@yuyue_chris is a post-2000s investor and trader active in the Web3 field. Starting in 2022 with a principal of 3000 yuan, she has now become a professional trader, achieving a transformation from novice to OG in just two years through her keen market insights and continuous learning attitude. Currently, she is an important member of several top-tier Chinese communities and is also running her own community.
OKX specially invited him as a guest speaker in the series of (Friends of OKX) to share her trading insights and in-depth thoughts on the Meme track, hoping this content will inspire everyone.
(Friends of OKX) is a specially planned column by OKX, hosted by OKX's official community ambassador Mercy (@Mercy_okx), aimed at uncovering the professional stories, industry insights, and lessons learned from KOLs of various backgrounds for new users to learn from and reference.
1. Starting from scratch in Crypto
Mercy (@Mercy_okx): Can you share how you entered the cryptocurrency space?
Yuyue (@yuyue_chris): I entered the scene in March 2022, during a transition period between bull and bear markets. As a business student, I initially wanted to find an internship and started writing some research on Web3 investments. I truly entered the space after seeing a contract trading post in my friend circle and asked the person, "What app is this?" and received a referral link. At that time, I only had a few thousand as my principal, and it was quickly wiped out by a 20x leveraged contract, leaving me with only a small amount of ETH on-chain. I didn't dare to tell my parents I had lost all my living expenses and had to look for alternative paths.
Mercy: What keeps you going? Which communities have influenced you the most?
Yuyue: The turning point came with the Nation3 airdrop. I saw many influencers on Twitter retweeting, asking everyone to leave their ENS addresses. I followed along and left a few, and unexpectedly received the airdrop. This made me realize that I needed to gain positive feedback; without it, it would be hard to persist while continuously losing. Since then, I began to constantly iterate my information sources, join more communities, and meet more people, actively reviewing every opportunity.
Regarding communities, one is the Robot DAO of scriptdotmoney, which is a top-tier Chinese community akin to a military academy, producing many current leading community leaders, like Laser Cat. The second is the 321 DAO from Zishi, which is also a military academy for Chinese KOLs, where I learned a lot. Lastly, there's the 33 DAO of Teacher Fengmi, which evolved from an airdrop organization into an elite organization integrating investment research, execution, and investment. Teacher Fengmi inspired me greatly with a saying: "The most important thing for an organization is to have internal cohesion and external influence."
Mercy: How did the transition from the initial Alpha Hunter to becoming an investor and professional trader happen?
Yuyue: Early on as an Alpha Hunter, I mainly shared various arbitrage and airdrop opportunities. Understanding the rules is crucial; it's like studying law, you must understand all the terms to find the loopholes. And loopholes often contain the best profit opportunities. For example, during the recent penguin airdrop, I was one of the few bloggers in the Chinese-speaking area publicly recommending people to undertake the Penguin Layer Zero cross-chain task six months ago, and I was able to reap nearly ten thousand dollars in profit with minimal capital erosion during the airdrop. At that time, I was observing new projects every day, to the point that many people thought, "I was already following this project when it had so few fans."
But as the amount of capital grows, trading strategies are constantly evolving. I now mainly use large positions in BTC and ETH as a base when employing aggressive strategies, using them as collateral for contracts, but keeping leverage below 3x. I invest because I previously worked at IDG and am familiar with the primary market, so I also invest in primary market projects.
2. In-depth insights on the Meme track
Mercy: How do you view the explosive growth of Memecoins in this bull market?
Yuyue: This needs to be viewed in light of the overall narrative shift in the crypto space. I believe there are currently two main logical lines: the asset line and the speculation line. The asset line revolves around BTC, stablecoins, and other assets with real stable value; the speculation line is mainly focused on Meme, representing a nationwide speculative frenzy. When BTC sets new highs, these two lines intertwine to form the current prosperity.
From the earliest public chains, to DeFi, GameFi, and now the pump.fun era. The popularity of cryptocurrency does not require complex DeFi formulas but rather more grounded approaches. Meme precisely meets this point. Regarding assets, BTC itself, as a non-yielding strong consensus asset, can essentially also be understood as a kind of "meme." However, many new holders choose BTC not only to participate in consensus but also to seek asset preservation or even appreciation in the process of resisting real-world inflation.
Mercy: Why has Meme been able to resonate so deeply with Generation Z culture?
Yuyue: This relates to the cognitive characteristics of the human brain. People are born seeking novelty and will continuously raise the threshold for similar stimuli. Meme provides simple, quick, and rich stimuli while dissolving the seriousness of finance, leading to a 'playful' mentality. This is a form of entertainment finance and financialized gaming. For instance, which has more audience and is easier to become addictive: a lengthy research report of ten thousand words or a short and interesting slogan? Clearly, the latter has been validated by hundreds of millions of users in the era of short videos.
Mercy: The birth of this round of Pump.fun seems to have become the infrastructure for the Meme supercycle. Now, besides Solana, other major ecosystems have also launched their versions of pump.fun. What changes do you think this short-frequency model will bring?
Yuyue: I think the focus is not on the pump.fun infrastructure but on the more macro changes. With regulatory easing, we see a disconnection between centralized exchanges, ETFs, U.S. stocks, and on-chain landscapes. In the future, more and more people may purchase mainstream coins through ETFs, while on-chain will primarily consist of speculative trading centered on Memes.
Additionally, I think the current regulatory environment is actually more favorable for Meme. You see major exchanges frequently listing Memecoins recently, indicating that the compliance risks of Meme itself are relatively small. However, it is worth noting that people's novelty towards something will always wear off, so sector rotation will be very fast, whether it's between DeFi and Meme, value coins and Memecoins, or even within the Meme sector itself.
Mercy (@Mercy_okx): Compared to traditional VC projects, what unique advantages do you think Meme projects have?
Yuyue (@yuyue_chris): This is a very interesting question. In fact, even for new VC projects, even if they want to launch a serious product or protocol, the team itself must understand the value and importance of Meme. If they cannot cleverly utilize Meme, from the perspective of outside buyers, any altcoin other than the Trump concept will find it difficult to compete long-term with BTC ETF, ETH ETF, and mainstream coins. From the perspective of inside buyers, if they cannot cleverly utilize Meme, it will also be hard to compete with meme projects.
I can give a few examples of those doing well:
$AVA uses the cute white-haired loli image to build an organic community for the AI Agent and promote the product @HoloworldAI.
$MOVE promotes @movementlabsxyz using various memes, with the founder himself being a topic of interest and legend among the Generation Z group.
$BERA's "offbeat" meme quality makes every event feel extravagant, with fakechain culture and so on.
Mercy: When filtering Meme projects, what dimensions do you consider?
Yuyue: I mainly consider three levels:
The first is the narrative hierarchy, divided into grand narratives (political, economic, AI), niche cults (specific images or subcultures), and short-term hot topics.
Second is the chip structure. Large market cap projects need to focus on the degree of chip dispersion, which determines the strength of consensus; however, early-stage projects should not be overly dispersed, as it can easily lead to sustained selling pressure.
Third is community building. It needs quality community leaders, preferably diamond hands who build long-term and can continuously instill faith in the community. If the early community consists solely of flippers, it is difficult to establish long-term value.
3. Advice for newcomers
Mercy: What advice do you have for newcomers just entering the space?
Yuyue: First, establish your own information channels, but be wary of information bubbles. I suggest diligently scrolling through Twitter and researching the early layouts behind each hot topic. Also, do not overly rely on following tools, as you cannot completely replicate others' positions and timing.
Regarding continuous learning and growth, the key is to gain positive feedback, even if it's small. From my experience, very few people can achieve particularly large returns on a single project; it’s more of a linear growth process. The explosive wealth increase often has a survivor bias, while linear growth serves as the groundwork for exponential growth. Traders need to be aware that this market is always changing; the only constant is maintaining a learning mindset and finding a rhythm and community that suits them. It is difficult to go it alone; true growth requires mutual learning and progress within quality communities.
4. Impressions and suggestions for OKX
Mercy (@Mercy_okx): Please share your impressions of OKX, including your feelings about product experience and team interaction.
Yuyue (@yuyue_chris): The core impression OKX gives me is the fast iteration speed of its products. This is reflected in several aspects: first, the functionalities of the CEX system, like the UI revision of the financial section, which, although initially uncomfortable, became clearer after the revision. Secondly, the Web3 wallet section iterates very quickly and the functionality is becoming more comprehensive.
Another point is that OKX places great emphasis on user experience and needs, with the team deeply engaging with the community. You often appear in various groups to collect user feedback and can respond quickly, which has left me with a very good impression.
Mercy: What suggestions do you have for the future development of OKX, especially in terms of the integration of CEX and DEX?
Yuyue: Regarding CeDeFi, I think it depends on the specific definition. For example, some exchanges allow the use of interest-generating stablecoins as collateral for contracts, which is a feature that exchanges can consider.
I think one of OKX's strengths is its clear distinction between on-chain and exchange functions. The Web3 wallet section operates independently of the exchange system and does exceptionally well, with functionalities that closely meet actual needs. As a professional meme user, I hope there can be a faster mechanism for adding new features. Although it is already well done, it would be better for some time-sensitive projects if they could receive support more quickly.
I especially want to commend OKX's performance in multi-chain products, which is unparalleled. Many public chains do not have particularly good native wallets, but the web version of OKX wallet provides an excellent experience on these chains, such as Aptos. I suggest continuing to strengthen this advantage and provide better wallet support for emerging public chains.
Mercy: We are exploring new features that allow CEX users to trade DEX tokens and DEX users to trade CEX tokens. What do you think of this direction?
Yuyue: This idea sounds very innovative. It not only allows centralized exchange users to have more choices but also provides more liquidity for DEX, making the on-chain trading experience smoother. I look forward to seeing the concrete realization of this feature.
