This article is reprinted with permission from Huali Huawai, and the copyright belongs to the original author.

At the beginning of this month (September), we published an article mentioning that for small-scale investments, choosing altcoins seems to be a remaining option for some people. Coincidentally, today I saw a new comment under that article asking: I have a small principal, what altcoins should I buy now? I'm not greedy; I just want to earn 3 to 5 times this year.

The simplest core idea we can offer is still the eight words we often mention: Preserve your principal, and don't touch what you don't understand.

Preserving your principal means always prioritizing cash flow, regardless of whether your investment in this field is $10,000 or $100,000. Because in terms of participation, the more flexible your cash flow or the more cash you have, the more opportunities you will have to win money in the so-called "casino."

Not touching what you don't understand means you should make investment decisions based on your subjective understanding, rather than blindly chasing and buying whatever is popular or following what other KOLs shout. Of course, everyone has different amounts of time and energy to invest in this field, but this should not be an excuse for not doing your own research (DYOR). If you set aside luck, in any field, "effort" is generally proportional to "reward," and effective effort may even make you luckier (i.e., when opportunities truly arise, you have the ability, confidence, and courage to seize them).

At this point, some may argue that effort is not necessarily proportional to reward. For example, some delivery workers may work hard all day and only earn a few hundred dollars, while others can make tens of thousands just by casually trading in front of a computer for a few minutes. I believe this comparison is narrow and meaningless. A more reasonable comparison should be horizontal, such as comparing delivery workers with other delivery workers or traders with other traders. There will be significant differences between those who work hard to complete 20 deliveries a day and those who only do 2. Generally, each profession has its own expertise, and success comes from focusing on that. If you choose to deliver, aim to deliver the most; if you choose to trade, aim to do better. Try not to be the best at trading among delivery workers or the best at delivery among traders.

In the crypto market, new narrative opportunities seem to emerge every few months. For instance, the narrative around Perp DEXs (on-chain perpetual contracts) has recently gained traction, with four projects exceeding $10 billion in trading volume over the past week, including Hyperliquid, Aster, Lighter, and edgeX, as shown in the figure below.

The main driver of the growth of Perp DEXs is that trading volume is continuously migrating from centralized exchanges to on-chain products. Compared to CEXs, the advantages of this type of trading, in addition to leverage, include the ability to bring low-liquidity assets and pre-issued derivatives directly into the crypto market.

However, if you are now thinking of participating just because you see the Perps narrative is hot, you need to ask yourself a few basic questions first:

• What percentage of your position do you plan to invest? What are your specific investment cycle and goals?
• Have you done the necessary research or understanding of projects like Hyperliquid and Aster?
• If you incur losses in your positions after participating in certain projects, what are your specific response plans?

In fact, we have shared and discussed the concept of Perps in previous articles. Those interested can search for and review historical articles. Here, we would like to share an interesting piece of data:

The funding rates for Bitcoin have remained at a relatively low level since breaking $120,000 this year, as shown in the figure below. This seems to indicate that the demand for purchasing BTC has not yet truly reached a peak of sentiment. Historically, the end of a bull market phase is often accompanied by the driving force of Perps, and the current popularity of the Perps concept seems to simultaneously signal opportunities and risks for the fourth quarter of this year.

Let's return to the main topic. Although the crypto market may present a wave of phase opportunities every few months, it seems that only a few types of people can truly seize and benefit from the big opportunities:

• Insiders and interest groups
• Early investors who conducted research and participated early
• Short-term experts with strong technical skills
• A very small number of lucky players

In short, when a narrative becomes temporarily popular, those who can truly make big money are either those who rely on information asymmetry (who know early and participate early) or those who rely on structural advantages (who have capital or strategies). Ordinary people who only realize the hype after it has exploded and blindly chase the trend to buy in the secondary market will likely end up as bag holders.

If you want to become an early participant, the core idea here is simply four words: Actively research. This means that the smaller your investment portfolio or the smaller your capital, the more actively you should learn and research projects in the niche track.

Specifically, you may need to prepare based on your personal preferences or strengths:

For example, if Zhang San is good at collecting, categorizing, and analyzing information, he can identify potential opportunities through information processing. Therefore, Zhang San can create a list of the most helpful crypto media and self-media accounts, regularly filtering valuable information from the vast amount of data, and then conducting further research to explore early opportunities in the corresponding track.

Similarly, if Li Si is skilled at utilizing and analyzing data, he can identify potential opportunities through changes in data. Therefore, Li Si can categorize data into basic dimensions, such as macro data, on-chain data, price indicators, capital flows, sentiment indices, etc., and then make further selections, analyses, and reflections based on his investment plan, making corresponding decisions and actions.

What has been discussed above may be somewhat theoretical (methodological). Next, let's take a simple example based on the "data" perspective:

Step 1: Choose a direction you are optimistic about and believe has potential.

For instance, if you are optimistic about AI as a major direction and believe it will continue to be a significant trend in the coming years, you should invest more time and energy into learning and researching this field. In fact, there are many sub-tracks under AI, and since last year, various narratives related to AI have already been hyped several times in the crypto space.

For example, at the beginning of 2024, the AI track was still in its nascent stage, with projects mainly represented by Render (RNDR) and Fetch.ai (FET). However, in the first half of the year (after entering February), with the rising popularity of AI models like OpenAI, various projects claiming to be AI-related began to emerge rapidly, and tokens like FET saw significant price increases. By the second half of 2024 (after entering October), the emergence and hype of Truth Terminal directly triggered a wave of token issuance for AI Agent projects, with various AI Agent MemeCoins springing up like mushrooms after rain. At the same time, more institutions, such as Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures, have established dedicated funds or increased their investment efforts in the crypto AI field.

It can be said that the crypto market seems to present a wave of opportunities every few months. The crypto AI boom in 2024 is one example, and the stablecoin boom since 2025 is another (projects like ENA have also performed well). It is estimated that the upcoming fourth quarter will see renewed interest in Crypto ETFs…

Additionally, I would like to say something that may not be well-received: if someone still has a very small investment portfolio and does not know what direction to focus on, it seems to indicate that they have messed up everything previously. At this point, what you may need is not to continue thinking about seizing the next so-called opportunity to get rich, but to honestly reflect and summarize yourself. For example, think about and list the factors that hinder your progress. Is it that your methods of effort are wrong? Or have you spent more time indulging in short videos or games? Or are you just not working hard enough? Although we always say that the crypto field is still relatively early, it seems that the window of opportunity for ordinary people has been getting shorter since this cycle began. You need to make choices based on your actual situation as soon as possible.

Of course, if you just enjoy pure gambling, you can ignore what we said above. However, if you are still willing to learn or improve but temporarily cannot make long-term choices, you might consider using some data tools, such as Dexu, to look at recent hot narrative performances for inspiration, as shown in the figure below.

Step 2: Conduct necessary research on projects based on the niche field.

Here, we will again take the AI narrative mentioned above as an example. If you are particularly interested in the niche concept of Robotics, although this concept is still in a relatively early stage, if you believe that a wave of "machine economy" narrative hype may emerge in the future, you can start creating a watchlist for Robotics and regularly track the development and dynamics of corresponding projects.

For example, using data tools like Coingecko, we can first have a rough observation, as shown in the figure below.

From the figure, we can see that there are currently 28 Robotics track projects (token projects) listed on Coingecko, with a total market capitalization of less than $500 million. These projects are mainly concentrated in fundraising, technical foundations, social aspects, and other types.

Then, you can continue to search for relevant project information through data platforms like Coingecko, social platforms like Twitter, and the official websites of corresponding projects to gain necessary understanding and research.

Here, we randomly select the top 3 projects by market capitalization from the figure above for a brief look (this is just an example and not specific investment guidance or advice):

Geodnet (GEOD) is a precise positioning network protocol based on robotic navigation. Currently, attractive points include: it is said that 80% of the revenue will be used for token buybacks and burns, and there seems to be no significant unlocking events.

peaq (PEAQ) is an EVM-compatible machine economy L1 protocol. Its current ecosystem development seems relatively good, and it is said that they will use 20% of the tokens for ecosystem development.

Auki is a decentralized machine perception network protocol, with its core technology focused on spatial computing and AR/robot perception. In simple terms, the main problem they aim to solve is to make AI smarter in the real world, enabling robots to collectively understand the physical world and interact better with each other. As an infrastructure-oriented project, the potential for spatial computing in this project seems quite imaginative.

The projects mentioned above appear to be related to the commercialization of humanoid robots. If the concept of AI + Crypto + Robotics continues to be hyped in the future, then existing representative projects or new projects with backgrounds that may emerge later could be targets for you to pay attention to and position yourself in advance.

Of course, I have only taken a cursory look at the above projects and have not conducted detailed research. If you are interested, you might want to do some further research. Regarding the research approach for a specific project, we have shared a lot from a methodological perspective in previous articles. You can focus mainly on the following aspects:

• Team dimension: Is there a reliable and experienced team behind the project that can continuously build the project?

• Development dimension: Does the project have a clear business model or a sustainable profit model?

• Market fit: Can the product corresponding to the project find a fit in the market, or does the project product have a clear PMF (Product Market Fit)?

• Token economics: Does the project have good token economics, including the distribution ratio or method of the tokens, and whether the tokens can be smoothly sold (with continuous buyers) in the case of release, etc.

Additionally, as a supplement, regarding on-chain tools and project research methods, we have previously organized a separate "Toolbox" and "Project Research Template." Those in need can directly input the keyword "tools" in the public account backend to automatically obtain it.

Moreover, everyone's time and energy are always limited. In addition to using some tools to improve our research efficiency, we should not choose too many tracks; it is better to focus on 1-3 tracks that you are most optimistic about for expansion. We always believe that the best choice strategy for altcoin projects in the current emotional market is still based on narratives (being able to tell a story).

Step 3: Reasonably plan your positions based on time cycles and goals.

Once you have selected a direction and conducted necessary research, if you think you can buy a certain project (token) today and sell it tomorrow to get rich, then I do not recommend you participate in any early opportunities. The so-called early opportunities require at least a few months, if not longer, of patience from attention, research, to participation.

Taking the Robotics narrative we mentioned above as an example:

From the current actual development situation and some predictions, even if this narrative has a chance to be hyped in the crypto field this year (2025), the overall sector is estimated to have a market cap increase of only 2-5 times. This is because robotic technology needs to have certain commercial progress and regulatory clarification before this fire can spread and ignite hype in the crypto market. However, if we talk about a significant opportunity in the next 5-10 years, we believe Robotics could be one of them.

Moreover, as the regulatory environment in the crypto field continues to clarify (mainly looking at the U.S.), more and more institutions have begun to shift their focus to the crypto field this year. One of the biggest advantages of the crypto field is that it can help companies achieve rapid financing (raising funds) through token sales.

The overall market capitalization of the crypto market is currently about $4 trillion, while the overall market for Robotics in crypto is less than $500 million. It is foreseeable that with the emergence of the machine economy, more Robotics projects may be born in the future. Perhaps it is not that Crypto needs robots, but rather that the future of robots may need Crypto.

Therefore, if you enjoy seeking low-market-cap early opportunities that align with future development trends, then Robotics-related projects could be one of your choices for participating in big opportunities with small funds.

Of course, the above is just a combination of examples from some projects. How you specifically make your choices next is ultimately up to you. From a longer-term perspective, whether it is small opportunities for large funds (with relatively small returns, mainly seeking stability) or large opportunities for small funds (with relatively high returns, such as several times or even dozens of times), the ultimate goal of doing these things in the crypto field is still to accumulate more Bitcoin. Without saying much more, I hope that ten years from now, you will be grateful for your current choice of holding at least 1 Bitcoin.

Related: Analyst: Options and derivatives will drive Bitcoin (BTC) market cap to $10 trillion

Original: “How Small Capital Can Find or Participate in Major Opportunities”

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。