Early opportunities in the next crypto cycle may lie within AI-curated results.
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
Early opportunities in the next crypto cycle may lie within AI-curated results.
The winners of the next bull market may be even more irrational—AI-driven discoveries, fragmented traffic, and irrational surges.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: mo
Translated by TechFlow
TechFlow Intro: The biggest winners of the next cycle may be projects that most people simply cannot understand—bad names, weak narratives, random communities—and yet they surge dramatically. Because AI is transforming how retail investors discover projects, attention is becoming increasingly fragmented, and projects are beginning to optimize their data profiles not for humans, but for algorithms. This means the next cycle isn’t just about finding the best narrative—it’s about understanding *how* narratives get discovered.
I’ve been thinking about one thing:
In the next cycle, many winners will baffle most people entirely.
Not the usual kind of confusion we see in crypto. I mean: terrible names, weak narratives, random communities—and tokens with almost no presence on Crypto Twitter (CT)—yet they surge hard, possibly very early.
My basic thesis is that many major moves in the next cycle won’t be discoverable the way they were before—by simply watching timelines or following the crowd. The market is changing how attention is discovered, how capital flows, and how retail investors decide what to buy.
This matters because if I’m right, the next cycle isn’t just about finding the best narrative.
It’s about understanding *how* narratives get discovered.
I believe this process is already shifting.
1. Discovery Mechanisms Are Changing
In past cycles, crypto attention flowed primarily through a few obvious channels:
CT, Telegram, Discord, KOLs, group chats, local opinion leaders, a handful of big accounts, a few noisy communities, and a few narratives everyone saw simultaneously.
These remain important. I don’t think they’ll disappear.
But I do believe the next cycle will be different—because more retail investors are already relying on AI to help them make decisions. People are asking AI: “What’s trending? What’s gaining momentum? What’s undervalued? Which sectors are heating up? Which tokens are attracting attention?”
This trend may continue growing.
Once it becomes the norm, the rules change. Projects no longer compete only for human attention—they also compete to appear favorably in the systems people use to filter markets.
This is a different game.
The question is no longer just, “Who has the best promoters?” but rather, “Which projects look best at the machine layer—the layer people use to simplify the market?”
This matters.
2. Distribution Mechanisms Are Changing
I also believe attention in the next cycle will be more fragmented than ever before.
CT remains important—but I don’t think it will dominate as it once did, at least not relatively speaking.
My point is simple: X’s absolute user count may still be growing, but if retail investors spend more time elsewhere, CT’s share of market influence may shrink.
It could be social trading apps. It could be AI-assisted discovery tools. It could be investors spending more time in localized Telegram groups, WeChat circles, or app-based trading communities—rather than living on CT full-time.
If FOMO-style apps keep growing, more retail capital flows may form within those ecosystems long before anything becomes visible on timelines.
This makes the market harder to interpret using only “social intuition.”
In the last cycle, many traders believed staying sufficiently online, well-connected, and following the right people was enough to stay close to where attention was flowing.
The next cycle may be less forgiving.
You could be highly online—and still miss what’s truly surging.
3. Performance Metrics Are Changing
I find this part especially interesting.
If discovery becomes more fragmented and more AI-dependent—and if more assets compete for the same pool of speculative attention—then the market begins rewarding different things.
You may need to be willing to trade or invest in ideas that feel dumber than the last cycle’s successful ones.
Not because the market is broken. Not because fundamentals no longer matter. But because, in crypto, attention remains one of the purest drivers of price—especially early in a move.
Attention doesn’t always flow to the smartest thing.
Sometimes it flows to the easiest-to-grasp, easiest-to-repeat, easiest-to-meme-ify—or easiest to surface in feeds, scanners, or AI responses.
This means some of the highest-returning tokens of the next cycle may look absurd.
Terrible names. Terrible ideas. Terrible narratives. Massive returns.
It sounds dumb—but I think it’s true.
The AI Layer Creates a New Game
This is the part I think most people underestimate.
If more retail investors use AI to help find opportunities, teams will eventually optimize for it.
Not just for CT share. Not just for KOL influence. Not just for on-chain heat.
They may begin trying to look attractive at the data layer relied upon by AI tools and scanners.
This could mean prettier surface metrics, cleaner momentum, more obvious capital flows, stronger engagement signals, prettier volume, prettier appeal.
Yes—in some cases, it could also mean teams engineering momentum illusions that ordinary traders won’t easily detect.
Ordinary traders see the surface and assume the surface is real.
That’s the risk.
Something can look healthy from afar—but its actual quality may be far worse than it appears.
That’s why I believe the next cycle will reward those who can distinguish *real* appeal from *machine-readable* appeal.
The two aren’t always the same.
Why I Think Traders Need Better Tools Next Cycle
If this argument holds, then the edge in the next cycle may no longer be “following the right accounts earlier.”
Instead, it’s more about:
Tracking where attention is *actually* flowing
Tracking where capital is *actually* flowing
Distinguishing real participation from artificial strength
Understanding whether a move is backed by genuine demand—or just pretty metrics
In other words, the market surface may become more deceptive.
If more discovery happens via AI, social trading apps, fragmented communities, and machine-filtered interfaces, then raw opinions alone become less useful. You’ll need better systems.
This may be where building your own tools starts to matter more.
Not because tools magically make you smarter—but because the next cycle may reward traders who can measure attention and capital flows *better* than the average person—the person relying on timelines, gut feeling, and KOL posts.
Meme Coins May Keep Growing—But With Diminishing Marginal Returns
I still believe meme coins will remain important in the next cycle.
I don’t think this sector will vanish.
But I do think the shape of upside potential is changing.
The simplest way to put it:
The meme coin sector as a whole can grow—even while individual winners see smaller upside.
That’s the key point.
In 2021, far fewer meme coins competed for attention and liquidity. Winners had more room to dominate. Doge and Shiba reached absurd market caps because speculative energy was more concentrated.
By 2024 and 2025, meme coin supply exploded. New launches never stopped. Attention became diluted across a much broader set. Even so, we still saw strong performers like Pepe—but the broader pattern already feels more fragmented.
This may be the direction things continue moving.
In the next cycle, we may have even more meme coins than in 2024–2025. Total sector market cap can still grow. Huge trades can still happen. Major winners can still emerge.
But expecting a single meme coin to dominate the market the way Doge or Shiba did in 2021 seems unlikely to me.
More supply. More fragmentation. Faster rotation. More competition for the same attention.
This usually means the sector can keep growing—while fewer individual winners achieve those monster rallies.
What This Means for Traders
If I had to distill all this into one practical takeaway, it would be:
The next cycle may reward adaptability—not taste.
Many traders will struggle if they keep trying to force the market to behave the way they want it to.
You may need to adapt to several things.
First, you may need to trade things that feel stupid.
Second, you may need to rely less on obvious CT consensus—and more on tools, capital flow, and attention tracking.
Third, you may need to get better at judging whether a move is real—or merely looks real on the surface.
Fourth, you may need to accept that some of the biggest winners won’t come from the cleanest narratives.
They may come from whatever retail investors flood into most easily—once the attention loop begins reinforcing itself.
This isn’t a moral judgment. It’s just how these markets work.
What Could Prove This Wrong
I don’t think this is inevitable.
Here are several ways this view could be wrong.
First, CT could prove stronger than I expect—because even if AI helps with discovery, narratives may still require human amplification to truly spread.
Second, AI tools may ultimately reflect mostly the same publicly available information everyone already sees—meaning the discovery layer won’t shift as much as I imagine.
Third, even in a more crowded meme market, a single coin could still capture culture strongly enough—and become such an obvious cycle protagonist—that a super-winner emerges.
Fourth, if overall retail participation is weaker than expected, fragmentation may matter less—simply because there’s less broad speculative energy to disperse.
So I’m not claiming inevitability.
I’m saying this setup exists—and I believe the market is moving in this direction.
Final Thoughts
My core thesis is simple:
The next bull market may feel more random on the surface—but more competitive underneath.
AI-assisted discovery may matter more. Retail attention may fragment further. Projects will increasingly compete not just for mindshare—but for machine-readable relevance. Meme coins may still thrive—but each winner faces more dilution and less concentrated upside.
If this happens, then the edge in the next cycle won’t come from having the loudest opinion.
It’ll come from understanding *how* attention gets routed, *where* capital actually moves, and which moves are real—not just well-packaged.
The best-performing traders may not be those with the best opinions.
They may be those with the best systems for tracking when attention converts into real capital flow.
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