Is Crypto Dead?

Recently, many posts within the industry have been pessimistic about blockchain, with many outsiders asking me if the blockchain scam has ended. Those within the industry are asking if the industry is dead-end, wondering what stage of the cycle we are in. Compared to good news, bad news is more likely to make headlines, and bad news is also more likely to gain more traffic and attention. What is more ridiculous than crypto people being pessimistic about crypto? Such behavior and emotions spread constantly, with traffic being swept up and intensified. Even the retirement of some OGs is being exaggerated as evidence that "crypto is dead," and some industry idealists who are firmly committed to the industry will also confide in me their anxiety and confusion.

Actually, it's not just crypto that's feeling anxious. We live in this world, so we cannot escape the environment, we cannot escape water and air, and whether the investment market is active or not depends on the economic cycle. Whether the economy is going up or down will determine where people allocate their budgets. As an ordinary person, one needs to eat and dress before they can consider investing. So, every Fed announcement is a baton for market direction for senior crypto players, especially as the overall market size of the crypto industry continues to expand, with the participation of large financial institutions. The blockchain industry is gradually becoming mature, especially after the approval of BTC and ETH ETFs. As an asset class among the "allocatable assets," the crypto market and the stock market have become two sides of the same coin.

Looking back, what has changed in the crypto industry over the past decade? I once compared the crypto industry to the Wild West. The early people who rushed into this industry were the early gold prospectors in the West. During the economic upturn, a little bit of excess capital flowed into the crypto industry, which could also allow the crypto industry to grow exponentially. The early, wild growth of the blockchain industry meant that as long as you dared to go all in, 100x and 1000x returns were not uncommon. This was due to both the early niche market and the dual boost of the macroeconomy. In such an environment, today's all-in might be wrong, but tomorrow's all-in might get you back on track. But as time goes on, the economy enters another cycle, global consumption downgrades, more players join the gold rush team, the gold prospectors who wield shovels keep upgrading their equipment, and the professional players from the traditional market's first and second tiers are becoming more and more numerous. Everyone feels that "the crypto industry is not as profitable as it used to be."

From Bitcoin being called a "Ponzi scheme" countless times and being repeatedly condemned in the mainstream circle to the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, this is certainly a remarkable victory. At the same time, we can see that the trading volume of traditional financial related products in cryptocurrencies is steadily expanding, such as the trading volume of CME and ETFs. Yes, the big players are coming, but they are not coming in the way everyone imagined, with capital blindly taking over. Just as the Internet changed the publishing industry and the television industry, it is not overnight, but silently, bringing not just the rise of Bitcoin.

Is Binance Lying Flat?

We are pigs on the wind, riding the pulse of the times, and it is by standing with our users that Binance has reached where we are today. We hope the blockchain industry is not a playground for niche players. We hope that Binance will be able to serve one billion users in the future, that we can become the infrastructure of the future world. We have been working hard to achieve this goal. When we want to drive large-scale adoption of the blockchain industry, when we want to meet the needs of most people, when we need to protect the rights and asset security of the vast majority of users, it means that we need to find a balance between idealism and reality. Binance is not a child anymore, so we need to reconcile with the world, we need to comply with regulations, we need to fight money laundering, and we need to follow the existing rules of the traditional financial industry. History always repeats itself. In the early days of the Internet, there were countless technological innovations, and the turning point was that companies serving the majority became today's Internet giants, while the early absolute libertarianism of the Internet eventually led to the dark web.

We have no way of predicting the future, so we can only learn from history. Products need to be able to serve the majority of people in order to have the potential to become the financial infrastructure of the future world. Binance's products start with trading, but are not limited to trading. You will see the emergence of Earn, Square, Pay, and Web3 wallets. We want to try, to explore how to bridge the chasm, to truly make blockchain technology mainstream, to allow ordinary people to use blockchain, not just trade blockchain. They may not know what blockchain technology is, but they benefit from blockchain, just as your grandmother doesn't understand Internet technology but can enjoy the convenience brought by smartphones. Bubbles will burst, but the products that truly solve user needs will change the world and create history.

Did Your Crypto Get Listed on Binance?

The community has been very heated in its discussion of Binance's listings recently, and we have seriously considered everyone's opinions. Whether it was the view that Binance's listing of VC-backed coins was a betrayal of the community, or the feeling that Binance's listing of MEME coins lowered the listing standards, or the judgment that Binance's listing of TG game projects was just fooling around, or the criticism that all the players were just studios, including the rumors of mouse traps, we have paid attention to everything, and we are constantly reflecting. "Love is deep, blame is even deeper." Those who don't care won't spend time on you. Binance has reached where we are today thanks to our users, and we value the opinions of every user. I will try to explain the basic framework and process of listing that everyone is criticizing:

Binance's listing process consists of four steps: business, research, committee, and compliance review.

I have broadly summarized the aesthetic preferences retained by the committees over the years, which can be broadly divided into:

1. Listing projects that users need, projects that have users and traffic. In the past two cycles, we have missed a lot of listings. In the early days, we were indeed not paying enough attention to MEME coins, so we were a bit behind the times on Shib, PEOPLE, PEPE, and even these recent MEME projects. They had already skyrocketed in price before we listed them, so our faces were swollen from being slapped. The lesson learned here is that Binance, as a trading platform, cannot decide what is good on its own, it needs to be what users think is good.

In the struggle between big and small neiros, it was also because of community criticism that we reflected more on what is good MEME. If the essence of the MEME community is another "anti-Wall Street movement," then is a MEME where the tokens are highly concentrated, the price has been pumped up, and the bubble is not known when it will burst, still a MEME? Or is it a Ponzi scheme wearing a MEME disguise? So we listed a few projects with relatively decentralized tokens and low market caps, and we screened dozens of projects initially, many of which fell away in compliance reviews and token concentration.

2. Listing projects that can survive. At the beginning of the last two cycles, some traditional VCs began to enter the crypto space in droves, making frequent moves and being generous. Subsequently, everyone discovered that any project with a bit of a name in the industry was skyrocketing. After receiving hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in valuations from VCs, project teams had a lot of money to try out different things and adjust their directions. The boom in undervalued coin-selling infrastructure projects like Matic is gone. With a lot of cash in hand, who would be willing to sell their coins for tens of millions of dollars? What determines their token prices is not Binance, but token models, circulating supply, buy orders, sell orders, and these top teams have a lot of MMs around them who are willing to provide advice to maintain high market value, and there are also a lot of exchanges eager to list them. Especially with AMM bringing about the rise of DEXs, there is no need for exchanges either. But it is undeniable that while other projects rise and fall, they survive longer and have more opportunities.

Many people will say that this means Binance is losing its voice, and yes, there is certainly no absolute voice. This is precisely the characteristic of industry decentralization, the result of the joint action of financial professionals and the rise of DeFi. And these two are key to bringing the industry to the next level. Without capital involvement, how could cryptocurrency become a hot topic in the US election? Decentralization, no absolute authority, isn't that the charm of this industry?

3. Listing projects with solid business logic. Over the past decade, I've often heard the saying, "Crypto projects don't need business models, once there is a business model, the valuation can be calculated." But I believe that whether Web2 or Web3, the essence of entrepreneurship is to create something that this world needs, and naturally someone will pay for it, whether the customer is B-side or C-side. The way of financing will change, but the essence of entrepreneurship will not change. Since the boom of 2017, I have been conveying a concept: issuing tokens is a lifelong responsibility, it is using long-term credibility as a guarantee. The community gives you support, but your responsibilities are also greater. If you just sell your tokens and retire after issuing them, then the bankruptcy of one person's credibility is true bankruptcy.

We like those projects with solid business models and revenue, we hope the team is reliable, they have entrepreneurial potential and can take responsibility, we also hope you don't have too high a valuation, that you can grow together with the community, we hope you can empower the tokens, because if you stand with your users, your users will stand with you. If any project meets these criteria, please contact us, or leave a message below this post, or fill out the information in the public application link on the site.

Official business TG contact: @BResearchBD

In terms of the listing process and prevention of insider trading, Binance, as a system, has considered all the steps to isolate information. As the outside world says, the Binance listing team has been washed out several times. Currently, the people who do listing research at Binance don't talk about business, and those who talk about business terms don't know what projects are in the observation pool. Everyone only knows the progress of the projects they are responsible for. Even after passing the IC vote, these projects still need to go through strict compliance review restrictions, and they may be canceled at any time.

According to the regulatory requirements of exchanges, all Binance employees are required to complete relevant mandatory compliance training. At the same time, Binance has an independent audit team specifically to investigate such violations. If verified, Binance will immediately initiate judicial proceedings to transfer the relevant personnel to judicial organs if suspected of information leakage or insider trading, and those who are seriously involved will face criminal responsibility.

We can establish rules to restrain people, but we cannot rule out that there are still information blind spots in the current system. Therefore, we have announced a high reward: We welcome reports from anyone who knows of any corruption involving listings or other activities, or any other "listing observation indicators" of our blind spots. If verified by the Binance team, we will reward you with a bug bounty of $10,000 to $5 million while keeping your identity confidential; Report email: [[email protected]](/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection)

If We Disagree, You May Be Right

Over the past few months, I've rarely posted on social media. The more I read, the more I realize how ignorant I am, and the more I feel awe at the world. We are all just grains of sand in the tide of time, brought to the crest of the wave by various coincidences. Everything I have today is a product of the times, of the rapid economic development brought about by globalization, of the flattening of information brought about by the rise of the Internet, and of the opportunities that have come from the blockchain industry from nothing. It is not because I am particularly gifted, but rather because the industry was early and "there were no heroes, so the young boys became famous." This means that "I may not be right," because according to the logic of listing mentioned earlier, Bitcoin, if born today, might not pass the IC. A casual remark of mine, an incomplete or inaccurate expression, could lead to unnecessary misunderstandings and overinterpretation in the community, so I've become increasingly reluctant to express myself. Occasionally, when I see some misunderstandings, I still try to explain them, but it often makes things worse.

Everyone sees a different world, we are perhaps intersections of different parallel universes. If my words have touched you in any way, perhaps it will lead to a better future for the blockchain industry. If my words can make investors DYOR and entrepreneurs willing to settle down and move forward, then I am deeply honored. Everyone can only see their own future, what you believe in, you will build. We will continue to explore the future, just like the first day we entered this industry. Thank you for being on this journey together.