Opinion: The crypto industry needs to bridge the “believers” and the “speculators,” and in the future the two will move toward integration

PANews July 17 report: 1confirmation founder Nick Tomaino posted about the marketing challenges faced by long-term builders in the crypto industry. Real crypto believers need to attract “Degen” (high-risk speculators) while staying authentic, and avoid being viewed as “condescending” or disconnected from the market.

Nick Tomaino said he has also been trying to balance this issue for the past 15 years, and admitted that he once made mistakes. He said that when he was younger, he also carried out plenty of speculative trades—suffered losses, learned, and grew—so he does not think Degen users should be looked down on. “Many of the most predatory people in crypto do look down on Degen, and that’s why they’re able to profit from these users.” He divides today’s crypto industry participants into two broad camps:

The first camp is “True Believers,” with the Ethereum and Coinbase management teams being closer to this group. These teams have gone through multiple market cycles, continuously building new products. They do not pursue short-term attention and capital, nor are they aiming to “exploit” users. The problem with this type of team is that their marketing approach is relatively conservative, and sometimes they can’t catch market hotspots—for example, meme coin trading and perpetual contracts, which are Degen use cases. While they may be more authentic and respected, they can sometimes seem disconnected from the market, even overly dismissive of speculative users.

The second camp is “Hype Men,” which includes some altcoin project teams, executives of Digital Asset Treasury (DAT), and certain KOLs. They’re good at generating attention and attracting Degen users, but they often lack truly innovative products and tend to favor short-term gains and monetizing traffic. These participants may use a lot of “correct” industry narratives and slogans, but their actual actions fall short—they are more inclined toward “performative building.” Still, they are indeed more effective at capturing market attention and users’ needs.

Finally, Nick Tomaino said that in the future, the two camps will ultimately blend. The market will be watching to see whether the “believers” can attract more Degen users, or whether the “hype men” can shift toward a more authentic, long-term development model that leads to mutual, positive outcomes.