Dialogue Yuyue, starting from Alpha Hunter: Exploring the meme ecosystem, how Generation Z leads market narratives

@yuyue_chris is a post-00s investor and trader active in the Web3 space. Starting in 2022 with a capital of 3000 yuan, she has transformed from a novice to a professional trader in just two years, thanks to her keen market insights and continuous learning attitude. Currently, she is an important member of several top Chinese communities and is also operating her own community.

OKX has specially invited her as a guest speaker for the "Friends of OKX" series to share her trading insights and in-depth thoughts on the Meme sector, hoping this content will inspire everyone.

++The "Friends of OKX" series is a specially planned column by OKX, hosted by OKX official community ambassador Mercy (@Mercy_okx), aimed at uncovering the career stories, industry insights, and lessons learned from KOLs of different backgrounds for new users to learn from and reference.++

1. Starting from Zero in the Crypto World

Mercy (@Mercy_okx): Can you share how you entered the cryptocurrency field?

Yuyue (@yuyue_chris): I entered the space in March 2022, during the transition from bear to bull market. As a business student, I initially wanted to find an internship and started writing some Web3 investment research. I truly got into the space after seeing a trading platform's contract sharing in my friend circle and asking, "What is this app?" I then received a referral link. At that time, I only had three to five thousand yuan in capital, but it was quickly wiped out by a 20x leveraged contract, leaving me with just a little ETH on-chain. I didn't dare to tell my parents that I had lost all my living expenses and had to find another way out.

Mercy: What made you persist? Which communities had the biggest impact on you?

Yuyue: The turning point came with the Nation3 airdrop. I saw many influencers on Twitter sharing and asking everyone to leave their ENS addresses. I followed suit and left a few, and unexpectedly received an airdrop. This made me realize that I needed to gain positive feedback; without it, it would be hard to persist while continuously losing. After that, I began to iterate my information sources, joining more communities to meet more people and actively review every opportunity.

Regarding communities, one is the Robot DAO of scriptdotmoney, which is like a military academy for top Chinese communities, producing many current leading community leaders, such as Laser Cat. The second is the 321 DAO of Zishi, which is also a military academy for Chinese KOLs, where I learned a lot. Finally, there is the 33 DAO of Teacher Fengmi, which has evolved from an airdrop organization into an elite organization integrating research, execution, and investment. Teacher Fengmi once said something that inspired me greatly: "The most important thing for an organization is to have internal cohesion and external influence."

Mercy: From being an Alpha Hunter to now transforming into an investor and professional trader, how did this transition happen?

Yuyue: In the early days as an Alpha Hunter, I mainly shared various arbitrage and airdrop opportunities. Understanding the rules is crucial; it's like studying law—only by understanding all the terms can you find loopholes. And loopholes often contain the best profit opportunities. For example, during the recent penguin airdrop, I was one of the few bloggers in the Chinese-speaking community who publicly recommended doing the penguin Layer Zero cross-chain tasks six months ago, and during the airdrop, I could earn nearly ten thousand dollars with minimal capital loss. At that time, I was observing new projects every day, leading many people to think, "I was already following this project when it had so few fans."

But as my capital grew, my trading strategies continued to evolve. Now, for my offensive strategy, I mainly use large positions in BTC and ETH as the base, using them as margin for contracts while keeping leverage below 3x. I invest because I previously worked at IDG and am familiar with the primary market, so I also invest in primary market projects.

2. In-Depth Insights on the Meme Sector

Mercy: How do you view the explosive growth of Memecoins in this bull market?

Yuyue: This needs to be viewed in the context of the overall narrative shift in the crypto space. I believe there are now two main logical lines: the asset line and the speculation line. The asset line revolves around assets with real stable value, such as BTC and stablecoins; the speculation line is primarily focused on Memes, representing a kind of nationwide speculative frenzy. When BTC hits new highs, these two lines intertwine, forming the current prosperity.

From the earliest public chains to DeFi, GameFi, and now NFTs, we are now in the pump.fun era. The popularization of cryptocurrencies does not require complex DeFi formulas but rather needs more down-to-earth methods. Memes happen to meet this need. On the asset side, BTC itself, as a non-interest-bearing strong consensus asset, can essentially be understood as a kind of "meme." However, many new holders choose BTC not only to participate in the consensus but also to seek asset preservation or even appreciation in the face of real-world inflation.

Mercy: Why do Memes resonate so deeply with Generation Z culture?

Yuyue: This is related to the cognitive characteristics of the human brain. People inherently pursue novelty and continuously raise the threshold for similar stimuli. Memes provide simple, quick, and rich stimulation while dissolving the seriousness of finance, creating a "playful" mindset. This is a form of entertainment finance and financialized gaming. For example, which has a broader audience and is easier to become addictive: a lengthy research article on a project or a short and interesting slogan? Clearly, the latter has been validated by hundreds of millions of users in the short video era.

Mercy: The emergence of this round of Pump.fun seems to have become the infrastructure for the Meme supercycle. Now, besides Solana, other major ecosystems have also launched their versions of pump.fun. What changes do you think this short-frequency model will bring?

Yuyue: I think the focus is not on the pump.fun infrastructure itself but on more macro changes. With regulatory relaxation, we have seen a split between centralized exchanges, ETFs, US stocks, and on-chain patterns. In the future, more and more people may buy mainstream coins through ETFs, while on-chain trading will mainly be speculative trading focused on Memes.

Moreover, I believe the current regulatory environment is actually more favorable for Memes. You see major exchanges frequently listing Meme coins lately, which means the compliance risks of Memes are relatively low. However, it is worth noting that people's novelty towards something will always fade, so sector rotation will be very fast, whether it's the rotation between DeFi and Memes, value coins and Meme coins, or even within the Meme sector itself.

Mercy (@Mercy_okx): Compared to traditional VC projects, what unique advantages do Meme projects have?

Yuyue (@yuyue_chris): This is a very interesting question. Even for new VC projects, even if they want to launch a serious product or protocol, the team itself must understand the value and importance of Memes. If they cannot cleverly utilize Memes, from the perspective of outside buyers, any altcoin other than the Trump concept will struggle to compete long-term with BTC ETFs, ETH ETFs, and mainstream coins. From the perspective of inside buyers, if they cannot cleverly utilize Memes, it will be hard to compete with Memes.

I can give a few examples of those that have done well:

• $AVA uses the cute white-haired loli image to build an organic community for the AI Agent, promoting the product @HoloworldAI.
• $MOVE uses various memes to promote @movementlabsxyz, and the founder himself has a topical and legendary status among Generation Z.
• $BERA's "offbeat" meme quality makes every event extravagant, with fakechain culture, etc.

Mercy: When filtering Meme projects, what dimensions do you consider?

Yuyue: I mainly consider three levels:

First is the narrative level, divided into grand narratives (politics, economy, AI), small but beautiful cults (specific images or niche cultures), and short-term hotspots.

Second is the chip structure. For large-cap projects, attention needs to be paid to the degree of chip dispersion, which determines the strength of consensus; but for early projects, excessive dispersion is not advisable, as it can lead to continuous selling pressure.

Third is community building. There needs to be quality community leaders, preferably long-term builders who can continuously recharge the community's faith. If the early community is filled with flippers, it will be hard to establish long-term value.

3. Advice for Newcomers

Mercy: What advice do you have for newcomers just entering the space?

Yuyue: First, establish your own information channels, but be wary of information silos. I suggest diligently scrolling through Twitter and researching the early players behind each hotspot. Secondly, do not overly rely on following tools, as you cannot completely replicate others' positions and timing.

Regarding continuous learning and growth, the key is to gain positive feedback, even if it's small. From my experience, very few people can achieve particularly large returns on a single project; it's more of a linear growth process. Sudden wealth increases often involve survivor bias, while linear growth is the groundwork for exponential growth. Traders need to realize that this market is always changing, and the only constant is to maintain a learning mindset, find their own rhythm and circle. It's hard to go it alone; true growth requires mutual learning and progress within quality communities.

4. Impressions and Suggestions for OKX

Mercy (@Mercy_okx): Please share your impressions of OKX, including your feelings about product experience and team interaction.

Yuyue (@yuyue_chris): The core impression OKX gives me is the fast iteration speed of its products. This is reflected in several aspects: first, the functionality of the CEX system, such as the UI redesign of the financial section. Although I wasn't used to it at first, the product logic became clearer after the redesign. Secondly, the Web3 wallet section has iterated very quickly, and its functions are becoming more comprehensive.

Another point is that OKX places great importance on user experience and needs, with the team deeply engaging with communities. You often appear in various groups to collect user feedback and can respond quickly, which has left a very good impression on me.

Mercy: What suggestions do you have for the future development of OKX, especially regarding the integration of CEX and DEX?

Yuyue: Regarding CeDeFi, I think it depends on the specific definition. For example, some exchanges allow the use of interest-generating stablecoins as contract margins, which is a feature that can be considered for the exchange module.

I think one thing OKX does well is clearly distinguishing between on-chain and exchange functions. The Web3 wallet section is independent of the exchange system and has been done very well, with functions closely aligned with actual needs. As a professional meme user, I hope for a faster mechanism for adding new features. Although it is already doing well, for some projects that require immediacy, quicker support would be better.

I particularly want to commend OKX for its outstanding performance in multi-chain products. Many public chains do not have particularly good native wallets, but the web experience of the OKX wallet on these chains is excellent, such as Aptos. I suggest continuing to strengthen this advantage and provide better wallet support for emerging public chains.

Mercy: We are exploring new features that allow CEX users to trade DEX tokens and DEX users to trade CEX tokens. What do you think of this direction?

Yuyue: This idea sounds very innovative. It would not only give centralized exchange users more choices but also provide more liquidity for DEX, making the on-chain trading experience smoother. I look forward to seeing the specific implementation of this feature.