but a process of reconstructing the value system of Web3. It transforms participation into assets, paths into value, and retention into the core driving force of growth. In the future, all Web3 products will require a complete participation cycle of “trigger - validate - incentivize.”

This will become the true growth paradigm for the future of Web3.