While playing in Lijiang and Dali, several frontline Builders mentioned a shared feeling: the current primary market of Crypto seems to be trapped in a "multiple crisis of finding no way out":
1) The narrative has become completely meaningless, with casino culture taking over completely?
In fact, the truly frightening thing is not that the technological narrative cannot deliver, but that everyone has directly abandoned narrative packaging and fully embraced the MEME-style casino culture.
The slow delivery of the technological narrative is at least a matter of long-termism, with the initial VC round covering the innovation costs, and the project team going through the process of building, testing, and launching on the mainnet as per the Roadmap. The transparency during this period can help ordinary users recognize the project's strength and form value judgments.
But now? Everything has turned into a game of pure community operation and behind-the-scenes capital games, with trading opportunities exaggerated to daily or even minute counts. When the market no longer focuses on long-term construction around technological narratives, the risks of pure MEME trading are magnified, making this market more perilous for the vast majority.
2) Accelerating loss of developers, with technological innovation stagnating?
Data does not lie. According to relevant data, the number of active Crypto developers on Github has declined by nearly 30% from last year's peak, while the hiring packages for engineers in AI and traditional tech companies have been skyrocketing during the same period.
The logic is simple: when OpenAI, Google, and Meta are scrambling for talent in the AI arms race to build silicon-based civilization, how many developers can be retained by Crypto's narrative of "disrupting the internet"?
The key is that after two to three rounds of Build cycles, developers in Crypto have fallen into a stage of rapidly declining innovation enthusiasm, with very few real breakthroughs from 0 to 1. Concepts like Restaking, Intent, and AI Agent have been popularized time and again, but where are the practical applications? Where is the PMF? For some reason, everyone is reinventing the wheel, but powerless, helplessly concerned about how far the wheel can go?
Originally caught in market noise and wasted time, most people still had a belief: Hold on, it will eventually get better. But now? Where are the Holders?
3) Lack of attraction for off-market increment, is Crypto becoming marginalized?
Crypto's appeal to off-market funds and talent is clearly lacking. Just look at the current situation: the real secondary altcoin season is in the US stock AI market, and the real primary innovation market is in the web2AI field. Crypto's appeal to traditional VCs and top talent is increasingly diminishing, and it even gets labeled with the hat of "speculation", losing its dignity.
The reason lies in the fact that beyond the "issuing coins" golden signboard, Crypto does not have any other solid trump cards. Although ETFs have brought institutional capital, that is more about recognition on the financial instrument level, and the inflow of Wall Street funds is merely asset allocation, which is very tenuous in relation to the altcoin market.
What scenarios are absolutely necessary for Crypto? In the past, Crypto's value lay in providing a relatively free experimental space for financial innovation. But now that traditional financial institutions are starting to embrace this market through stablecoins, ETFs, and other means, what irreplaceable value can Crypto bring to users besides the technical characteristic of "decentralization"?
Note: This topic is raised for discussion. Although confused, at least there is a willingness to believe that the real way out may be just around the corner. Staying optimistic is the best support; otherwise, what else can be done!
