I. Introduction: Starting with the Exchange "War"
Recently, the crypto industry has witnessed a trend of "exchange MEME" coins, leading to a public confrontation between two major exchanges, OKX and Binance.

On October 4, He Yi stated: "Wish you hold BNB, drive a Binance car, live in a Binance community, enjoy the Binance life." That same day, the MEME coin "Binance Life" was launched. On October 7, Binance Alpha listed the Meme coin "Binance Life". Coincidentally, another coin that recently garnered much attention, "4", became extremely popular due to CZ's marketing. On October 1, CZ posted: "Interestingly, after the hacker sold all the tokens, profiting $4000, the community took over the trade and bought this MEME coin at a higher price..." On October 4, "4" was officially listed on Binance Alpha.

A series of actions by Binance's two leaders,疯狂带节奏 and issuing MEMEs, ignited social media. This fire even spread to OKX—the OKX CEO had to respond to questions like "Why isn't OKX responding by issuing OKX-based MEMEs?". The crypto market舆论分裂 at this point: one faction sees MEME as a new traffic entry point, approving of Binance's aggressive MEME issuance; another faction questions whether the crypto industry is once again engaging in "entertainment-focused" products and exaggerated marketing, deviating from the original purpose of cryptographic technology development.

This leads us to seriously ponder: in this dreamy and colorful crypto world, what should practitioners truly pursue? Should the narrative of the crypto market continue to be written by "memes" lacking substantial value support?

II. Original Intention: Why Enter the Crypto World?
Perhaps many practitioners were initially attracted by the value of BTC, its continuously rising price constantly刷新 the perceptions of its followers. But with the approval of BTC ETF and ETH ETF, and the rush of major traditional financial institutions to enter, BTC has already stepped beyond the original realm of the crypto world. We are witnessing the birth of a全新的金融體系.

Tracing back to the early days of the crypto world, BTC was born out of pure geek ideals like decentralization, anti-monopoly, and rebuilding trust. The builders didn't rely on various jokes and hype to leverage market attention. Instead, day after day, they harbored sincere faith of the era to construct the cornerstone of the crypto world, using technology and ideas to polish lines of code and build real ecosystems.

The crypto world burst forth with infinite possibilities due to the efforts of its early contributors, laying a solid foundation for the prosperous development of the entire ecosystem today.

III. The MEME Wave: A Sense of Déjà Vu Behind the Carnival
When standing outside the MEME wave and examining it冷静, it's easy to recall the ICO frenzy of 2017. In these two狂欢热潮相隔8 years, there are both similarities and differences: MEME investors are driven by emotional value, creating a nationwide FOMO illusion, chasing dreams of sudden wealth in the violent rises and falls of MEME coins. Under the错觉 that "everyone is an early participant," they boldly go All In, disrupting both the normal investment mindset of investors and the existing market rules.

Unlike before, MEME coin issuance involves lower costs, lower barriers to entry, and shorter cycles. Of course, project packaging is also shoddier. Compared to the劣质白皮书 and broken product structures of the ICO era, MEME coins often lack any product or technology behind them, relying solely on an image and sentiment to buy out investors' investment desires.

After this狂欢落幕, a very few lucky individuals are盆满钵满, while the majority of investors leave黯然离场. The countless hearts stirred by the legends of sudden wealth will ultimately cool down completely.

IV. Industry Cycle: Ideals Always Devoured by Traffic
Looking back at the ICO wave in the crypto industry, it started with "ideals" but was ultimately淹没 by "speculation": In 2017, ICO began with the vision of a "decentralized financing revolution." However, as various "overnight riches" cases were infinitely amplified, project teams smelled the benefits behind the traffic, abandoned their original intention of building practical,落地 projects, and shifted their focus to "packaging and marketing." For a time, major KOLs took money for endorsements, project teams intentionally pumped and dumped, pyramid-scheme-like roadshows emerged... ICO ultimately evolved into "shitcoin and project team exit scams."

The ICO wave might be an extreme negative case in the development history of the crypto industry. DeFi and NFT after ICO have left a significant mark on the crypto industry.

Although the 2020 DeFi wave evolved from "reconstructing financial services" to "liquidity mining involution," it's undeniable that the traffic brought by this wave pushed practitioners to build "trustless intermediary" financial infrastructure. Although the 2021 NFT wave, under the不良投机 of a few, spawned some "picture炒作陷阱," its significance in boldly attempting "digital asset ownership confirmation" and integrating "traditional culture and crypto culture" is indelible. Especially, the NFT wave allowed more people to recognize the wonders of crypto assets, effectively converting traffic into sustained development momentum for the crypto industry.

In the process of industry narrative iteration and development, positively utilizing traffic can indeed promote industry progress and quickly form a "breakout" effect. However, if practitioners and investors一味沉迷于 the game of making quick money, they can only build castles in the air time and again using traffic and hype. Hot money will always find the next exit, but the trust cost left for the industry will become higher and higher. When the industry no longer has long-term narratives to support it, regulation and mainstream perception will simultaneously regress, thereby exacerbating this industry炒作之风.

V. Why I Reject MEME
What I reject is not MEME culture itself, but this meaningless "hollow collective carnival."

The birth of MEME culture can be traced back to Dogecoin in 2013. At that time, software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer combined the popular "Doge" Shiba Inu meme with Bitcoin's code to create Dogecoin, initially intended to satirize the overheated crypto market. Early MEME coins had a satirical realism meaning, combined with entertainment, carrying the expression of the geek spirit of "anti-traditional finance, pro-decentralization."

But soon, MEME degenerated into a speculative tool for "chasing pumps and selling dips." Almost every type of MEME repeats the old script of "creating gods of sudden wealth," "collapse and liquidation," and "reverting to the original form." This feast of "community cultural expression" ultimately became a speculative狂欢 of "harvesting retail investors."

As a long-time practitioner, I have witnessed the growth and maturation path of the crypto industry. I hope the crypto world can rediscover its former creativity and transparency. I hope entrepreneurs will carry clear ideals with a pure geek spirit, creating real value for the industry, rather than satisfying the illusion of overnight wealth on the path of creating memes.

VI. The Next Cycle: Building True Consensus
The industry needs new narratives and opportunities for trial and error. MEME is not the original sin, but it should not become the industry's main theme.

Practitioners should contemplate: when the next wave comes, what should we be discussing?

"Who made how much," "Who made quick money" may easily become topics for after-dinner conversation. But why not, at an age where we still harbor dreams, ask our once-passionate hearts: "What have I changed?" and "What have I brought to the industry?"

Perhaps we have all once观想 with hope: years from now, blockchain technology and crypto technology will surely be recorded in the annals of technological history. Therefore, while the industry is still developing rapidly, let every practitioner use trust and innovation to build true consensus, rather than exploiting reputation and traffic to hype MEMEs and煽动市场情绪.

The steps underfoot are short, but the road ahead is long. Only a steadfast heart can break through temptations and obsessions, keeping ideals unchanged and consistent through the long years.