I just saw an on-chain record of a project’s treasury, and when I checked the time those USDC were transferred out and found it matched the milestone announcements, that stone in my heart finally dropped a little. Honestly, in the past, when I saw this kind of large-value transfer, my first reaction was panic—I was afraid the team would cash out and run. Now, I’d rather spend a few extra minutes digging through the roadmap they laid out earlier, then cross-check it against what they’ve actually delivered—although the delivery quality is sometimes hard to put into words, at least you can tell whether they’re genuinely doing work.

Lately I’ve been seeing more discussions about MEV, and it’s made me think. Some project teams claim they’re going decentralized, but in reality the power to order transactions is fully held by their own people, and retail and institutions aren’t even starting from the same line. I personally think that instead of trusting some “fate,” it’s better to look at more on-chain data points—probability is more reliable than mysticism. Anyway, when I see a project team transferring funds now, I take it as them turning in their assignment; whether the assignment is good or not is another matter, but at least they’ve got to hand something in first.