#数字资产市场动态 Why do many people think that a million assets are not really money

To put it simply, they confuse one thing — cash flow and book assets are not the same at all.

When you ask people around you how much they have, 90% will lump together their house, car, and even virtual assets that haven't been transferred yet. Earning five thousand a month, saving fifty thousand, a house worth six million at home, and then feeling good about it — I have assets worth over six million.

This is the illusion caused by the asset bubble in recent years. Claims like "the per capita assets in first- and second-tier cities are ten million" are essentially just virtual numbers supported by real estate. Selling all the houses to buy in the US? Just listen. If there were a collective sell-off, the market would have already collapsed.

So now, defining "being rich" has become — how many houses does this guy own, how many zero-coin holdings does he have, the more valuable, the better. But the key issue is that the book numbers and what you can actually spend are fundamentally two different concepts.

The logic is very painful: Suppose the entire market only circulates 200 yuan in real gold and silver, no matter how much you boast, you can't sell mineral water for more than 200 yuan — because there simply isn't that much money. Prices are determined by market liquidity, not by your valuation.

Previously, the feeling that everyone is wealthy was mainly because credit was expanding wildly, and mechanisms were continuously creating book wealth. But as soon as liquidity tightens, transactions immediately stall, and asset prices can plummet instantly.

So some individuals can indeed get rich through asset appreciation, but it’s impossible for everyone to get rich — because behind every profit-maker, there is a buyer taking over. Wealth has always been a zero-sum game.