2023 Crypto Assets Industry Insights: The Winter Continues, But a New Generation is Rising

First-level investment institutions face severe challenges

Currently, first-tier investment institutions are generally providing negative feedback, with some even stating "first-tier is dead." Most institutions are sitting on a large backlog of tokens that are either not listed or have significantly dropped in price after being listed. Over-the-counter trading institutions report that many trades are struggling to find buyers.

The scale of fundraising for the new round has significantly shrunk, and the actual funds received may only be one-tenth of what was publicly claimed. Compared to the previous round where financing easily reached 500 million to 1 billion dollars, the current situation forces institutions to increase the investment amount for individual projects, driving up valuations and creating a number of "heavenly doomed" projects. However, this round no longer has a "savior" like SBF.

It is worth noting that most first-level institutions express their intention to enter the incubation track. However, in reality, the personnel configuration and the capabilities of the managing partners of these institutions are almost unrelated to incubation, and not a single one has complete project experience from zero to one. This inevitably raises the question: how exactly will they carry out incubation business?

"Real Scene" Becomes a Catchphrase

In various situations, institutions often ask me about the sectors I have been focusing on recently. When I ask them back, many mention looking for projects with "real income, real users, real scenarios," followed by a series of popular keywords like RWA, AI, Depin, etc. This seems to have become an excuse to prove that they are "doing research."

In fact, everyone knows that the idea of trying to fill the "Web3" narrative vacuum with Web2 scenarios was debunked as early as 2022. Looking at the performance of the last round of coin listing projects on a certain well-known trading platform, those so-called application projects with "scenarios" have actually performed the worst. This does not mean that Crypto Assets do not need such innovations, but rather that they have little to do with the true "positive externality" of Crypto Assets - asset liquidity.

New generation users are flooding in in a unique way

Many institutions and project parties often start their events with "This round has no new users or new funds coming in, to attract them, we should do this and that."

However, the reality is not so. A well-known singer recently held the most outrageous yet creative party in the history of Crypto Assets, which, although unconventional, did indeed attract attention from outside the circle in a truly encryption-native way. At the same time, a certain public chain ecological conference was praised as the most successful industry event in recent years, known as the "Crypto Assets Burning Man Festival."

It is worth noting that a group of emerging content creators is reporting and interpreting the dynamics of the current Crypto Assets world in unprecedented ways. Most of these creators are young, with some even under 20 years old. They are using innovative methods that belong to the new generation of the short video era, which many seasoned professionals find difficult to understand and adapt to.

New users are entering the market at an unprecedented pace and manner, yet many remain oblivious. Soon, the narrative logic, operational methods, and communication strategies of the entire Crypto Assets project will undergo fundamental changes.

Conclusion

History tells us that humanity often struggles to learn from the past. This seems to still apply in the Crypto Assets industry.

Whenever the industry encounters difficulties, we instinctively resort to hollow slogans such as "real returns, real users, real scenarios," and "attracting traditional funds to enter the market." However, historical experience shows that these remnants of industrial-era thinking can only be temporary visitors in the world of Crypto Assets. At most, they engage in some arbitrage trading, which cannot bring about substantial change.

The biggest obstacle in the Crypto Assets industry is not the product, but the people. The way people think and their ability to learn are limited. Therefore, the way the audience understands and accepts Crypto Assets during a specific period determines how they participate in the market, and also determines how the industry needs to develop.

In short, the overly conservative older generation finds it difficult to adapt to new things and must wait for the rise of the new generation. It's hard to discover new opportunities with old thinking.

The key question is, why are the best talents in the industry still unable to learn from history and realize that the future has quietly arrived? This question is worth deep reflection by every practitioner.