The opportunity cost of choosing a track in the crypto space varies for different crypto tracks (fields) over different time periods.

DeFi vs. NFT vs. GameFi vs. Yield Farming vs. Inscriptions vs. MEME

1⃣

In the summer of 2020, DeFi projects like $AAVE, $UNI, and $YFI exploded, with many tokens increasing tenfold or even hundredfold.

2⃣

In 2021, the NFT track became popular, with projects like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) surging, where early users of $BAYC received airdrops of $MAYC and $APE tokens worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, while DeFi entered a downward cycle instead.

3⃣

From late 2021 to early 2022, the GameFi (on-chain games) track (such as Axie Infinity) was hot, but soon entered a bear market, leading many GameFi projects to zero.

4⃣

In 2022, Yield Farming track early users of Uniswap received 400 UNI airdrops, with a peak value of about $16,000. Interacting with the Arbitrum ecosystem led to receiving ARB airdrops, with some accounts claiming hundreds of thousands of dollars, but then the Yield Farming track plummeted, with many being reaped.

5⃣

In 2023, Inscriptions, at the beginning of the year, the Ordinals protocol was released, and Ordinal Punks initially only required a few dollars in Gas fees, later reaching individual prices exceeding 50 BTC, with $ORDI peaking at over $96+. Following the explosion of inscriptions across various chains, over 99% went to zero.

6⃣

In 2024, the meme shitcoin season, VC coins vs. shitcoins, formed a stark contrast, one was a quick profit, while the other had mythical hundredfold gains. Market speculation was ignited, with funds chasing on-chain myths, resulting in many hundredfold+ MEME coins, such as $bonk, $goat, $act, $punt, $ai16z, $eliza, #zerebro, etc. By the end of the year, $TRUMP pushed funds to historical peaks, only to plummet, leading to many AI tokens nearing zero!

If you entered a track too early or missed an explosive opportunity, your opportunity cost is the high returns from other tracks.