In economics, there is a very interesting concept: the lemon market.
Not to be confused with actual lemons.
But it is about markets where sellers know their products well, while buyers are... guessing.
You buy a used car.
Outside is shiny.
A few weeks later, the engine starts to rattle.
You realize you've bought a 'lemon'.
---
Crypto - in the eyes of many - is gradually becoming a market like that.
Founder. VC. Market maker.
They hold all the important data.
And individual investors?
Only a few tweets from KOLs, a few empty promises from whitepapers.
Then pray.
This is the seed of the 'lemon market':
Buyers cannot distinguish between good and bad projects.
Serious people give up.
Fraudsters remain.
But...
Is this an inevitable fate?
---
In fact, crypto was born with a promise to the contrary: transparency.
Blockchain is designed as an immutable system.
You can see every transaction clearly.
Every wallet.
Every cash flow.
But that's just the surface.
You can see the water clearly, but whether the bottom of the pond is clean is another matter.
You know the circulating tokens, but...
What about locked tokens?
Who is controlling them?
When will they be released into the market?
Those questions are often avoided.
Deliberately.
And that is the critical weakness of crypto today: information asymmetry.
Buyers are always at a disadvantage.
When they lose trust, they stop playing.
Capital flow stops.
Liquidity disappears.
George Akerlof once warned about this:
When no one believes in good goods,
The market is left with only 'lemons'.
---
But crypto - for the first time in financial history - has a chance to break that curse.
Blockchain is the X-ray machine.
It can reveal what traditional markets try to hide.
But remember:
Blockchain is not a magic bullet.
Transparency does not happen on its own.
It needs to become a survival standard, not just a slogan.
Think simply like this:
You feel safer buying fruits at the supermarket than on the sidewalk.
Why?
Because the fruits at the supermarket have labels.
Clear origin.
Clear expiration date.
Clear quality.
Transparency = trust.
Trust = willingness to spend money.
Crypto can absolutely do the same.
Imagine:
Every project must submit a crypto version of an S1 filing.
Just like a company before an IPO.
Tokenomics? Transparency.
Unlock schedule? Clarity.
Cash flow? Verifiable.
No more guessing.
No more ambiguity.
Only facts remain.
And that is the day crypto truly matures.
But waiting for the founders to do this is... a dream.
---
The greatest responsibility lies with the investors.
With you.
And with me.
You do not control the market.
But you can always control your wallet.
If a project is not transparent,
Skip.
Crypto is not short of good opportunities.
But your wallet is not infinite.
If you are a founder or builder?
Transparency is not a nuisance.
It is a competitive advantage.
You will attract smarter capital.
A more sustainable community.
And more serious investors.
Be transparent.
Don't sell lemons.
Don't let others guess what you have in hand.
Crypto does not necessarily have to be a 'lemon market'.
Blockchain is the tool to break that fate.
But blockchain cannot do anything by itself.
We - the users, investors, builders - are the ones who decide.
The final question is not:
"Will crypto become a lemon market?"
But it is:
Are we willing to demand transparency,
before this market collapses on its own?