Cold reflections behind the hype of meme coins: Why does the market always have "new opportunities"?

Recently, while pondering the frenzy around meme coins, an idea suddenly popped into my head: Traffic is indeed impressive, but don’t expect it to be very smart.

Following this line of thought, the more I dug, the clearer it became. It’s like stepping into that Peach Blossom Spring—“initially narrow, just enough for one person,” then suddenly “enlightenment”—isn’t this just answering the old question of “Will history come to an end”?

Remember Fukuyama’s famous assertion? Every cycle, someone predicts decline: too many coins, no opportunities left, the industry is doomed.

“Democracy is over after the US,” “No more cryptocurrencies after BTC,” “ETH’s public chain has peaked,” “There won’t be another meme coin after XX”…

All wrong.

BTC is not the end; it’s the starting point. That’s the real truth.

How can the seemingly contradictory statements “BTC is unique” and “there are always opportunities in the market” both be true? That really tests your brain.

Explosive supply, so why are opportunities actually increasing?

The 2017 wave of coin issuance was basically a result of too few coins chasing too much money—an imbalance that created madness. Later on? ERC-20 tokens, inscription methods, launch platforms—everyone could create coins with zero barriers… Token supply exploded, with thousands of new coins popping up daily.

By logic, the market should have been saturated to the point of nausea, right?

But surprisingly, just when everyone thought “there’s nothing fun anymore,” smart people kept coming up with new tricks, creating new wealth myths.

Because what’s truly scarce is not the coins themselves.

What’s scarce is the opportunity to make money, the possibility of getting rich quickly.

So no matter how fast or how many coins are issued, they can’t satisfy retail investors and hot money chasing that scarcity—the scarcity of making big money—the greed for wealth.

Hot money isn’t chasing coins per se. They’re chasing the illusion of “this time is different,” the “I can catch this” chance to get rich.

As long as hot money keeps chasing, the market will keep creating new opportunities. And since the scarcity of making money is almost eternal, the pursuit of hot money has no end.

The game of the donkey and the millstone

This game is like a donkey blindfolded and pulling a millstone.

A piece of grass hangs just out of reach in front of the donkey’s forehead, so it keeps turning in circles, running wildly, never stopping.

You can never say, “This is the last millstone,” or “The history of the millstone is coming to an end.”

Those who understand the essence of this game and have the ability to set the stage can always design a new millstone, leading the donkey to keep turning.

As long as the donkey’s “descendants are endless,” the opportunity to set up the millstone (or manipulate the game) will always exist.

The millstone exists because of the donkey, not the other way around.

Just like because there are leeks to harvest, there are market makers; not because market makers exist, there are leeks to harvest.

Why do new games keep emerging? Because the blindfolded donkey keeps running desperately.

Each new game is packaged as a “completely new money-making opportunity,” “this time really is different,” and is heavily promoted.

The harsh truth

The reality is harsh: the money and wealth hot money chases after often end up lost or wiped out in liquidation.

“Donkeys have a limited lifespan, but the game is endless. Chasing the endless with the finite—dangerous!”

In the end, only three types of people truly make big money:

• The ones who control the millstone
• The manipulators (market makers)
• The platforms that create dreams

And those chasing the dream? Most are just running in circles, exhausted.