From History to Present: The Evolution of the Crypto Assets Industry

Looking back at the development of Crypto Assets, an interesting phenomenon can be observed: each page of history seems to hint at the possibility of "quick wealth." However, upon closer examination of these pages, we find the hidden figures of "speculators."

Crypto Assets Twitter ( CT ) has become an important channel for information dissemination in the industry. As a practitioner focused on protocols and data analysis, I realize that I may have overlooked some hot topics.

Recently, a new marketing approach has emerged on CT, combining KOL( key opinion leader) marketing with the concept of "shearing sheep". This method has become a major feature of the Chinese Crypto Assets Twitter community.

A certain project has successfully built a platform connecting project parties with KOLs, similar to some mature internet products. This is another project that can continue to operate after issuing tokens, following a certain fitness application.

This project is not entirely original, but rather a compilation of the essence of Chinese information flow over the past 10 years, covering aspects such as media frameworks and promoting KOL competition.

Group Chat Era: 2018-2021

The current rise of Crypto Assets ETFs, stablecoins, and DeFi may feel unfamiliar to some early participants. At that time, the industry was more straightforward, centered around Bitcoin and mining. Although it lacked diversity, people firmly believed that Bitcoin would eventually appreciate.

Although Louis XVI has become history, specialized content production, mainly driven by UGC and KOLs, has a clear starting point.

It is widely believed in the industry that the 3 o'clock community in 2018 marked the beginning of this. Since then, WeChat groups and AMAs have become the main marketing methods for several years, allowing founders to engage in face-to-face online communication with potential "community members."

The addition of a well-known investor is like a venture capital firm buying BAYC years later, marking the recognition of this niche stage by the mainstream.

AMA can be seen as a way to issue information assets, while a WeChat group serves as the launch pad. The 3 o'clock community is equivalent to a certain trading platform at that time, together forming the core memory of the first real bull market for Bitcoin after 2017.

Although there were already early generation KOLs at that time, the "Battle of Thousands of Media" was still presented in the form of media. On one hand, the market's recognition of KOL distribution capabilities was not high, and on the other hand, it was at the end of the peak period of self-media entrepreneurship triggered by WeChat public accounts.

In other words, the market prefers a combination of traditional media professionals and media brands. Several Crypto Assets media outlets have emerged, among which a certain media outlet has performed particularly well, established in 2017.

The period before May 19, 2017, can be considered the best era of the encryption industry, worth remembering forever.

The Brief Prosperity of Twitterscan: 2022

On May 19, 2021, a ban forced the industry to shift. In practice, entrepreneurs went abroad with their mining machines; in spirit, the crypto community moved to overseas social platforms, completely changing the information advantage of Chinese media.

Before this, the founder of a certain exchange secretly invested in a media outlet, the founder of Ethereum personally visited China, and the founder of EOS learned to use WeChat. In this context, Chinese media are even in a favorable position, possessing the largest computing power and consumer market in the world, and there is no need to publish content on overseas social media platforms.

But after May 19, the situation took a turn for the worse. Crypto Assets gradually became mainstream overseas, from venture capital to listing coins, Silicon Valley and Wall Street gradually took control of various aspects, and Chinese media had to learn to lower their stance to communicate with overseas project parties.

A key change is that a well-known media source has also disappeared with the ban, and the top-quality content producers and disseminators have gone silent after getting rich, leaving behind confused Chinese Crypto Assets users.

Before the rise of Crypto Assets, the presence of Chinese users on a certain social media platform was extremely low. The remaining influence of Chinese media declined sharply.

The KOL trend has just begun, with KOLs focused on technology and investment research being the first to achieve results. At that time, certain well-known individuals were the main contributors to content output, and in-depth research represented by certain analysts became mainstream.

KOLs who make a living as KOLs have just started, but since 2022, there have been significant changes.

1. A certain exchange goes bankrupt, a certain stablecoin collapses, and centralized exchanges face stricter regulations, causing the market to fall into an absolute low point, making project analysis difficult to justify.

2. The technical narrative is gradually collapsing, and the gap between high financing and actual delivery results is becoming larger, which will only fully erupt in 2024.

The dual collapse of investment research and technology has brought a highlight moment for professional KOLs, represented by Twitterscan. In September 2022, it completed a $4.56 million financing, with the participation of a well-known investment institution playing a role in market recognition.

The product concept of Twitterscan is not complicated; it helps users discover market trends by organizing cryptocurrency users and content on a certain social platform. At that time, the platform's API was relatively inexpensive.

But Twitterscan faces a fatal problem: how to complete the business closed loop?

Referring to the monetization methods of other information flow products, profits can only be extracted through paid APIs, tiered users, and other means. Clearly, Twitterscan finds it difficult to justify itself, as it merely extracts public information and cannot persuade users to pay a second time.

I believe that a certain project has learned some lessons from Twitterscan – it must be commercialized and must introduce token economics.

A Social Platform for Chip Startups: 2023

A certain social platform in 2023 is not far from us and is also the first pressure test on KOL monetization capabilities; a certain project is the second time.

The team has completely diverged from Twitterscan's information flow display direction, encouraging KOLs to trade their "influence" — Key, even creating false influence among each other. This is not surprising, as FOMO sentiment is a catalyst for trading volume.

This platform is also the first hit application after a well-known exchange launched a new public chain, and in my impression, it is the last large-scale application successfully developed by anonymous developers. According to data, the platform's daily active users can exceed 100,000.

Although the number of addresses cannot be equated to the number of people, I believe this data is relatively accurate. Although a certain project's English social media account ranks high, its influence is clearly not as strong as that of the platform. The global Crypto Assets users could gather to have nearly 100,000 active users.

From August 10 to September 1, the platform's highest daily income dropped from 1165 coins to a mere few. Although there were several recoveries afterward, and even acceptance of investment from a well-known investment institution, the issuance of coins in 2024 was nothing more than a cliché storyline similar to other projects.

The platform helps us prove:

1. The content itself is not valuable; as a trading target, content can only serve as an intermediary for information flow and capital flow, and cannot directly bear the impact of transactions.

2. SocialFi has faced repeated failures: multiple projects have failed one after another, and currently in the crypto circle, there is only the "asset issuance" model that can be emulated.

Twitterscan indicates that pure information flows are unlikely to have a future, and a certain social platform tells us that pure capital flows can only be sustained for two to three weeks. But together they have explored more information:

1. Encryption of social information is very valuable, but it is important to pay attention to the methods; it is best to separate the flow of information and the flow of funds.

2. The subsequent shift towards KOLs is an inevitable path, as KOLs occupy the middle ground between exchanges, project parties, and retail investors.

A Certain AI Project of Retreating to Advance: 2024-2025

There is a misconception that the project was initially not closely related to the KOL business.

This project is a direct product of FOMO AI in the crypto circle following the world-shaking emergence of ChatGPT. In February 2023, GPT burst onto the scene, and generative AI subtly trends towards encompassing everything. Meanwhile, the crypto industry, after experiencing internal injuries in 2022 and the failure of the metaverse, is eagerly hoping for AI empowerment.

The initial business model of the project was AI search, but it was more focused on Crypto Assets content. There are similar other products, but it seems that the project has sensed that something is not quite right.

1. Traditional blockchain explorer tools have high R&D costs, poor profitability, and face intense competition;

2. Information analysis tools are not very useful, especially in terms of the ability to discover information; social platforms have not solved this problem.

During the initial development of the project, the most striking feature was the long-term internal testing, with invitation codes being hard to come by. It is meaningless to determine when the project will shift to KOL rankings, as the success of a new project has prompted KOLs to compete actively.

The project relies on product strength, rather than time advantage, to facilitate KOL adoption. Before a certain new project, crypto KOLs had been surrounded by bots and spam information since 2022 due to specialization and commercialization, and this project has given "real KOLs" a chance to stand out for the first time.

It is boldly speculated that the project may not fully rely on algorithms to complete KOL ranking and points calculation, and human factors may be more effective than AI. After all, there are not many crypto social KOLs, and according to the 80/20 rule, manpower can still cope within a statistical range of 1000-10000.

Thus, the project completes the following three steps:

1. Separate the information flow from the capital flow, KOLs only need to focus on improving their rankings, certain features will naturally be available, bots and fake accounts will be excluded, and the project's marketing department can identify KOLs based on this feature.

2. This feature is not a token, more like a market fair leaderboard that everyone will refresh, but mainly KOLs are refreshing it. The sentiment and popularity are controllable, but KOLs will attract the attention of project parties and exchanges, completing the most critical step: guiding the information flow to the capital flow.

3. The project has ended the glorious era of agents; it has actual business operations, which is fundamental for maintaining its business model after the issuance of the coin. The project itself is the largest and most standardized agent in the market.

However, certain token events prove that information flow platforms face numerous difficulties in exploring more tokenization attempts beyond airdrops, staking, and listings. Certain protocols can continuously split small caps, but information flow platforms are still severely constrained.

As for InfoFi, a certain connection feature, and a certain professional version among other industries or business lines, they have not created new frontiers beyond core functions, and will not be elaborated here.

In summary, the project successfully facilitated KOL competition, occupying an indispensable part of the market. Even if a large exchange tries to seize the market, the effect may not necessarily be good. It is emphasized again that the fair value of the market is difficult to measure, and the social functions of a certain exchange have not surpassed those of the Crypto Assets social platforms, which is clear evidence.

Conclusion

What is the next step for the project?

In simple terms, it is a product that can bridge the flow of information and the flow of funds, generating transactions directly based on the flow of information.

The complexity lies in the fact that crypto users do not recognize the value of the information flow, and liquidity will only follow liquidity itself.