I've been thinking a lot these past two days about the future of the airdrop industry. I want to clarify whether there will still be a way to make a living from this by next year.

🌈 Venture capitalists say they don't want it.

a16z is the guiding light in the industry. Back in the day, they used hundreds of billions of dollars to force the web3 concept into existence. The prosperity of VC coins yesterday owes a lot to them. The last major investment by a16z was in Story, which marks its final major attempt at coin issuance in this IP track.

So what is this guy doing recently? Right, using AI to trade memes, using Pumpfun to issue coins and engage in insider trading to cut chives, laughing all the way. I know Crypto is just a small segment of the trillion-dollar empire that is a16z, but it's clearly experiencing a shift in focus.

While claiming to continue building the blockchain, the industry leaders are leading the way in meme trading and cutting chives with this new asset issuance paradigm. Should we practitioners follow or not?

🎯 The exchange's body is very honest.

Exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, OKX, Upbit, and Bitget derive their income mainly from customer trading fees, listing fees, and intermediary business income. This year, the only goal for VC coins is to get listed on Binance. Exchanges have become the exit liquidity for listings, and a listing is the peak. Retail investors buying in suffer heavy losses.

This has led to retail investors not taking over VC coins and instead turning to trade meme coins on-chain. With DEX and moonshot trading fees hitting record highs daily, exchanges can only be anxious. To avoid being abandoned by the market, they can only hold their noses and list meme coins (if there’s insider trading, they list spot; if not, they list contracts—it's all about making money, no shame).

The reality of VC coins on exchanges is: top students (those with wealthy and well-connected parents) go to top exchanges, while poor and unattractive students are happy just to get listed on Gate and MEXC. Because exchanges are also scared of being scolded by users; if you come, you might crash the market. Who will take the blame in the workplace?

✅ After VC coins are listed and perform poorly, it indirectly leads to a sharp decline in the earnings of airdrop farmers. Moreover, those who chase airdrops also have to face exponentially increasing competition. It used to be that there were more monks than meat; now the meat has turned to bones, and there are 100 studio dogs coming to compete—how can we play?

🏹 Is making money from trading coins easy?

In this world, anyone who tries to pull you into making money has only one purpose: to get your money into their pockets.

Yesterday, Pumpfun launched 60,000 coins, but only 600 were successfully launched, and 590 of them have already gone to zero today. What are the odds of you getting a golden dog?

If seasoned traders are losing like this, can you and I profit and leave?

Every developer issuing coins is a king, but when they come to someone else's gambling table, they are still chives.

🦋 My lessons from losing money.

People don't lose to their opponents; they always fall at their own feet.

The first person in our country to buy Bonk, peanuts, frogs, and Bitcoin cats, @ycz147258369, is undoubtedly the child of the last version. Like this big shot, I lost to my own desires: I wanted to earn more, I wanted to heavily invest and create miracles.

Trading memes is a highly risky investment. If you can't control your position, the money you make in the coin circle will never leave this casino.

This is a casino, brother, a casino that devours people without spitting out bones! The dealer can let you win 99 times, but only one time is needed to send you packing.

Position control!!!

✅ The future of airdrops

The future scale of the airdrop industry will shrink in a bull market, but may recover in a bear market.

1) Most airdrops will evolve into a way of saving money to exchange for coins and earn interest. This is actually a transformation of Defi summer. Points-based Defi will exist long-term, endlessly.

2) A small portion of airdrops, zero investment or test nets, are still dominated by studios and scientists. The level of retail investor participation will be lower because the diluted single number returns are not even worth it compared to delivering food.

3) Exchange activities such as @Web3WithBinance and @wallet, which are airdrop activities that strictly filter for witches after KYC, may be a safe haven for retail investors.

🚀 As a retail investor in airdrops, how do I face the challenges ahead?

I'm skilled at airdrops; this old business is a way to make a living, and I will definitely not let it go. But as a dog KOL, I must try new paths and force myself to spend time learning meme strategies.

If I still can't control the desire to go all in, and cannot manage my position, I will die very badly.

But I must try and learn!

Starting today, I will publish my daily insights on learning memes.

Airdrop airdropping + on-chain data analysis is my future career plan as Little Bear Cookies.

It's a new day again, let's get to work!

==========================

✅ If you find my article helpful, I suggest you follow my Twitter @Airdrop_Guard.

Your support is the motivation for Little Bear to continue sharing!

The end of the article.