Pessimists seem smart and wise, while optimists make real money.
Author: Ignas
Translation: Shenchao TechFlow
Now it’s 2032:
In the morning, you wake up at the Four Seasons Hotel, feeling a bit tired. The two Negroni cocktails you had last night are still giving you a headache.
A notification pops up: you open the Rabby wallet on your iPhone 23 XXL and find that BTC has dropped 3% overnight. Another FUD triggered by Sailor's strategy.
However, BTC is still trading at a high of $1.2 million. You smile, that crazy Udi was actually right!
Thinking back to those years, you bought Bitcoin at $114,000 with 3x leverage on the Hyperliquid platform, leading your family to financial freedom.
However, Cobie's prediction was slightly off: the hard path is from $80,000 to $250,000, while the easy path is from $250,000 to $1 million.
Yet, the bull market from 2024 to 2029 was indeed different; it marked the official end of the "four-year cycle," and you were lucky not to get liquidated in 3x leverage trading.
Thanks to Trump's third term, the U.S. successfully acquired 5% of the global Bitcoin supply, bringing a new landscape to the crypto market.
A twinge of regret surfaces: if I hadn’t sold some ETH to the private equity of OpenAI and SpaceX back then, I might have had more. Neither of these companies went public. They directly tokenized on Ethereum L2 on Nasdaq.
Nevertheless, tokenized private equity can still serve as collateral for Aave and Fluid.
You can’t stop, but you dream bigger:
The Monad mainnet is live, and the testnet airdrop is coming soon. Once the airdrop arrives, you plan to buy a second home in Antigua and Barbuda, along with the accompanying passport. After all, the EU will launch a 50% crypto "solidarity tax" next year, and you need to prepare.
However, your friends aren’t so lucky.
Experts from the Financial Times and BBC convinced them to hold euros-CBDC as EU defense bonds at a 4% annual interest rate to save for a down payment on a one-bedroom apartment. With inflation at 8%, even with a monthly universal basic income of €2,500, this goal seems increasingly out of reach.
You feel sad, but it’s not your fault: you told them to buy cryptocurrency. They didn’t listen.
Then, you get dressed, brush your teeth, and open the X app. Uh-oh! A notification pops up: “Please verify your age using a government-issued ID to log in.”
According to UK and upcoming EU laws, users will see this message on "potentially dangerous" content.
Oh no! Your VPN is down again. Set the IP address to Afghanistan and reopen the X app. Success!
Visiting friends in the UK does feel quite different.
Before flying home, you need to do some "work."
Cryptocurrency: Selling Dreams
The most powerful selling point of cryptocurrency is its ability to inspire people to dream of a better, wealthier life.
This message is particularly vivid in the current geopolitical and economic climate, contrasting sharply with people's struggles to pay bills, find jobs, and the increasing erosion of privacy (e.g., the UK's Online Safety Bill).
Scrolling through news, TikTok, and Instagram, despair seems to dominate the entire information flow, while crypto has become one of the few sparks that can ignite hope.
Despite global unease, the atmosphere on Crypto Twitter is particularly positive. Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin are seen as answers to financial woes. This is why I specifically mentioned the plight of friends who have not ventured into crypto in my 2032 introductory story—their struggles starkly contrast with the hope brought by crypto.
Coinbase understands this and accurately conveys the message.
Their "Everything is Fine" ad about the current situation in the UK made me chuckle, but I have to admit, they’re not wrong.
Original video link: Everything is Fine
I love crypto because it’s a place where "big dreams" can take flight. However, this is also one of the reasons why crypto skeptics dislike us.
They don’t believe our stories, thinking they are too outrageous and unrealistic. How can blockchain change society? In their eyes, it’s just a "fancy spreadsheet."
As Nat Friedman said, “Pessimists seem smart and wise, while optimists make real money.”
The great dream capacity of cryptocurrency (and the permissionless technology) is also why scammers love our industry: scammers sell a wealthier life but ultimately destroy it.
I wrote a dedicated article explaining why many people hate cryptocurrency.
Original link: Why is Cryptocurrency Hated? How Can We Change This?
We are not scammers, and you are not a scammer.
We genuinely believe that cryptocurrency can positively impact individual lives and society as a whole by strengthening private property, freedom, and the privacy of finance and the internet.
However, despite the tremendous achievements the crypto industry has made in just a few years, I feel that crypto enthusiasts are gradually forgetting how to chase "big dreams."
Crypto Lost: Forgetting How to Dream
Once, our big dreams attracted countless retail investors.
But now, why would new retail investors buy ETH? After all, the natives in the crypto circle haven’t updated the target price for ETH since the last bull market—it’s still stuck at $10,000.
Yet, ETH has made so much progress: spot ETFs, adoption by traditional finance, stablecoins, regulation, RWAs (real-world assets), L2 launched by Robinhood, and so on.
Is all this effort just for a 2x or 3x short-term gain?
Maybe we ultimately hope to be taken seriously, so when TradFi joins in, the dreams of Lamborghinis and "to the moon" have left the narrative of cryptocurrency.
Now, only those silly coins (like XRP, ADA, etc.) and Bitcoin can attract dreamers. BTC at least has the potential to reach a target of $1 million.
ETH and (most) altcoins are not selling big dreams.
But ETH still has hope for a resurgence.
For years, Ethereum enthusiasts have been promoting the "Ultrasound" meme. But scaling has reduced gas fees, killing the deflationary dream. (The tech team and marketing team failed to work together!)
Now the narrative has returned to fundamentals: institutional adoption, stablecoins, RWAs.
This is nothing new, but this time, it’s being told by louder, more credible voices, like Thomas Lee and Joseph Lubin.
Who tells the story is as important as the story itself.
Public companies incorporating ETH into their balance sheets have become another catalyst. This not only gives more confidence to onlooking buyers, but even the bears are starting to acknowledge that this shift is having an effect.
But is all this just for a $10,000 ETH target?
ETH needs to find a more compelling story that makes holding ETH itself worth over $10,000. BTC is digital gold, while ETH… is digital oil?
I believe such a story will eventually happen. Long-term bullish on ETH!
Or take Solana as an example.
In 2024, it thrived with a rags-to-riches story of memecoins. But as memecoin traders suffered losses, Solana and its token SOL also lost their appeal.
SOL is neither a traditional finance chain like ETH nor a value store like BTC; people losing money on memecoins can no longer inspire dreams.
How to Make People Dream
“When I buy tokens, I want to have big dreams.
However, most projects focus on promoting their features rather than grand goals.
The existence of tokens can help you realize the dreams of the community.” — DefiIgnas said on X.
Looking back, it’s astonishing that ChainLink's $LINK (an oracle protocol) has allowed all of us to have big dreams.
I think to myself:
“LINK is the most egalitarian project we’ve seen. It’s ambitious, and if successful, it will truly reshape the social structure.” — Popular Copy Pasta
Or take Compound's COMP as an example. What’s exciting about a lending protocol? Or a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator? A cross-chain protocol?
These tokens inspire people because they belong to a larger movement—DeFi (Decentralized Finance). Be your own bank, and if you’re unhappy with the team’s direction, you can vote with tokens through a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) to make an impact!
Revolutionary!
Now, people don’t believe in DAOs, and DeFi tokens have been reduced to mere investment assets valued solely by income or fees, losing their compelling stories.
One of my proudest moments
When LINK, COMP, UNI, and YFI launched, they were the leaders, pioneers, and forerunners of the DeFi market.
Something entirely new.
Now, there’s yet another new DEX, lending protocol, oracle, or infrastructure project trying to inspire us or help us have big dreams.
Is this the price of cryptocurrency becoming a mature asset class?
There are few new projects or TGE announcements on X that excite people, as these projects either offer slight upgrades to current market leaders or involve founders and venture capitalists launching tokens for personal BIG DREAM profits rather than for their communities.
My advice to project founders is: invest time and money to create a coherent story and convey big dreams through storytelling. Marketing is not just about posting paid tech posts on X, having a pretty UI, and sharing some memes through social media managers.
It’s indeed hard work, but it will make you stand out.
Investors seek support for big dreams. However, those selling big dreams often lack the backing of technological innovation or are outright scammers.
That said, here are some projects that do a great job of selling big dreams (but are not necessarily the best projects).
Crypto projects and tokens that excel at "selling dreams"
SPX6900
To be honest, I still haven’t figured out what this token is for. It’s just a meme, right?
However, Murad is a great storyteller, and the token has risen about 15k%.
His post on X is titled “150 Reasons SPX6900 Will Reach a $1 Trillion Market Cap.”
That’s double the current $ETH MC! Ridiculous, absurd?
Maybe, but who cares? He realized his community's dream.
Of course, you might think this is a bit of a scam, but he’s holding these tokens, unlike others who quickly dump them on their community.
Crypto founders have a lot to learn from him.
Disclaimer: I do not hold this token.
Pudgy Penguins
Pudgies are my favorite crypto brand.
Who wouldn’t love them? They’re cute, their prices are rising (my NFT only cost $2,000), and their mission is to spread “good vibes” into the metaverse.
With billions of views on social media, Pudgy Penguins are likely to become the best ambassadors for the crypto world.
Importantly, $PENGU is the first truly crypto-native memecoin, while other memecoins (DOGE, PEPE, SHIBA) have migrated from Web2.
Thus, Pudgy Penguins have become our PR representatives to fix the negative image, perhaps just in time.
Worldcoin
You may dislike their bizarre AI scanning orb or criticize their “extractive” token economic model, but one thing is undeniable: their ambition.
The mission of World Proof of Human is to build a global identity and financial network to distinguish between humans and AI online while promoting global economic participation.
This is also one of the core missions of cryptocurrency.
Farcaster
Farcaster’s X bio might be the least ambitious-sounding description among all crypto projects: “A sufficiently decentralized social network.”
“Sufficiently decentralized” doesn’t sound very ambitious. But Farcaster is quietly achieving it.
It’s building an open social network, similar to X, but with censorship resistance and user ownership.
Instead of putting all content on-chain and sacrificing user experience, it only decentralizes the key parts: usernames, messages, and the read/write permissions of the network.
This is enough to ensure freedom while avoiding the downsides of complete decentralization.
Anyone can build applications on its foundation, and no one can remove you from the platform. While certain front-end user interfaces may ban you, users can easily migrate to other platforms.
Base has proven the effectiveness of the Farcaster approach in its latest Base application.
Can’t wait to see its token launch!
Hyperliquid
This seems like an obvious choice.
However, I only truly became a believer when OKX + Binance tried to suppress Hyperliquid.
Today, HYPE has become a movement aimed at shifting all trading from centralized exchanges (CEX) to decentralized exchanges (DEX).
Even surpassing Binance. Isn’t that ambitious and full of dreams?
HL is already strong in the perpetual debt market, but I believe they will become even stronger in the spot market.
Hyperliquid.
Polymarket
The cost and time required to create misinformation or spread fake news are minimal.
But answering questions like “Will vaccines cause autism?” requires billions in research funding and a lot of time.
The truth is indeed expensive. In this age filled with fake news and AI content, revealing what really happens is more valuable than ever.
Polymarket’s strength has long been proven: it has outperformed traditional media in predicting U.S. election outcomes.
That’s why Polymarket is one of the protocols that makes me dream big. Looking forward to their token airdrop!
Liquity
Since the collapse of Terra, most people have given up on the dream of building a truly decentralized stablecoin.
Maker has turned to traditional finance (TradFi) and real-world assets (RWA); even the fiat-backed stablecoin Rai, once championed by Vitalik Buterin, has chosen to pivot.
Liquity may be our last chance to achieve a truly decentralized and minimally governed stablecoin.
Although Liquity V2 is slowly growing, its total locked value (TVL) is only $136 million, and LQTY’s market cap is less than $100 million.
In terms of adoption, Liquity has a long way to go, but their vision is inspiring. One day, the crypto world will need a decentralized stablecoin again.
Higher, further.
Fluid
Listen, I know I’m their ambassador, but there’s a reason Fluid is the only project I’m personally involved in.
When they announced their goal to surpass Uniswap in trading volume, I was both surprised and inspired—after all, they focus on lending protocols.
And one day, Fluid did briefly surpass Uniswap on Ethereum.
With the recent launch of Fluid DEX Lite, I expect the trading volume, total locked value (TVL) in lending, and the price of $FLUID to reach new heights.
What projects or tokens inspire you to dream? Feel free to share in the comments!
Raise Your Goals
The 2017/18 crypto cycle was the peak of dreams.
Every token had grand ambitions: Uber, Airbnb on the blockchain, IoT (IOTA), supply chain management (VeChain), decentralized advertising markets (Brave), decentralized banking (Bankera), and more.
However, these remained at the white paper level, lacking technological support.
The situation was different in 2020/21: the vision of decentralized finance (DeFi) and self-governance was supported by smart contracts and real decentralized applications (dApps).
But the governance of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and true on-chain decentralization have yet to be realized, and DeFi has gradually evolved into on-chain finance.
Today’s cycle focuses on external factors: ETFs, real-world assets (RWAs), and regulation.
The dreams within the crypto industry have become smaller, and price expectations have shrunk accordingly, despite many positive developments over the years.
We are at a crossroads for the mass adoption of cryptocurrency, yet many refuse to pursue bigger dreams. Your price targets are too conservative.
Just NVIDIA’s market cap exceeds that of the entire cryptocurrency market. Nevertheless, NVIDIA’s stock price has risen 604% over the years.
With supportive regulatory policies for crypto and the active adoption of traditional finance (TradFi), the crypto industry is moving toward a new era.
It’s time to amplify your dreams and raise your goals several times! The future of the crypto world is broader than you can imagine.
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