Recently, the English-speaking community has been discussing the issue of REV. In simple terms, REV refers to Realized Extractable Value, which can be seen as the total value consumed by on-chain users. On-chain, users not only have to pay gas fees but may also be affected by MEV (the value extracted by validators through transaction ordering, etc.). This means that the total value spent by on-chain users = total gas fees + total MEV fees.

In certain cases, REV reflects the economic prosperity of the on-chain network; transactions are required to generate REV. The larger the REV, the more prosperous the on-chain economy. For example, in 2021, the REV on the Ethereum chain surged due to DeFi and NFTs; in 2024, Solana's REV increased significantly due to MEME.

However, for a chain, REV is an important indicator, but it is not the only factor for valuing a chain. For instance, Ethereum during the peaks of DeFi and NFTs in 2021 and Solana during the MEME craze in 2024 are not long-term indicators. If the growth can be sustained in the long term, it will indeed increase its weight in the valuation.

In the crypto space, in addition to REV, there are other equally important indicators, such as TVL, total on-chain transaction volume, daily active users, token issuance volume, token deflation rate, etc. For example, a chain must have sufficient security and decentralization to support large-scale TVL, which holds a significant weight in valuation.

Currently, there is no single indicator that can fully value a chain, or rather, the field does not yet have a valuation model; BTC has little REV, yet its total market cap is the highest. Secondly, focusing on multiple indicators simultaneously may bring us closer, but it still only represents a part. In current valuations, the unseen parts outweigh the visible parts, and the unseen parts are more important than the visible parts.