Background

In the current crypto landscape, despite the robust infrastructure of ecosystems led by Bitcoin and Ethereum, there remains a pressing need for more innovative and user-friendly applications that actually useful to drive broader adoption of blockchain technology.

The Crypto User's Journey: Navigating the Shift from Speculation to Sustainable Gains

Most users come to crypto not for consumption, but for profit. This has led to phenomena such as the ICO boom, DeFi summer, Metaverse hype, and the Memecoin cycles, each of which has sparked excitement but most of them failed to provide long-term, sustainable gains. These products face several significant challenges:

1. Complexity: Existing protocols often require deep technical knowledge, creating a barrier for mainstream users.

2. Lack of Sustainable Revenue Generation: Most protocols and products fail to establish sustainable revenue models, often relying on inflationary tokenomics that dilute value over time. At the same time, even if the protocol generates revenue, this income often has no relation to the token holders. As a result, users always lose money by holding these tokens.

3. Instability in User Earnings: Many products fail to offer users steady, reliable earnings. Major drawdowns and ‘death spirals’ frequently occur, leading to short product lifecycles and pushing users through repeated cycles of excitement, anxiety, and eventual disappointment. Let's look back at Luna/UST, the biggest issue was that their $UST couldn't genuinely generate a 20% annual yield. They were propping up the 20% yield with $Luna's inflated value, essentially creating returns out of thin air.

4. Lack of Profitable Early-Stage Opportunities: While airdrop farming provides a way to earn early tokens, it often requires users to invest significant time and pay high gas fees or commissions, while also facing concerns about being mistaken for Sybil attackers. As the crypto market evolves, the secondary market has fewer buyers for those "star projects," and pure airdrop farming is becoming increasingly bleak. Sometimes, early supporters end up becoming the actual source of profit for the project. All these highlight a deeper issue: these projects lack the native ability to generate sustainable revenue.

5. Tokens Lack Value: They’ve become mere profit tools for a select few, leaving Cex users to bear the costs. This trend has increasingly affected even early airdrop farmers and participants in VC rounds. In the end, someone has to pay the price in a zero-sum game.

6. Token Prices Dropping: After the token TGE on big exchanges, the tokens have continuously declined in price. Users no longer have any illusions about these tokens because they lose money no matter what they buy. This damages the reputation of big exchanges and the web3 industry itself, leaving the entire community feeling powerless.

Let's face the crucial truth:

The crucial truth is this: Everyone—project teams, exchanges, KOLs, early participants, market makers—wants to make money. But in the end, it's always the more honest, everyday investors who bear the brunt of the losses. Now, we've reached a breaking point: Is crypto heading toward a dead end? This is exactly the situation we are all facing in the crypto market in 2024.