Many events and data in the first half of 2024 have shown major changes in investor thinking. These changes will affect choice decisions as well as investment psychology in general and affect future investors entering the market.
What are those changes? The following are notes and reviews from BeInCrypto.
#first. Airdrop is no longer "easy to eat"
Recent projects that have mobilized a total amount of money up to billions of dollars such as EigenLayer (EIGEN), StarkNet (STRK), ZKsync (ZK), LayerZero (ZRO) have all implemented airdrop distribution plans but brought many reactions. negative response from the community. The reasons for these negative reactions are as follows:
The conditions to receive the airdrop are difficult to meet for the vast majority of early users. Airdrop is popular with small investors with little capital because the cost is not much but can bring many surprises in terms of price after listing. But in 2024, the criteria given by projects to claim airdop are not easy for the majority. Many users waste gas and time to "plow" the airdrop but receive nothing.
Filtering Sybils (fake users) is a legitimate thing to do on the project side. Previously, this activity was given little attention and it was a loophole for a user to receive more airdrops. But the sybil filtering process makes the airdrop waiting time longer, and users become skeptical about whether the project is really filtering Sybil or just distributing it to "family" in the name of it.
Not to mention, the prices of some recent airdrop tokens are even lower than the previous pre-market prices. And for layer 2 after the airdrop, network activity decreased significantly, showing that users are only interested in the airdrop and not sticking with the project long term. Airdrop later lost its appeal and marketing purpose, and became a pressure for the project. And users turned away from the token just because of dissatisfaction with the airdrop without paying attention to the core values that the project is building.
#2. Memecoin is a better choice for retail investors and for the project
The Memecoin of 2024 has been elevated to an indispensable part of investors' portfolios and plays a significant role in attracting new investors. Memecoin is not only attractive to retail investors, but is also a better choice for a new project.
For investors, memecoin meets their requirements including large profit opportunities, accessible prices to buy a lot, and a large community for emotional support. And if that memecoin is "given away", they are also willing to spend time to get it. This explains the success of Notcoin (NOT).
For developers, they take advantage of that psychology and create more meme tokens for their ecosystem. Or, instead of developing a product from scratch, they create a meme token that attracts users first, then build the product and ecosystem around it.
As can be seen, this approach is completely unlike any previous time in the market. In previous cycles, technology elements and technology applications were emphasized as headlines, and meme coin was only the last choice. But in 2024, meme coins are presented as the most attractive option compared to all other technology themes in the market.
#3. Find minimal risk using the tap-to-earn route
Tap-to-earn was previously labeled as useless, a waste of time, a scam, dangerous... but in 2024, tap-to-earn will become a trend that attracts the most users and many new investors. best. The question is, why don't investors spend money to buy a well-built and developed Altcoin but instead expect tap-to-earn? The answer is probably because:
Investors in 2024 "lack money". They would rather waste time than lose more money. Therefore, tap-to-earn is the route with minimal risk. If we say that thanks to Notcoin (NOT) tap-to-earn attracts users, it is only half correct. Because before Notcoin (NOT), there was no similar project listed on Binance with such a volume of billions of dollars, but Notcoin still attracted nearly 35 million users.
To date, many other tap-to-earn projects have surpassed Notcoin in terms of number of users, such as Hamster Kombat. Other projects such as Yescoin, Tapswap, Blum... all have in common the Mini App on Telegram. As a result, the tap-to-earn wave has made the TON network the leading vibrant network in the market.
In 2024, tap-to-earn is no longer a "game" but is being considered by insiders as a serious investment activity.
#4. Investors are not really interested in any narrative at all
AI, RWA, DePin, Restaking, Bitcoin Layer 2, meme on SOL, meme on TON, meme on Base... or more specialized keywords like ZKP, AA, BRC-20, DRC-20, Ordinals, Inscription, Runes … All of these keywords are reported to be potential narratives and worth investing in in 2024.
But up to now, it can be seen that all narratives emerge as media headlines in just a short period of time and the capital flow is not sustainable. For example, the most recent is Runes. Up to now, few people have mentioned Runes anymore and the trading volume is extremely bleak.
Some big narratives that have received long-term attention such as AI, RWA, DePin, Restaking... the prices of these Altcoins are not very good. Causing investors' confidence in the future potential of these narratives to be seriously affected.
The question is, are investors really interested in the above technology stories? The answer is probably “yes” but only in the minority. Most people are being swept away by the wave of meme coin and tap-to-earn as mentioned above. In addition, too many stories cause investors' portfolios to be fragmented. While capital is limited, they have to consider a little of this and a little of that, causing projects to lack cash flow.
#5. Bitcoin is no longer attractive to individual investors
In the view of many retail investors in 2024, Bitcoin is the choice of funds. In their portfolio, they do not even have a significant place for Bitcoin, even though they never oppose the thesis “Hold Bitcoin is wise”. This paradox shows that Bitcoin is only attractive in theory, not in investment decisions.
For market insiders, Bitcoin in the minds of investors in 2024 becomes more of an indicator for analysis than an option for capital allocation. The irony is that 2024 is like a long Bitcoin Season, BTC keeps increasing but the investor portfolio is still negative because it's only Altcoin.
For those outside the market, even the approval of the BTC ETF and the BTC price setting a new ATH are not enough to trigger a wave of FOMO like previous cycles. In fact, even though BTC has set a new peak, it is not far away from the old peak of 2021.
It can be seen that BTC in 2024 is no longer attractive to most individual investors like previous cycles. They want ETFs to accumulate more BTC, they want funds to buy more BTC, but they don't.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author or any person named in this article are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment or other advice. Investing or trading in cryptocurrency involves the risk of financial loss.
