Recently I’ve seen new L1/L2 incentive programs aimed at attracting TVL again, and in the group chat a bunch of old users were complaining about “digging, extracting and selling”—which, honestly, is pretty normal. In short, the money is for subsidies, not for trading the curve. The AMM curve looks smooth on the surface, but in reality it’s quite ruthless: once the price runs, you end up being passively forced to rebalance. The trading fees you earn may not even beat impermanent loss. Market making is definitely not something you can just lie back and collect rent from.

Why am I able to stay calm? One small habit: every time I feel like jumping in to be an LP, I first write on paper “fee expectations vs. price volatility” (I really do write it), and then think through whether I can actually hold up through the worst-case scenario. Once I’ve written it all down, the adrenaline basically drains away, and the rest is accepting reality: either treat the subsidies as insurance, or stop pretending you’re running a no-risk, guaranteed-profit business. In the end, all the process friction lands on human nature.