The Darkest Illusion of the Crypto Bull Market: Is Innovation Useless?
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The Darkest Illusion of the Crypto Bull Market: Is Innovation Useless?
One must never have such a distorted value system as to believe the industry is failing and thus revert to its so-called casino nature.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Haotian
Although this current crypto bull market is still ongoing, looking at the apparent "innovation futility" in the primary market and the distorted values of "MEME everything" in the secondary market, I can't help but feel we're entering a dark age. Why?
1) I used to immerse myself in every industry development, fearing I might miss any technological breakthrough. Yet recently, driven by the toxic market sentiment, few project updates or new narratives have stirred any real excitement.
Perhaps genuine innovation is lacking; perhaps repetitive stories have numbed us; perhaps the disconnect between primary and secondary markets has made everything feel irrelevant. In short, lately, discussing technology, narratives, business models—anything with real value—feels utterly draining within the crypto space.
Still, I push myself to stay alert, keep up with trends and technologies, engage in technical discussions with frontline developers, and have deep conversations with founders. Doing so not only shields me from secondary market noise but, more importantly, allows me to clearly sense the underlying innovative "vitality" flowing through the industry.
Of course, some may cynically argue that ultimately everyone just wants to launch tokens and "reap韭菜 (harvest lambs)." Fair point—I can't refute that. But surely, the taste of being a dreamless idle fish must be even worse.
2) Lately, dominant narratives in the crypto world have revolved around high FDVs, VC-backed schemes, mutual refusal to "ape in," and "MEME everything." Honestly speaking, from a pure trading perspective, all cryptocurrencies are MEMEs—one type (VC coins) merely wrapped in narrative packaging, making long-term value tracing slightly easier, while pure MEME coins shed such pretense, boiling down to nothing but emotional gambling on price swings, which more easily generate short-term wealth stories.
I won't judge either path as right or wrong. It's simply that, like any investment market, there are two fundamentally different camps with opposing time horizons. Choosing VC-backed tokens means enduring slow appreciation; choosing MEME coins means accepting the risk of total loss from an all-in bet. There's no need to insult each other—these are simply different strategies.
Fortunately, most builders I know continue to hold onto their beliefs despite the rampant MEME mania. For developers, choosing between building on ETH, TON, Solana, or perhaps even the struggling Cosmos ecosystem involves uncertain costs, trade-offs, and potential rewards. This journey is painful but accumulates value step by step—unlike with MEMEs, where unchecked gambling instincts could lead to irreversible ruin in a single reckless bet.
3) Objectively speaking, both BTC and ETH spot ETFs have been approved. Even Trump, a politician who once mocked crypto, now calls for America to become a Bitcoin superpower. Overall, capital, talent, and projects across the industry have reached an unprecedented level of prosperity.
As long as one doesn't get overly obsessed with trading or emotionally hijacked by market volatility, honestly, I see no valid reason to be pessimistic about the current state of the industry. In fact, from a macro perspective, crypto is gradually shedding its niche image from past cycles and rapidly converging with Web2 as part of the broader Web3 sector.
In this process, more developers are joining, narratives are multiplying, project tokens are increasing, gameplay options and choices are expanding, valuable projects are emerging—but so are scams. This situation slows down wealth accumulation for diamond-handed holders, increases risks for frequent traders, and makes getting rich through speculation increasingly difficult. Relying on trading strategies from previous cycles is becoming less effective in today’s environment.
Pessimistically speaking, early speculative advantages are fading. But optimistically, this simply reflects Web3 becoming more competitive and mature.
This is a necessary phase for any growing industry. Developers must weather intense competition and consolidation, while individual investors must continuously learn to uncover new opportunities. During this period, entrepreneurship becomes harder, investing becomes harder, and making money becomes harder.
We must never let our values become so distorted that we conclude the industry is doomed and revert to viewing it as nothing more than a casino. That, after all, was never why most of us joined the crypto space in the first place.
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Haotian | CryptoInsight
