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How Quantum Computing Threatens Cryptocurrency

Current mainstream cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, primarily rely on hash functions (such as SHA-256) and public key cryptography (such as ECDSA elliptic curve signatures) to ensure security. However, the development of quantum computing poses a serious threat to these two cornerstones.

First, Shor's algorithm in quantum computing can efficiently break elliptic curve encryption, directly deriving the private key from the public key. This means that once the public key is exposed, attackers can forge transactions and steal assets. In on-chain historical data like Bitcoin, many early accounts' public keys have already been made public, and once quantum computing matures, these assets can easily be stolen.

Second, Grover's algorithm can enhance the efficiency of brute-forcing hash functions to the square root level of classical computers. Although the direct threat to standard hash functions like SHA-256 is limited in the short term, in scenarios such as mining competition and attacking old transaction data, quantum miners will gain a significant advantage.

Overall, the threats posed by quantum computing to cryptocurrency are mainly reflected in the destruction of transaction signatures, unfair competition in mining, and the potential for on-chain data tampering.

Currently, although truly threatening quantum computers have not yet emerged, major blockchain projects around the world are actively researching quantum-resistant cryptographic technologies, such as lattice-based cryptography and hash signatures, to proactively address future challenges.

In short, quantum computing is a major test that the cryptocurrency sector cannot avoid in the future. Those who can plan ahead will be able to survive in the crisis.

2025 Cryptocurrency Market's Latest Trends

I. Industry Overview

As we enter 2025, the global macro environment is complex and ever-changing, with traditional financial systems being challenged, the cryptocurrency market is once again revitalized. With technological innovation and capital inflow, several new investment trends have emerged in the cryptocurrency space. This report summarizes the current most focused trends and provides corresponding risk warnings.

II. Latest Trend Discoveries

1. AI+DeFi (Smart Finance)

AI
technology is deeply integrating with DeFi protocols, promoting intelligent investment, dynamic risk management, and market prediction development. AI can analyze on-chain data in real-time, optimize asset allocation, and enhance the user experience of DeFi products.

2. Tokenization of Real World Assets (RWA)

RWA significantly enhances asset liquidity and transparency by bringing real-world assets (such as real estate and bonds) on-chain, lowering the barriers for traditional investments.

3. Bitcoin Spot ETF Effect

The approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs in multiple countries has made it easier for institutional investors to compliantly allocate Bitcoin, driving up BTC prices and reviving overall market sentiment.

4. Meme Coins and Social Narrative

Meme coins driven by social platforms and KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) have once again become a hotspot, characterized by short project cycles and strong explosive potential.

5. Green Blockchain and Eco-Friendly Mining

In response to environmental pressures, blockchain projects driven by green energy are favored, such as new mining facilities utilizing solar and wind energy, as well as low-energy public chains.

Has POW consensus become outdated?

Proof of Work (POW) was once a groundbreaking design in the blockchain field, ensuring the security and decentralization of networks like Bitcoin. It generates new blocks through computational power competition, with simple rules and strong resistance to attacks.

However, over time, the issues with POW have become increasingly apparent. First, the energy consumption is enormous, with the annual electricity consumption of the Bitcoin network exceeding that of some countries. Second, the industrialization of mining has led to a concentration of computational power in the hands of a few large mining pools, weakening decentralization. In addition, POW has low transaction efficiency, making it difficult to support complex application demands.

As a result, new consensus mechanisms like Proof of Stake (POS) have started to emerge. POS ensures network security through staking tokens, significantly reducing energy consumption and improving processing speed, making it a new choice for projects like Ethereum.

So, is POW outdated? The answer is not absolute. As digital gold, Bitcoin still requires POW to provide the highest level of security. For application-oriented public chains that require high performance and low energy consumption, mechanisms like POS are undoubtedly more advantageous.

In the future, POW will continue to exist, but it will be more concentrated in the field of value storage. The blockchain world will be an era of coexistence of various consensus mechanisms.

BM's Dream Building and Abandonment: The Rise and Fall Truths of BTS, Steem, and EOS

Introduction BM (Daniel Larimer) as an important figure in the blockchain field.
The three major projects (BTS, Steem, EOS) have all experienced great success followed by decline, with BM stepping away at critical moments.
The main theme of the article: Exploring BM's dream building and abandonment model.

1. BitShares (BTS): The First Dream of Decentralized Trading

Project Birth: Launched in 2013, proposing decentralized exchange + DPOS consensus.
Early Glory: Rapid transaction confirmation, top ten in market value.
Problems Arise:
Frequent changes to the technological route, community division.
Lack of sustained commercialization push.
BM Leaves: Exited in early 2015, turned to Steem.

2. Steem: The Disillusionment of the Blockchain Content Incentive Empire

Project Birth: Founded in 2016 with Ned Scott, focusing on content incentives.
Early Glory: Explosive user growth, successful Upvote monetization model.
Problems Arise:
Token distribution is extremely centralized.
Severe inflation, decline in content quality.
Promised SMT (Smart Media Token) development missed deadlines.
BM Leaves: Exited Steemit at the end of 2017, turned to EOS.
Subsequent Conflict: Steem was eventually acquired by Justin Sun, leading to community rebellion.

3. EOS: The Most Expensive Failure

Project Birth: Launched in 2017, managed by Block.one, claiming to build a blockchain operating system.
Early Glory: Raised over $4 billion, the largest ICO in history.
Problems Arise:
Performance and stability below expectations.
DApp ecosystem development is limited, high cost of resource leasing.
Node interests become factionalized, governance fails.
BM Leaves: Resigned as CTO at the end of 2019, faded out of Block.one.
Subsequent EOS: Price plummets, project ecosystem gradually shrinks.
Summary: The Two Sides of Genius and Abandonment

BM's technical talent is undeniable (important contributions such as DPOS, on-chain governance, etc.).
However, he is severely lacking in operations and sustainable ecosystem building.
Extremely invested in the early stages of creation, but once faced with complex real-world issues, he quickly exits.
What is left are three unfinished kingdoms and a community in disarray.

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Ethereum Enters the Era of Zero Innovation

Once, Ethereum was synonymous with blockchain innovation. From smart contracts to DeFi, NFTs, and Layer 2 scalability, every bull market has been marked by Ethereum's presence. However, standing here today, we must admit: Ethereum is entering a 'zero innovation era'.

Although the merge of Ethereum 2.0 has been completed, it is more of an infrastructure update rather than a revolutionary innovation. Scaling solutions like Rollup and Danksharding have been slow to materialize, and Layer 2 projects are trapped in homogeneous competition, relying on airdrops and incentives to maintain activity.

Within the ecosystem, the DeFi and NFT sectors have become highly competitive, with new projects being very similar, narratives weakening, and truly groundbreaking applications being rare. At the same time, innovative directions such as AI + blockchain, modular blockchains (like Celestia), and the new generation of high-performance public chains (like Sui and Monad) are increasingly occurring outside of Ethereum.

Ethereum is gradually becoming a stable yet conservative platform, akin to the TCP/IP protocol in the internet—fundamental and necessary, but no longer the playground for dreamers.

The tide of innovation continues to surge, but it is no longer exclusive to Ethereum.

$ETH

Review: Three Years After China's Mining Ban, Miners Seek Survival Abroad

In September 2021, China全面禁止虚拟货币挖矿, marking the end of an era. At that time, China accounted for over 60% of the global Bitcoin hash rate, making it the world's largest mining center. Under the mining ban, many mining farms were forced to shut down, and miners embarked on an unprecedented 'overseas migration.'

Kazakhstan, the United States, and Canada became the preferred destinations. Chinese miners in Kazakhstan propelled the Bitcoin hash rate to the second highest in the world, while areas like Texas in the United States attracted a large number of mining machines due to friendly policies. Some miners achieved survival through legal registration and transitioning to green energy mining, but many others had to frequently relocate to cope with fluctuating electricity prices and policy changes.

However, going overseas is not a permanent solution. Global regulation is becoming increasingly stringent, Kazakhstan has begun to impose taxes and electricity limits, and places like Angola have even implemented mining bans. Cultural differences, legal risks, and operational costs have also become new challenges, leading many small and medium-sized miners to ultimately exit the competition.

Returning to today, miners have already realized that merely relying on mining is becoming unsustainable. In the future, compliance with regulations, green energy, and business diversification will become key survival strategies. China's mining ban has not only reshaped the global mining landscape but also forced the entire industry to transition towards a more professional, compliant, and sustainable direction.

Three years have passed, and the story continues.

Bitcoin (BTC) needs to be transferred to a quantum-resistant system because the ECDSA signature algorithm it uses can be broken by quantum computers. Once the public key is exposed, the private key can be inferred, and assets will be stolen.
The difficulty of the transfer mainly lies in four aspects: technically, a soft fork or hard fork is needed to introduce quantum-resistant signatures like Dilithium; in terms of community governance, global consensus is required (refer to the SegWit controversy); compatibility requires the coexistence of old and new wallets, and UTXOs with historically exposed public keys are particularly vulnerable to quantum attacks. Timing is also key: too early incurs high costs, and too late may lead to assets being seized instantly.
Specific transfer plans include:
Introducing quantum-resistant addresses through a soft fork (ideal but complex);
Switching through a hard fork (high risk, possible chain split);
Or migrating externally to a new chain (such as Bitcoin Quantum).
The greatest risk is that early unspent addresses cannot transfer on their own, and cold wallet users need to upgrade manually; a sudden attack from quantum hackers could sweep through all exposed addresses within hours.
Bitcoin core developers have included quantum resistance upgrades in their long-term research agenda, but there are no short-term upgrade plans.
The ideal situation is to complete the network-wide preparation within 5 years before quantum computing poses an actual threat to ECDSA, otherwise BTC faces a systemic security crisis.
#BTC $BTC

EVM: Behind, Yet Irreplaceable?

The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), as the pioneer of smart contracts, has driven the explosive growth of blockchain applications. However, from a technical perspective, the EVM has long seemed outdated.

First, the execution efficiency of the EVM is low. It uses interpreted execution, processing each instruction one by one, which is much slower than new generation parallel virtual machines like Solana's Sealevel or Aptos's Move VM. Second, the EVM has a single-threaded architecture and cannot process transactions in parallel, severely limiting throughput. In contrast, new blockchain technologies are actively introducing concurrent execution mechanisms, significantly enhancing processing capabilities. Additionally, the EVM's data structure is simple but inefficient, with high costs for accessing state, leading to performance bottlenecks for smart contracts during complex interactions. Not to mention, the EVM inherently lacks resource management and complex permission control features, requiring developers to fill in these gaps with contract logic, which is both cumbersome and error-prone.

However, despite its technological lag, the EVM still holds an unshakable dominant position in the crypto world. The largest number of blockchain developers globally are proficient in Solidity, with the richest ecosystem of DeFi and NFT projects, a complete toolchain (such as Metamask, Hardhat, Foundry, etc.), and almost all new chains are striving for EVM compatibility, such as BNB Chain, Polygon, Arbitrum, etc.

This makes the EVM the "TCP/IP" of the blockchain field: the technology may not be optimal, but the entire infrastructure has been deeply built around it, making migration costly and difficult.

In summary, the EVM has become outdated in technical evolution, but due to its vast developer network, mature ecosystem, and compatibility advantages, it still firmly controls the center of blockchain applications. In the future, perhaps the real revolution is not to abandon the EVM, but to find a new paradigm that balances ecology and performance.

Cryptocurrency Embraces the AI Track: A True Technological Integration, Not Concept Speculation

In recent years, "AI concept coins" have been frequently speculated in the cryptocurrency market, with prices soaring and plummeting, giving the impression that cryptocurrencies are merely riding the AI hype. However, a profound transformation is quietly occurring: AI is not just a gimmick for speculation, but is gradually becoming the core driving force behind the development of blockchain technology.

First, the biggest role of AI in the blockchain field is to enhance the intelligence level of the system. Traditional blockchain protocols rely on hard-coded rules for decision-making, verification, and governance, which lack flexibility. By introducing AI algorithms, on-chain governance can dynamically adjust parameters based on community sentiment, on-chain data, and external events, allowing the blockchain to evolve from "dead rules" to a "living network." This not only improves the adaptability of decentralized systems but also makes blockchain governance more efficient and precise.

Second, AI is deeply transforming the smart contract and oracle systems. While traditional smart contracts are immutable, they are also rigid and prone to errors. AI models can provide real-time environmental awareness and dynamic execution judgments for smart contracts, reducing design flaws and enhancing the true "intelligence" of smart contracts. At the same time, oracle systems can more accurately filter data sources and identify fraudulent attacks through machine learning, fundamentally enhancing the reliability of on-chain data.

Additionally, AI greatly expands the boundary of blockchain application scenarios. In areas such as identity verification, privacy computing, decentralized finance (DeFi) risk control, and NFT intelligent generation, AI is an indispensable driving force. Blockchain provides a decentralized trust foundation, while AI endows it with the ability to understand the world and adapt to changes.

Therefore, what truly deserves attention is not those short-term speculative projects that ride on AI's coattails, but those that use AI technology as the underlying architecture to redefine the future form of blockchain. This integration will give rise to a brand new distributed intelligent network, breaking the old patterns of traditional finance, data monopolies, and application centralization.

The combination of cryptocurrency and AI is not a simple overlay of concepts but a deep-seated technological revolution. The future of the crypto world will belong to those who truly understand and harness the power of AI.

AI and the Digital Currency Trading Market: Symbiosis and Manipulation

In the past decade, the digital currency market has attracted countless speculators with its extreme volatility and openness. With the explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, a silent revolution has already unfolded in the field of crypto trading.

AI was first introduced to the crypto market as a tool for high-frequency trading (HFT) and quantitative strategies. Through real-time data analysis, sentiment monitoring, and chart recognition, AI can capture tiny fluctuations in milliseconds that human traders cannot perceive, thus maximizing profits. In a 24/7, unregulated market, AI's speed and learning ability become overwhelming advantages.

The deeper change lies in the fact that AI is not only participating in trading but also reshaping the market itself. A large number of machine learning-based trading robots operate day and night, and their collective behavior begins to influence market rhythms—sharp rises and falls no longer simply stem from human panic or greed but are triggered by the confrontation, chasing, and misjudgments among machines, leading to a chain reaction.

Meanwhile, AI has also changed the way information flows. By utilizing natural language processing (NLP) technology, AI can scan global social media, news headlines, and on-chain data in real time, extracting market sentiment and positioning in advance. This “sentiment arbitrage” model further exacerbates the extreme volatility and fragility of the crypto market.

However, the most controversial aspect is that AI has made market manipulation unprecedentedly precise. By faking a large number of trade orders (wash trading), subtly manipulating social sentiment, and creating false trends, AI trading teams can quietly control coin prices and even subtly influence voting results in on-chain protocol governance. The promised “decentralized free market” of digital currency is being re-concentrated and dominated by a small number of entities with advanced AI technology.

In the future, AI's role in the crypto world will only become more important. It is both an accelerator and a destroyer: on one hand, making the market more efficient and intelligent; on the other hand, ruthlessly crushing ordinary investors, reducing them to mere fodder in the smart game.

In today's world where AI sweeps through the digital currency market, the real competition is no longer a gamble between individuals but a war between algorithms.

Bitcoin: The Ideal is Dead, Only Bets Remain

Satoshi Nakamoto designed Bitcoin to liberate individuals, freeing the financial system from the dominance of corrupt and inefficient authorities. At that time, Bitcoin was rebellious, grassroots, and a spark of freedom.

Today, Bitcoin has transformed into the new darling of the capital market. It is no longer "peer-to-peer electronic cash," but rather "peer-to-peer financial speculation." Whales, hedge funds, and politicians raise Bitcoin high, as if shouting for freedom, when in reality they are betting on power.

When Trump publicly announced his holdings in Bitcoin and packaged it as a national asset of the United States, at that moment, Bitcoin completely became a tool of power. Satoshi envisioned a currency that resists power, not a speculative chip in the hands of the president.

Bitcoin's price is no longer dictated by free trading, but is manipulated by macro policies, dollar liquidity, and Wall Street sentiment. What was originally a weapon to break the old world has ultimately become a weapon in the hands of the old world.

What Satoshi left the world was a beautiful yet fleeting illusion: we once believed that currency could belong to the people. But today, Bitcoin has long been auctioned off under the spotlight of exchanges, becoming a pawn in the new game of power.

Is the spark of freedom still alive? Perhaps it is, but it has already been blown to the brink of death by the fierce winds of capital.
#BTC $BTC

Is Ethereum's Slow Innovation Leading to a Shaky Web3 Throne?
Since its inception in 2015, Ethereum has been synonymous with smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps), serving as the core infrastructure of the entire Web3 ecosystem. However, in the past two years, Ethereum's development has gradually revealed issues of 'lack of innovation and slow pace', raising doubts within the community about its future dominance.
Firstly, from a technical perspective, the upgrade to Ethereum 2.0 (i.e., transitioning to a PoS consensus mechanism) is significant, but the implementation process is extremely slow. From 'The Merge' to 'Sharding' and then to the future 'Danksharding', each phase requires several years. This slow iteration pace seems particularly sluggish in the rapidly developing crypto industry, prompting many developers and users to turn to more 'agile' alternatives such as Solana, Avalanche, and Sui.
Secondly, although Layer 2 solutions have greatly alleviated congestion on the mainnet, there is severe ecological fragmentation, complex user experiences, and cross-chain interactions are still not smooth. Projects like Optimism, Arbitrum, zkSync, and Base are progressing, but they have not achieved a 'unified experience'; instead, they have exacerbated ecological fragmentation. In contrast, some new public chains opting for a 'one chain to solve everything' design are more favored by users.
Moreover, the governance method of the Ethereum community has also been criticized. Due to its overly decentralized and strong consensus culture, any protocol changes require long discussions and testing. While this ensures the robustness of the system, Ethereum's response is often lagging when faced with new narratives (such as AI, DePIN, RWA), missing out on opportunities.
Ethereum is not lacking in innovation, but rather its innovation is too conservative. As infrastructure, this robust strategy is understandable, but in an era where new public chains frequently introduce new technologies and play styles, Ethereum must speed up its pace; otherwise, it will gradually lose its appeal to developers and funds.
In summary, Ethereum remains the 'pillar of stability' in the industry, but if it cannot accelerate innovation in technology, user experience, and ecological integration, its Web3 throne may indeed be shaken. The next few years are a critical window for Ethereum to solidify its dominant position and an excellent opportunity for challengers to overtake.

As of April 2025, significant movements of whale funds in the Bitcoin (BTC) market indicate that large investors are actively adjusting their holdings strategy, which may signal a change in market trends.

🐋 Surge in Whale Wallets
According to Glassnode data, as of April 15, the number of wallets holding more than 1,000 BTC has increased to 2,107, reaching the highest level in four months. Since the end of February, more than 60 new whale wallets have been added, showing the continued accumulation behavior of large investors during the market adjustment period.

📈 Whale Buying Activity Drives Price Up
On major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase, whale buying activity has significantly increased, pushing the price of Bitcoin above $90,000. CryptoQuant data shows that the BTC/USD trading pair price on Coinbase is higher than the BTC/USDT on Binance, reflecting a resurgence of interest from U.S. buyers.

Additionally, Binance's order book data shows increased buying activity across all whale categories, with the previous selling pressure barrier at $90,000 having been broken, opening up space for further price increases.

🔁 Behavioral Changes of Long-Term Holders
In the first quarter of 2025, holders of Bitcoin for more than seven years transferred approximately 62,800 BTC, a 121% increase compared to 28,000 BTC during the same period in 2024. This change may reflect adjustments by long-term holders in response to the macroeconomic environment or market expectations.

🧠 Market Sentiment and Potential Trends
Although short-term holders have sold off during the market adjustment, the continued accumulation behavior of long-term holders and whales indicates their confidence in the long-term value of Bitcoin. This behavioral difference may provide support for the market, suggesting that prices could rise further.

✅ Conclusion
Recent fund movements of Bitcoin whales show that large investors are actively positioning themselves during the market adjustment, which may indicate a shift in market trends. Investors should closely monitor these developments to better seize market opportunities.

How much Bitcoin does Satoshi Nakamoto hold? Where did his money go? Has he really disappeared?

Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of Bitcoin, has not been seen since Bitcoin was born in 2009, and his true identity remains unknown to this day. However, the 'digital legacy' he left behind is still active in the crypto world, especially the dormant million Bitcoins, which have become the focus of countless people's attention.

According to research by on-chain analysis expert Sergio Lerner, Satoshi mined approximately 1.1 million BTC in 2009 using a unique mining pattern known as the 'Patoshi Pattern.' These coins are scattered across multiple addresses and have remained untouched to this day. This batch of Bitcoins now has a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars, yet has never participated in any transactions or transfers, nor have they been used for staking or custody. They are like assets frozen in time, becoming the most mysterious existence in the entire Bitcoin network.

So why doesn't Satoshi utilize this wealth? Is he still around?

By the end of 2010, he gradually stepped back from Bitcoin development, leaving his last email in 2011, stating, 'I have moved on to other projects,' and then completely disappeared. No one has ever seen him come forward to explain his identity, nor has he used a private key to prove his existence. Despite various speculations from the outside world, such as he being Hal Finney, Nick Szabo, or even some organization, it has never been confirmed.

Satoshi's 'disappearance,' in a sense, seems deliberate. He left no traceable clues and did not exploit the success of Bitcoin for personal gain. His retreat perfectly illustrates the decentralized philosophy of Bitcoin.

Whether he is still around may no longer matter. Bitcoin itself has become his most powerful 'proof of presence.'

BTC rises alone, new altcoins emerge endlessly, while old altcoins languish

In today's crypto market, Bitcoin (BTC) once again demonstrates its dominance as the leading asset. During a generally sluggish market phase, BTC stands out, continuously breaking through key resistance levels and attracting significant capital inflow. This phenomenon of "Bitcoin rising alone" reveals not only the market's high trust in Bitcoin but also reflects the severe divergence within the entire altcoin ecosystem.

New altcoins are emerging one after another, with various "concept coins," "AI coins," and "RWA tokens" launching daily. They attract the attention of short-term speculators with new technologies and narratives, attempting to replicate the wealth myths from previous bull markets through traffic and hype. However, most of these new coins lack real-world applications and solid community support, quickly becoming submerged in market volatility and liquidity depletion.

The situation for old altcoins is even more awkward. Once-popular projects like EOS, ZIL, and XEM have shown almost no performance during this round of BTC's rise, with prices remaining low for an extended period, trading volumes being light, and community activity continuously declining. Investor confidence is weak, and developers are turning to emerging sectors, causing these projects to fall into a predicament of "neither hot speculation nor development," resembling a wasted effort.

This situation of "BTC rising alone while altcoins remain silent" reflects, to some extent, the trend of market maturation. Capital is increasingly inclined to flow into assets with "high certainty"—Bitcoin represents the largest consensus, the strongest brand, and the safest chain. Meanwhile, altcoins that lack a continuous narrative and genuine demand support are gradually being marginalized.

However, this does not mean that altcoins have no future. The essence of the market is rotation; projects that truly have technological support, a user base, and a clear roadmap may still see a "catch-up" rally after BTC's price stabilizes. But the current altcoin market is no longer an era where anyone can profit through speculation; it is now a time that tests the long-term value of projects and the cohesion of their communities.

In summary, Bitcoin remains the barometer of the crypto market, while the fate of altcoins increasingly depends on their "genuine substance."

#BTC

Why Bitcoin (BTC) is the Largest Meme Coin

When it comes to "Meme coins," people often think of cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) that carry strong internet culture labels. However, the true largest Meme coin is actually Bitcoin (BTC). Although Bitcoin is not technically a joke, its success and influence do embody the core characteristics of Meme coins—faith-driven, community consensus, narrative power, and cultural symbols.

First, the value of Bitcoin does not rely on national endorsements, corporate support, or stable assets; rather, it is built on the shared belief of global participants. Its total supply is fixed at 21 million coins, a setting that has been widely disseminated and mythologized, forming the legend of "digital gold." Like a powerful Meme, Bitcoin continuously spreads across the internet through slogans like "decentralization" and "anti-inflation," attracting more and more people to believe in it, buy it, and support it.

Secondly, the Bitcoin community has a strong sense of cultural identity. Supporters call themselves "Bitcoin Maximalists"; they not only buy Bitcoin but also spread Bitcoin philosophy and reject all alternative coins. They wear clothes with the Bitcoin symbol and treat "₿" as a symbol of faith, an action that is no different from any internet Meme culture—except it is broader and more profound.

Moreover, Bitcoin's initial success itself is a victory of "viral marketing." In 2009, a person using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper and open-source code online, which was gradually spread by a small group of followers. Without any official promotion or corporate publicity, Bitcoin spread spontaneously through the community, growing from a "technical toy" to a trillion-dollar asset in over a decade, truly the king of Memes.

In summary, Bitcoin is the largest Meme coin not because it is a joke coin, but because it exists, spreads, and dominates the entire crypto world in a Meme-like way. Its value comes not only from technology but also from consensus, and the way that consensus spreads is essentially a global-scale "internet meme."

Why has Litecoin declined?
Litecoin was once hailed as 'Bitcoin Silver', being the first successful Bitcoin altcoin in history. It was created in 2011 by former Google engineer Charlie Lee, with the initial vision of becoming a 'lightweight alternative to Bitcoin', focusing on faster transaction confirmation times and lower fees. In an era when there were few altcoins, Litecoin surged to the forefront of cryptocurrencies with slight improvements over Bitcoin and was even regarded as the 'King of Altcoins' for a time.

However, over time, Litecoin's influence has gradually waned, and this process is not difficult to understand. The decline of Litecoin was almost destined.

As the pioneer in the blockchain space, Bitcoin has first-mover advantage and a strong belief system, possessing the broadest consensus and the strongest network effect. It is the 'original', the foundation and symbol of the entire crypto world. Litecoin merely copied Bitcoin's code, made minor adjustments, such as changing the block time to 2.5 minutes, increasing the total supply to 84 million, and switching the algorithm to Scrypt to facilitate mining with CPUs for early regular users. Apart from these technical tweaks, it did not bring any fundamental innovations. Because of this, from the moment it was born, it was destined to be merely a 'shadow of Bitcoin'.

More critically, as the blockchain industry entered a period of rapid development, numerous new projects like Ethereum, Polkadot, and Solana introduced revolutionary use cases such as smart contracts, DeFi, and NFTs, promoting the diversification of the entire crypto ecosystem. These 'original' projects reaped the benefits of the times. In contrast, imitation coins like Litecoin, which lack unique application scenarios and have a barren ecosystem, gradually lost their presence.

Ironically, even founder Charlie Lee sold off his Litecoin holdings at the peak of the bull market, raising doubts about its future in the market. If the founder of a coin does not wish to hold it long-term, the market naturally loses confidence.

'Originals eat meat, imitators eat dirt'; Litecoin's glory was built from the outset on Bitcoin's halo. When altcoins proliferate and technological advancements accelerate, Litecoin, lacking core characteristics as a 'runner-up', will naturally be eliminated by the times. Its decline is not coincidental but inevitable.