Boring crypto pseudo-bull market, calling for tough guys and heroes

Author: Shenchao TechFlow

"Boring."

This is the recent evaluation of this cycle by many participants in the crypto market.

Primary investors find the primary market boring, either pondering how to explain to LPs that "the yield can't beat Bitcoin," or busy defending their rights, trying to recover some losses, as there really isn't much to invest in the primary market;

Secondary investors also feel bored. Apart from Bitcoin and Solana, there are some MEMEs, but they can't find any good targets;

Project teams also feel bored, always thinking that their hard work on products is like mastering dragon-slaying techniques, having some skills but unable to find the dragon. With MEMEs dominating, retail investors are disenchanted with VC coins, and they really don't know what to do to capture retail attention;

…

In summary, this is a pseudo-bull market lacking innovation, especially compared to 2020-2022, when various new concepts, products, and tracks like DeFi/NFT/metaverse/algorithmic stablecoins/MEMEs were blooming, with every small innovation bringing widespread wealth effects and attracting a large number of newcomers (retail investors) into the market. Even the major dollar funds that once looked down on crypto have changed their avatars to Punk/Bored Ape NFTs, shouting "ALL IN CRYPTO"…

The glory days are gone. What has led to this cycle's lack of innovation, with only MEMEs dancing wildly?

As a writer, I am currently troubled by topic selection. Compared to the previous cycle, there is a lack of sexy topics, especially a lack of new personal stories.

Biographical content has always been a traffic secret. Looking back, the rise of this industry was marked by the success stories of legendary figures: Kuaimao, Wu Jihan, Shen Yu, CZ, He Yi, Xu Mingxing, Li Lin, Sun Yuchen, Da Hongfei, Vitalik, BM, Li Xiaolai, Bao Er Ye… each one a fierce character. They may have risen from grassroots, but they have all left their mark and captivating stories in crypto history, becoming material for us writers to attract traffic.

In 2018, a media outlet produced a poker deck featuring crypto bigwigs.

In the last cycle, during DeFi Summer, many "new crypto heroes" emerged: Musk, SBF, Su Zhu, Andre Cronje, Stani Kulechov, Do Kwon, Anatoly Yakovenko, Barry Silbert, Kyle Samani… each with their own legends, representing different forces, competing like local warlords, each faction backed by a large number of project assets, representing potential wealth opportunities.

What about this bull market?

Sry, I really haven't seen many new forces and new heroes. After FTX collapsed, the ones still active on stage are the crypto veterans.

Is it because there is no innovation to attract newcomers, or is it that there are no strong new talents to innovate? This question seems like the age-old chicken or egg dilemma. I tend to agree with the latter, compared to before, the industry's appeal to elites is weakening.

There are many reasons:

The collapse of FTX/3AC/DCG has led the industry into a moment of disillusionment, causing some elites and capital from traditional industries to lose trust in the crypto sector;

With the approval of Bitcoin ETFs, traditional financial giants like BlackRock and Fidelity have begun to enter the crypto market, providing external liquidity for Bitcoin and Ethereum, but grassroots opportunities are becoming increasingly scarce;

The rise of ChatGPT has made OpenAI founder Sam Altman and NVIDIA's Jensen Huang global AI heroes, with AI surpassing WEB3 to become the darling of capital, attracting elites from all walks of life;

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In summary, the current situation is that "the old guard is in charge": founders of old projects are churning out new projects; VC veterans are personally getting involved in launching (overvalued) new projects; industry veterans are launching new projects based on new concepts… it's all the same people and faces, which is indeed a bit boring.

According to first principles, the future of this industry, or investment opportunities, ultimately still relate to people. Whether in the primary or secondary market, investing in a coin means investing in the people and teams behind it. Without innovation, with outdated narratives, and no imitation market… it still boils down to the industry lacking new blood, missing newcomers who can bring innovation, or newcomers still lying low and building, needing time to reach a moment of qualitative change.

While writing this article, I happened to receive a news push, Binance Labs announced an investment in Particle Network.

A VC practitioner who continuously invested in Particle Network gave a very simple reason: "The founder is strong, resilient, has ideas, knows how to deal with people, and has strong execution… no matter what direction Particle Network takes in the future, it will succeed."

At its inception, the Particle Network team did not have a particularly impressive background, even a bit "ordinary," but years later, while some projects from the same period either failed or went silent… Particle has continuously iterated, evolving from an MPC application into a modular L1 chain abstraction network, now a representative project in the field of chain abstraction.

Looking back at several projects from the same period is quite lamentable. When projects encounter difficulties, some blame the market, saying, "The market is bad, I can't help it"; some blame the track, saying, "This track is cold, I can't help it"; some blame their lineage, saying, "We are a Chinese project, discriminated against, and didn't get enough support"…

True warriors and fierce characters dare to face the bleak market and confront the harsh realities of their tracks; self-improvement leads to collective strength.

I look forward to the crypto industry once again welcoming fierce characters and a new era of innovation and application. When that time comes, don't hesitate to invest in the new heroes and fierce characters of this era; talent is the root of all problems and solutions.