Written by: TM

Translated by: Luffy, Foresight News

I have no personal grudges against the people I am about to mention, even though most of them dislike me for daring to speak the truth. That's fine; this is not about personal grudges, but about the truth.

Before "accusing" others, let me talk about how I became a KOL.

How I Became a KOL

I started trading cryptocurrencies in 2017 and became active in the crypto Twitter community in 2020.

During the last bull market, things were quite simple: on one side were insightful voices, and on the other were "traffic players" focused on boosting interaction. But at that time, no one paid much attention to this because the mainstream play was to hype altcoins. Influential people could not solely drive up the price of a coin; what truly mattered was sharing investment logic and core viewpoints.

For me, becoming a KOL was once a dream job, making money by discussing the technology I loved.

After the bear market consumed most of my net worth, I began to think about actively making money instead of just holding a bunch of "positions" and hoping for fate's favor.

It was from this point that everything changed.

KOLs of the 2021 Bull Market

The Rise of Meme Coin KOLs

In the winter of 2023, the first influential Solana ecosystem meme coin, WIF, quickly became popular, with its market cap soaring to several billion dollars at one point. They promised to hold a major marketing event: projecting WIF's logo onto the Las Vegas Sphere, but this plan fell through. The $3 million raised from the community is still frozen to this day.

Even so, issuing meme coins was not an easy task at that time. This situation changed in the summer of 2024 with the emergence of Pump.fun (a meme coin issuance platform), where Mitch became the first person to issue the token Xiwifhat.

There is a pattern here: KOLs always manage to seize trends early and then become the focus. But you might ask yourself: do they gain the upper hand because they truly have unique insights, or because they have direct connections with platforms and funds?

Take Mitch as an example; he "harvests" fans with his public wallet because people genuinely follow his trades. He carefully selects coins, builds a position, and once fans buy in and push the price up, he sells half of his position when it doubles. For him, this is a zero-risk operation.

He is not an isolated case; he just does it on a larger scale.

Before this, promoting meme coins was seen as pure fraud. But overnight, these "fraudsters" became popular.

Next came Murad. He was a banker and knew how to package himself: creating slides, presenting seemingly credible investment logic, and dissecting "fan psychology," all wrapped in a layer of professionalism.

He also built his own copy trading platform, published a "curated list of coins," while manipulating the token supply behind the scenes. Coincidentally, one of the coins he "recommended," SPX, was listed on a centralized exchange a week later. Is this really just a coincidence?

At that time, I realized: in this cycle, if you want to make money, you can only become a meme coin KOL. I sold out my principles and paid the price for it.

Why do I only talk about meme coin KOLs? Because in the past two years, KOLs in other fields have become largely irrelevant. If you miss an entire cycle, your opinions lose their weight.

The Rise of New Faces

By October 2024, I suddenly encountered some new faces: Orangie, Rasmr, Mika. Their follower growth was astonishing, seemingly out of nowhere, and their pace was very consistent, typical "industry promoters."

However, to be fair, Threadguy does not belong to this category. He built his influence step by step by posting long articles and speaking freely in X Spaces.

Faze Banks re-entered the scene, bringing along the "Los Angeles vape circle"—a group of scammers banding together for "harvesting." The subsequent events are unnecessary to elaborate on.

After that, Orangie once became a sensation across the internet, attracting a large number of young fans who loved "Fortnite" and "Friday Night Funkin'," fans who could easily relate to him.

The moment Adin Ross realized he was scammed

The No-Man's Land of KOLs

Today, there are no real "focal figures" in the crypto circle. People no longer listen to KOLs' opinions and even feel disgusted by them.

I have asked several communities, "Who is your favorite KOL?" The answer has always been: "None. These people should all die."

Now, there isn't even a clear "mainstream play"; it resembles the "endgame" of meme coins—no actual utility, just the issuance of tokens themselves. Every project is vying for attention from the same small pool of traders with funds.

The "harvesting nature" of this market has reached its peak, and most traders are losing money badly. The mentality of "no crying in the casino" forces people to put their last bit of money into those coins with a "one in a thousand chance of skyrocketing and a nine hundred ninety-nine in a thousand chance of going bust."

This is a sad market. KOLs survive in this environment and make things worse, but we cannot blame them entirely. We elevated them to this height, or rather, we indulged their growth.

They Are "Playing Chess," While We Are Just Watching the Show

When 99% of people in this field don't even have their own opinions, the term "KOL" itself is a joke. They are like feathers in the wind, pushed along by wave after wave of traffic, with no opinions of their own.

When was the last time you saw a sincere suggestion of "no hidden interests, no interaction boosting"?

Every KOL mentioned in this article has blocked me.

Why? Because I think independently and dare to speak the truth, which threatens their "game."

From my experience, people would rather block you than face the truth. Not seeing the harm they cause allows them to continue scamming with a clear conscience.

But karma is real, and "on-chain spirituality" (the idea that on-chain actions will leave traces, and good or evil will be rewarded) is not just empty talk. You reap what you sow.

At this point, further discussion is pointless.

The Future of KOLs

Nothing in the crypto circle will repeat itself, whether in narratives, scams, or absurd dramas. Sometimes history may be similar, but it will never repeat itself completely.

What will the future hold? I believe the market will shift towards "practicality." In the next cycle, just talking won't be enough; KOLs must actually do something, at least invest real money. Only then will power return to the true builders, not to those "pretenders."

I have noticed that the income from paid communities is declining. People are waking up and no longer want to be harvested. In the future, there will be even more resistance against KOLs.

In the past, developers who ran away would receive death threats. I'm not saying this extreme method is good, but it did make developers think twice. We may not return to that extreme state, but the market will definitely move towards a "reputation-based system." And that will change everything.

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