There are always legends in the market about certain diamond hands getting rich returns, and it seems that achieving financial freedom only requires two simple steps: buy and wait.

But when it comes to personal practice, being a diamond hand requires a very high level of personal will. People always say "waiting pays off", but the reality is that most of the time: you wait and find that others' rewards are rich, but when you open your hands in the end, you find that there is only a handful of dust that disappears with the wind.

Compared with the less volatile BTC, more people choose to hold a variety of "value coins" for the long term, hoping that the value of the altcoins they hold will be discovered one day, and they will obtain returns far exceeding the market.

But when choosing altcoins, should we consider fundamentals, or popularity and news?

Retail investors like "fun", institutions want "useful"

Memecoin can be said to be the most direct fundamental destroyer of the crypto market. The reason why everyone loves memecoin is very straightforward: you can understand it at a glance, and it can be pulled up at any time.

Due to its early fair chip distribution mechanism and various unique cultures, memecoin has always had a fair and interesting image in people's minds.

However, judging from the various memecoin price manipulation incidents that have continued to emerge, it is obvious that large capitals are unwilling to let go of MEME, this emerging hot spot for money, and there are traces of manipulation by large institutions behind many MEMECOINs.

There is a picture that makes a simple analysis of current crypto assets

This picture shows the different natures of the two ends of crypto assets: one end is entertainment-to-death, crazy speculation represented by memecoin, and the other end is boring practical assets represented by RWA assets.

Interesting and useful seem to be the different choices made by retail investors and institutions.

Retail investors prefer retail-driven markets driven by high speculation and fun, represented by the memecoin craze and the AI ​​bubble in the fourth quarter of 2023, while institutions prefer to focus on practical markets that meet regulatory requirements, such as stable narratives such as BTC/ETH ETF + RWA assets.

But although they seem to be going their separate ways, they are actually heading in the same direction.

The MEME craze driven by retail investors has spread all over the world. The entertainment attributes of MEME culture, such as freedom, nonsense, and chaos, also make retail investors willing to pay for this added value.

Even people from all walks of life want to get a piece of the pie. Political MEME, celebrity MEME, Pump live broadcast... everything can be MEME, no matter how fancy it is. Various indicators for measuring people and things are transformed into the rise and fall of MEME coin prices here. It is a paradise for the monetization of influence and traffic carnival.

This is especially evident from the attitudes of old money institutions, which have gone from vilifying and questioning crypto assets to scrambling to get on the BTC/ETH ETF, and "regulation" has also transformed from a sword of Damocles hanging over the crypto market to a catalyst for the bull market. Now, the crypto market has become a weight for candidates to canvass for votes.

In the crypto industry, the investment logic is very different from that of the traditional financial market; and the so-called fundamentals have completely different meanings when there is support from real performance and when there is no support from real performance.

Retail investors have been deceived by fundamental stories so often that they will naturally choose simple and crude memecoins; is the preference of institutions for utility coins really due to the fundamentals of the projects? Not necessarily.

Institutions can naturally see the value of memecoin, but they themselves cannot explain well to investors about investing in memecoin. They can't just say that they invested in an emoticon package/a cat, right?

Investors may also prefer that institutions invest in more legitimate assets, so fundamentals become a packaging for serious investment.

Therefore, maybe no one is really doing pure fundamental investment, it’s just that retail investors are more direct and institutions are more roundabout.

Therefore, MEME speculation and infrastructure construction are not contradictory. The smart way to play should be to accept both.

For example, Jupiter, which started as the MEME amusement park, began to unify the market and formed the GUM Alliance with several projects and institutions. Whether it is memecoin, RWA, stocks or foreign exchange, it is all about eating everything.

Jupiter has both MEME and "fundamental" assets. Its inclusiveness of various types of assets also reflects its business logic of not only focusing on fundamentals.

In this round of bull market, the market is no longer a simple model. All participants have evolved, and fundamental investments with simple structures are becoming increasingly difficult to be effective.

Judging from the lessons learned from history, the returns of some fundamental investments have not even outperformed inflation, not to mention that some strong fundamental projects are heading straight for zero. The logic of market investment is gradually changing, and fundamental investment is no longer as correct as before.

Of course, if the time cost is extended infinitely, the conclusion about value discovery investment may be different.

But retail investors can’t afford it.

In the cryptocurrency world where information is rapidly changing, new hot spots are the most abundant, and the most valuable thing is popularity. This is what I always say: where the popularity is, there is capital, and there is a pull. The market driving force has changed, and the project's grasp of market attention can often strongly affect the price of tokens. The importance of attention economics has gradually become prominent, and the market has little time left for projects to slowly discover their value.

For those of us who have invested real money, pushing up the price is the best fundamental.

Later, I will bring you analysis of leading projects in other tracks. If you are interested, you can click to follow. I will also organize some cutting-edge consulting and project reviews from time to time. Welcome all like-minded people in the cryptocurrency circle to explore together. If you have any questions, you can comment and ask questions