The Dilemmas and Challenges of the Crypto Primary Market

Recently, during discussions with founders of some leading blockchain projects, everyone generally believes that the current Crypto Primary Market is facing multiple crises and seems to be trapped in a difficult situation that is hard to break through. This is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

Narrative Failure, Gambling Culture Prevails

What is concerning is that many projects no longer focus on technological innovation and long-term value, but instead completely embrace meme culture and short-term speculation. This trend significantly increases market risk, which is extremely detrimental to ordinary investors.

In contrast, past projects based on technical narratives at least had clear roadmaps and milestones, allowing investors to assess the strength of the projects. But now the market is completely dominated by community hype and capital games, with trading frequency even measured in minutes. This purely speculative behavior will undoubtedly bring great risks to the entire industry.

Developer Attrition, Innovation Stagnation

Data shows that the number of active Crypto developers has decreased by nearly 30% from last year's peak. Meanwhile, AI and traditional tech companies are significantly increasing engineer salaries to attract talent.

The logic behind this is simple - as tech giants compete to attract talent to build the next generation of AI technology, the blockchain industry's slogan of "disrupting the internet" has failed to retain excellent developers.

What is even more concerning is that after several rounds of development cycles, blockchain developers seem to have fallen into a phase of sharply declining innovative enthusiasm. There are very few true technological breakthroughs from 0 to 1. Despite the emergence of concepts like Restaking, Intent, and AI Agent, the alignment between practical applications and the product market is still lacking. Developers appear to be reinventing the wheel, yet are unable to focus on how far these "wheels" can actually go.

Industry Marginalization Trends

The attraction of crypto to external funds and talent is clearly insufficient. Currently, the hotspots in the secondary market are concentrated in the US stock AI sector, and the innovation focus in the primary market has also shifted towards the Web2 AI field. The attraction of blockchain to traditional VC and top talent is declining, and it even carries the negative label of "speculation and manipulation."

The reason is that, apart from the "token issuance" marquee, the blockchain seems to struggle to present other solid cards. Although the launch of ETFs has brought institutional funds into the industry, this is more of an acknowledgment at the financial instrument level. The inflow of Wall Street funds mainly serves as asset allocation and is not closely related to the altcoin market.

We can't help but ask: what other scenarios are indispensable for Crypto? In the past, blockchain provided a relatively free experimental space for financial innovation. But as traditional financial institutions begin to embrace this market through stablecoins, ETFs, and other means, aside from the technological characteristic of "decentralization," what other irreplaceable value can Crypto bring to users?

Despite the current severe situation, we still need to remain optimistic. The real breakthrough may be just around the corner. Maintaining a positive attitude is an important driving force for the development of the industry, and we have no choice but to keep moving forward.