Recently, I’ve been seeing on-chain game pools start out with sky-high annualized returns, but after a couple of weeks, it’s left you with a total mess… To put it plainly, it’s a fight between emissions and inflation: the players’ gold-mining output is fixed, but the number of coins keeps growing, and in the end the price can only be propped up by new entrants taking over. As long as the rate of new inflows slows down, the pool dries up first—once the returns drop, everyone runs away together, slippage gets huge, and then no one dares to enter anymore.

Recently, there are always people in the group worrying about the unlock calendar and the sell-pressure anxiety from staking unlocks. Honestly, it’s pretty similar to on-chain games: when supply suddenly loosens but demand doesn’t catch up, don’t expect the pool to stay stable. Anyway, when I look at projects like this now, I always ask one question: “Where does the money come from, and what’s the exit?” If they can’t answer it, then I just treat it as entertainment and watch the show.