Author: Jademont Zheng, Co-founder and CEO of Waterdrip Capital

The current state of the entire cryptocurrency industry is something that most people did not expect a few years ago.

Web3 token projects are dying in batches.

Almost no token project founder has not experienced rights protection, litigation, or community liquidation. It’s undeniable that some founders genuinely wanted to create good products and ecosystems, but when the avalanche happened, very few could remain unscathed.

Leading CEXs are gradually losing industry influence.

Even with trading volumes reaching new highs, they essentially resemble traditional brokerages more and more, responsible for trading but no longer holding the rights to asset issuance and pricing. Compared to capital market infrastructures like Nasdaq, the gap is actually widening.

Primary market investment institutions are collectively withdrawing.

It’s not that there is no funding, but rather the absence of an exit mechanism. Some institutions tacitly allow project parties to manipulate token prices, completing value transfers together; others have simply left the industry. Without long-term returns or emotional value, it’s better to invest in other fields.

In an avalanche, no snowflake is completely innocent; however, the responsibility each snowflake bears is not the same.

In my view, a few snowflakes are particularly heavy.

First, FTX and Luna.

They collapsed one after another during the height of the industry, destroying traditional capital's trust in the entire sector and causing many institutional funds to remain hesitant even to this day.

Second, leading CEXs.

During the industry's most glorious time, they should have taken on the responsibility of being the leader: establishing higher standards for token listings, helping the market filter quality projects, advocating long-termism, and forming a healthy industry culture.

But reality is exactly the opposite. Short-term interests have overshadowed everything, and the mass production of worthless tokens by token issuing groups and rapid liquidity harvesting has become the mainstream approach. Platforms have earned listing fees and trading volumes, but also overdrawn the entire industry’s credibility. When the tide goes out, there are no winners; everyone is in the same boat.

Third, the Ethereum Foundation.

I have always believed that the transition from PoW to PoS is a severely overrated decision. It has indeed reduced energy consumption, but the costs saved are almost negligible compared to the development opportunities lost as a result.

If Ethereum had continued to evolve along PoW and had pushed forward the development of computing infrastructure, it could have grown into the world’s largest blockchain-based AI computing network, occupying a more important strategic position in the AI era. The shift to PoS has prematurely ended this possibility.

So, does this industry still have opportunities?

Of course it does.

However, compared to the aforementioned factors that have determined the industry's direction, there are not many variables left that can truly reverse the trend.

I believe that, in the future, two things might truly restart a new wave of prosperity:

One is that the U.S. incorporates BTC into its national strategic reserves and continues actual purchases, thereby rebuilding global capital's confidence in crypto assets;

The second is that a truly super application with hundreds of millions of users is born on-chain, capable of creating real value, allowing blockchain to once again prove itself as not only capable of issuing assets but also of creating demand.

Aside from that, other positive factors seem more like periodic rebounds rather than a new era.

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。