When did retail investors start becoming the bag holders? Back in 2014–2015, the standout example was ETH. At the time, the ICO price was around $0.31, and the lowest price on the open market was about $0.433. Even if regular retail investors missed the ICO, they could still buy in at prices close to the early-stage valuation on the open market. Fast forward 4 years to 2018–2020, with SOL as the representative example. The seed round price was roughly $0.04, and the lowest price on CEX touched $0.50—12 times higher than the seed round price. Yet, retail investors could still achieve returns of over 100x. However, things took a sharp turn in 2021–2022. Take OP as an example: during the seed round, OP already had a $60M FDV. Around the time it launched on CEX, even at its relative low point, FDV reached $1.7B. Don’t forget, ETH’s ICO valuation back then didn’t even hit $26M. Now in 2024, STRK is practically daylight robbery. Its seed round FDV was already $80M. Before launching on CEX, private funding had pushed Starknet’s valuation to nearly $8B FDV. After launch, even the short-term low point hit $11B FDV, with the peak nearing $25B FDV. Without complementary bag holders, retail investors might end up losing everything in these VC-backed altcoins.