Recently, I’ve been looking at those blockchain game pools that use a “mine + buyback” model again, and every time I watch it, my blood pressure spikes. To put it simply: once the output exceeds the real consumption (upgrades, gacha pulls, entry fees), there will always be someone in the pool using newly issued coins to smash into older coins. The liquidity looks pretty hefty, but in reality it’s all propped up by later participants rushing in to patch the holes. You think it’s “stable returns,” but actually inflation is quietly grinding away your principal. And when slippage finally maxes out, no matter how smart the routing is, it can’t save you from buying high or from being unable to sell.

Some people also use tags from on-chain data tools to “prove” it’s “healthy.” I can only say: don’t take it at face value—those things are lagging, and they can even be manipulated so that, after a wash, they turn into “new user growth.” When the pool is about to collapse, that’s when the data usually looks the best.

What I’ve learned isn’t a set of tricks—it’s this: don’t fall in love with inflation. It will only talk the pool empty.