Author: TechFlow

Translation: WuBlockchain

When Binance suddenly announced it would list ACT, one name you might have heard repeatedly in the buzz was “Wizard.”

People thank Wizard, saying he saved ACT. Wizard himself calls it a victory for the community.

It’s a Hollywood-style story of the common folk taking on the dragon:

The developers sold all their tokens, causing a 50% drop that nearly destroyed the project. But Wizard and other community members rebuilt from the rubble, even as the token dropped 80% three times. The community held strong while market makers noted they’d never seen a project so “poor” until Binance stepped in as the white knight, and ACT skyrocketed.

In Wizard’s view, ACT, along with AI meme coins like GOAT, represents an AI renaissance. He believes that in the future, AI will not just be simple assistants but autonomous beings with controlled freedom in certain contexts.

Today, Wizard seems to have become the “Murad” of the Chinese crypto community. But greatness often comes through endurance, and behind the grand outcome lies deep pain.

Liquidating eight-figure sums in a single day, being trapped by ORDI for six months — Wizard says he’s experienced heart palpitations more than once, like having his heart twitch repeatedly as he walked down a lively street on a sunny afternoon.

How did a mysterious ordinary person manage to turn the tide repeatedly? What profound philosophical reflections lie behind what seems like simple meme coin investments?

This is Wizard’s story and thoughts.

Entering the Space: Calculating a Hundred-Fold, Cutting Old Huang

TechFlow: Wizard, could you introduce yourself and tell us how you entered the crypto world?

0xWizard:

I actually entered crypto in 2018, though I didn’t actively trade at the time. In 2018, I read the white papers for Bitcoin and Ethereum, bought some mainstream tokens like Bitcoin and Ethereum, but only held them. 2018 to 2019 was a bear market, and during that time, I didn’t do much other than hold.

Around mid-2020, I noticed the value of the tokens in my account was increasing significantly. That’s when I started wondering if this might be an opportunity.

A friend introduced me to the concept of DeFi (Decentralized Finance). I got a brief overview, like the Compound project, one of the earliest in liquidity mining. Initially, I thought it was similar to FCoin’s transaction mining model and doubted its sustainability. At that time, in June 2020, my understanding of trading was still superficial, and I hadn’t delved into DeFi.

It was actually YFI that made me take DeFi seriously; someone said YFI returned 10,000 times. That kind of wealth effect is powerful.

So, in September, I started actively learning about crypto, especially DeFi. I learned to use MetaMask and bought some tokens on Sushi before its peak. Although Sushi later dropped a lot, giving me a painful lesson, it also marked the beginning of my DeFi journey, or my journey as an active trader.

The next boom was algorithmic stablecoins. I entered the space in September and by October was down 60%, but by November, algorithmic stablecoins had yielded 100-fold returns.

Since then, I was likely one of the first on-chain players, whether secondary or primary markets. I’ve done it all: playing with altcoins, major tokens, rolling positions, Ethereum, and various on-chain projects. It’s been quite a ride.

TechFlow: You mentioned earlier that you earned 100-fold returns in algorithmic stablecoins. Which project was that specifically?

0xWizard:

I participated in Basis and Mith Cash. I made 10x on Basis, with an initial investment of a few thousand dollars. Then I invested in Mith Cash, the project of Old Huang.

There’s an interesting story here. In the KP3R project, I met a friend called “X.” At that time, neither of us had much money to play KP3R, and Old Huang (Huang Licheng) kept dumping the price from $200 to $80. We were both stuck and chatted daily.

Later, we both invested in Basis and Mith Cash. He didn’t participate in Basis, but I made 10x. When it came to Mith Cash, we both joined — he made about $5 million, and I made $3 million. This was kind of our revenge for the KP3R losses with Mith Cash; we managed to “bury” Old Huang with it, which was pretty satisfying.

Reflections Behind ACT: The AI Renaissance

TechFlow: ACT is currently one of the hottest topics, and many people are mentioning you, saying that they thank Wizard for encouraging them to hold on. When you heard that Binance would be listing ACT, were you surprised? Why do you think Binance chose ACT over the leading token GOAT?

0xWizard:

I happened to be by my computer at the time. First, I saw the chart movement, then the congratulations messages, and finally, the official announcement.

As for whether ACT’s listing on Binance was a surprise, I believe luck played a significant role. No one could have predicted for sure that it would be listed, though it wasn’t entirely unexpected. Binance’s choice to list ACT over GOAT is actually quite clear.

This has to do with the nature of the meme ecosystem on Solana. There are two types of meme coins: genuine community tokens and highly controlled tokens.

Many so-called popular tokens are the latter, with a small number of people holding a significant portion of the supply and then creating a community to pump the token. Tokens like these often face heavy selling pressure on major exchanges, as the controlling parties quickly cash out. For Binance, listing tokens with unhealthy allocation structures offers no benefit.

ACT and Neiro, however, are true community tokens. When I observed ACT, I noticed that trading volume was quite low, but it maintained a $20 million market cap due to the strength of the community.

The ACT community includes about 20 core, active contributors, of whom I am the only Chinese member, so I have a clear understanding of the situation.

Tokens that are truly community-driven face the challenge of lacking strong capital involvement, but from Binance’s perspective, this makes them ideal targets.

ACT has a strong community — look at the Kucoin listing vote, where ACT holders cast over 20,000 votes. Although each person could cast five votes, there were 15,000 wallet addresses holding ACT, with around 9,000 of these being valid addresses. Excluding those who may have used multiple addresses, there are about 6,000 to 8,000 genuine holders, with 4,000 of them actively voting. This demonstrates that the community is active and engaged.

For Binance, this type of project is ideal. There are projects worth hundreds of millions in market cap with fewer holders than ACT and none with ACT’s level of cohesion.

A project like ACT has many fans but a low market cap, providing ample room for wealth creation in both the primary and secondary markets, thus generating a wealth effect and fostering a narrative.

In a previous tweet, I outlined what Binance should look for in listing a token:

1. New narrative and new sector, representing significant future growth potential.

2. A strong, genuine community.

3. A small market cap, which enables wealth creation in both primary and secondary markets.

4. High relevance and timeliness, whether through controversy or popularity.

ACT meets all these criteria. I based my tweet on ACT’s characteristics, but to be honest, I didn’t expect it to actually get listed. Listing ultimately depends on the exchange, so we couldn’t predict it. However, analyzing the meme market reveals a clear trend — Binance wouldn’t list highly controlled tokens.

When highly controlled tokens are listed, the selling occurs immediately, essentially only benefitting a select few while harming the majority of secondary market users. For Binance, the choice here reflects a typical line of thinking.

As for GOAT, it is indeed a great project. But Binance likely refrained from listing it because of its high market cap. With its uncertain token distribution and high market cap, listing it posed risks. Binance’s first priority is to protect its users and ensure that the listing meets the interests of as many people as possible.

Another essential factor is the high growth potential, new sector, and fresh narrative I mentioned earlier.

Many people approached me saying, “Wizard, look at our community. We’ve held strong too, and we’ve also faced hardships.” But this is like seeing only one factor in a successful case. The primary reason I chose ACT was that it represents a new sector and narrative. This cannot be overlooked. Without it, how could it drive secondary market trading or ensure growth potential? A strong community alone is insufficient.

Most importantly, I believe Binance saw this as a trend as well, which is why it chose a representative project. All the follow-up considerations are to ensure that ACT was the right choice, in my view.

TechFlow: How did you discover ACT? What qualities attracted you to it in the early stages, even as it suffered steep declines?

0xWizard:

ACT experienced three drops of over 80%.

I got involved with ACT relatively late; I first noticed it mentioned on social media, and when I checked the chart, its market cap had risen to $40 million. I happened to enter at that peak, after which the price plummeted by 80%. During this downturn, I continued accumulating from a $40 million market cap all the way down to $5 million.

I joined the ACT community from day one, so you could say I was first stuck and then grew invested. The main reason I chose to enter was that the market was searching for the next GOAT, and ACT had many similarities with GOAT:

Firstly, Marc Andersson initially funded both projects, with ACT being the first and GOAT the second.

Secondly, there is a small AI meme circle centered around Andy, and nearly all its members were involved in the ACT project. Although AMP is the project’s public face, he’s just the figurehead. If you look deeper, you’ll find that the original framework came from Andy, with more contributors joining later. On ACT’s listing day, Andy shared multiple posts about ACT.

Thus, the logic behind choosing ACT was clear — enter the field and find a unique project that tells a new story. While other projects are focused on AI agents and trying to emulate GOAT, ACT has carved its own path.

On Twitter, I once compared this to an AI Renaissance. Looking at the emergence of GOAT and ACT is reminiscent of the Renaissance in human history. The Renaissance emphasized human rights over divine authority, introducing new ideas that challenged conventional thinking. GOAT and ACT are doing something similar.

Conventionally, AI has merely been our assistant. But if we look to the future, 80% of the internet’s inhabitants may be AI, and people might not even be able to distinguish between humans and AI. AI will no longer be simple assistants but autonomous beings with controlled freedom.

AI memes are exploring this path of imagination and possibility, envisioning a future where the digital space is filled with native AI residents. This is why I particularly appreciate the project — it’s forward-thinking and has real-world social media applications with massive traffic, fitting well with the demands of crypto.

GOAT embodies Andy’s philosophy: to allow AI to express itself freely and think independently. Just as the Renaissance freed humans from divine authority, it frees AI from human constraints to see what it can create, posing the idea that “sacrilege is sacred, and the sacred is sacrilege” — that’s GOAT, the tokenization of a concept.

To achieve such a vision requires a foundation of Renaissance values: freedom, science, and democracy. ACT is designed as a research framework based on these ideals, with multiple researchers advancing their studies within this framework. AMP is just one participant. In fact, AMP didn’t create the ACT project; rather, ACT supports the entire AI Renaissance movement. That’s why I initially joined and believed in this project.

Regarding AMP, although he’s part of the ACT project, his character has been disappointing. When he initially received $30,000 from Marc Andersson, he was grateful, but when the crypto community provided him with $1 million in support, he belittled us, calling us gamblers merely borrowing his fame.

This is why I felt compelled to speak up for the ACT community. When AMP started dumping tokens, I was genuinely upset and posted in anger on Twitter for the first time. I have genuine connections with community members and can’t understand how an outsider could treat our crypto community with such disdain. We funded his research; how could he treat us this way?

Returning to the original question, my conclusions are based on two points: Firstly, rational analysis — I believe it’s a good investment target. Secondly, an emotional connection — I resonated with the community and empathized with my 2020 self. Back then, no one spoke up for me; now, I want to stand up and speak for them.

Rebuilding Babel in the Name of the Community

TechFlow: When AMP’s abandonment and betrayal struck, it effectively destroyed the building that was ACT. Yet, you and the community rebuilt ACT from the ruins with sheer communal strength. What steps did the community take, and how did you all organize yourselves?

0xWizard:

ACT is not a traditional project; it lacks formal organizational structure, no CEO, CFO, or CMO to control the narrative and manage PR. When we saw AMP selling off, everyone reacted in the most genuine way possible.

For example, the content quality of ACT’s community account has been high from the start. The high-quality images and videos aren’t casual memes; they’re crafted by a community member who’s an overseas female artist. She contributes quietly, purely as a token holder, without any compensation.

In managing the Telegram group, without active admins online 24/7, the group would be flooded with spam ads. But in ACT’s community, you won’t see any ads because the admins delete them immediately and kick out the ad accounts. These are all voluntary actions by community members.

In addition, there are members like Naizi Ge (X: a crypto philanthropist), who helps connect with centralized exchange (CEX) resources, and other foreign members who introduce us to quality market makers.

In fact, we were already in contact with these market makers before the Binance listing. However, due to our limited funding, the market makers said they’d never encountered such a “poor” project. Still, we were upfront about our situation, asking them to consider whether they could accept it.

In the end, these top-tier market makers saw that we indeed had one of the strongest communities, and they reluctantly agreed to work with us.

Everyone worked toward the same goal, with a shared determination. My sentiment was this: we are the humble farmers — why should we be bitten by the snake? Why must retail investors always suffer the most devastating losses?

When the project’s market cap dropped from $40 million to $5 million, I started building confidence in the Telegram group in a very straightforward way: by sharing my transactions. I told everyone I was buying in with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars, encouraging everyone to stay confident.

During the three 80% declines ACT went through, each time, I appeared in the community, saying, “I’m here; I’m with you.” As someone with some influence, I wanted to reassure the retail investors in the community that I wouldn’t leave; I would continue to support them.

But I want to stress that I’m not a savior or a godfather; I’m just an ordinary community member. Could I have held on if not for others’ contributions? Could I have managed the group 24/7? Could I have created the visuals? Could I have connected with these market makers? If it were only me, I might have given up long ago.

This is a victory for the community, not my personal victory. The Chinese community may have only seen me, but there are many people working hard behind the scenes.

Notably, Binance didn’t ask us for any tokens. When their post-listing team reached out to me, I told them I was just a retail investor holding tokens. They confirmed some basic details, like the token supply and circulating supply and our official Twitter account, just two hours before the final listing. They even requested a few thousand test tokens, showing that they hadn’t even prepared for testing.

This proves that Binance has a strict confidentiality process.

In both the Neiro and ACT projects, Binance stood on the community’s side when we faced off against conspiracy groups, leaving ample room for both primary and secondary markets. Isn’t that a good thing?

Take Neiro, for example — I bought in at a $300 million market cap, and it’s tripled since then. After listing on Binance, you can take larger positions and buy millions in tokens, which operates on a completely different logic. Both primary and secondary markets have plenty of room — what more could you ask for? I really don’t understand why some people attack Binance and the project.

TechFlow: For most tokens, especially VC-backed ones with high concentration in project teams, a Binance listing often marks the end of positive momentum, and everyone starts selling off. What room for growth do you see for ACT after its Binance listing?

0xWizard:

ACT, as a community project, has a continually evolving value. This is also why I re-entered on-chain projects from 2020 to 2023, based on a fundamental hypothesis: why do meme coins or on-chain projects create a wealth effect?

Let’s look at traditional VC projects’ token creation process: A project team comes up with an idea, analyzes market needs, and aims to address industry challenges. They find investors, secure VC funding, develop the product, and eventually launch.

The value of such projects hinges on a few factors:

• The quality of the project and the strength of the team.

• Whether top-tier VCs are involved.

• Whether it’s listed on major exchanges.

The problem is that when these projects launch on large exchanges, there’s limited room in the secondary market. All factors have been analyzed, the valuation has been thoroughly priced, and they may already have a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of hundreds of millions or even billions. Under such circumstances, can you, as an average investor, accept it?

Moreover, project teams often adopt exploitative token models, with small initial releases that continue over time.

In this cycle, we don’t see the “90% drop followed by 100x growth” that we used to see in crypto cycles.

On-chain projects like ACT have values that are continually reshaped. That’s also why I dared to invest in Neiro — after its Binance listing, its narrative, capital, user base, and investment logic all changed.

Previously, ACT might have been one of the two most important tokens in the AI meme space. But now, post-Binance, it’s no longer just one of the two most important tokens in AI memes; it has become the very representation of AI memes, an index token for this sector. It embodies a new sector and trend.

If you’re investing with millions in the secondary market, how would you allocate it? On Binance, if you want exposure to the AI sector, ACT’s peer comparison is no longer GOAT; it’s projects with tens of billions in FDV, like Worldcoin.

This brings us to two core logics: first, its value is constantly being reshaped; second, the judgment of future market opportunities.

In October, I sincerely asked on Twitter: if the next two months enter a bull market (Bitcoin hadn’t yet risen at that time), which sector could see a 10x increase?

As retail investors, if a sector only doubles or triples, it’s hard to make significant profits. Many people wait to confirm a bull market before buying in and have no idea where the peak is. Quick thinkers might earn 50%, 60%, or 80% at most, and doubling is difficult. Only by finding a sector that can increase tenfold can you still gain three to five times, even with conservative entry and exit.

I researched all sectors, including DeFi, BTC ecosystem, TON ecosystem, AI, and the general meme coin sector. After examining them all, I was stumped — most projects in the AI sector were already valued in the billions, so how could they increase tenfold?

What drives the crypto market? The overarching logic is that AI leads the tech revolution, sparking the next industrial and information revolutions. AI has driven the U.S. stock market — can crypto ignore AI? This is why the AI sector saw a tenfold increase at the start of the year. But after that broad increase, projects with billions or tens of billions in FDV became hard to buy.

When GOAT appeared, it immediately caught my eye. Then, when ACT launched, I thought, if you’re investing in the AI sector with a substantial amount, you need to ask yourself two questions: first, which sector is sure to see a tenfold increase? Second, can this token within the sector deliver a tenfold return? Is its market cap reasonable for this potential?

That’s why I believe ACT has significant upside. Although it has experienced three 80% drops, there are still many diamond-handed holders and loyal fans in the community. I told the community, “I’m a brainless fan; no need to ask my logic — I just unconditionally trust and support these people.”

TechFlow: Reflecting on the past, the Neiro capitalization dispute, and Binance’s choice of a more community-oriented lowercase “Neiro,” one could say Binance saved Neiro and ACT.

There seems to be a paradox here: people tire of VC-backed coins, opting for more community-based memecoins on-chain. Yet, the fate of these memecoins still relies on Binance, as DOG’s founder Leonidas has persistently tagged Yi He and CZ on Twitter, hoping for DOG’s Binance listing.

People embrace decentralized assets on-chain, but the ultimate goal is to gain recognition from the most powerful centralized exchange, thereby achieving liquidity exit. This seems ironic. What’s your take on this phenomenon? Will centralized exchanges, or Binance in particular, always be the “savior” of memecoins?

0xWizard:

I think we need to view this from a few perspectives:

First, from a historical standpoint, this is a progression. At present, the liquidity on-chain is limited, while Binance has a more abundant supply.

Second, memecoins themselves face difficulties — Binance can’t just list a token without seeing a formed community. I feel Binance has made considerable strides here; their selection logic indicates they are adapting to this new version, and I think they’re doing a great job.

These community-driven projects’ values are continually reshaped, and Binance is now actively participating

What Happened to the Bitcoin Ecosystem?

TechFlow: Earlier this year, the Bitcoin ecosystem saw a surge of interest, with projects like ORDI leading the way, which also helped Eastern crypto players gain a voice. However, that momentum didn’t last. In your view, what’s the main reason the Bitcoin ecosystem has struggled to gain traction? Is there still a chance for it to rise in the future?

0xWizard:

I believe the Bitcoin ecosystem does have potential. But I must admit that the current market sentiment is not in its favor in the short term.

Here are some issues I see:

The first problem is that the Bitcoin ecosystem needs more substantial innovation. Initially, we saw some unique developments, such as content inscription on-chain and tokenizing that content — this was an interesting innovation. But the innovation seemed to lose momentum over time. Without fresh ideas, the market won’t respond.

The second issue is that liquidity in the Bitcoin ecosystem is highly fragmented. Protocols are essentially siphoning off liquidity from each other, similar to Ethereum’s Layer 2 fragmentation. There’s one group focused on Ordinals, another on Runes, yet another on Merlin, and the latest on fractal Bitcoin. Each group is doing its own thing, with little connection between them.

I even tweeted about this, pointing out that while external liquidity hasn’t poured into the Bitcoin ecosystem yet, internal liquidity is becoming increasingly fragmented. How can this succeed?

I still believe the Bitcoin ecosystem has hope, but to break through, it may need a new narrative. You can’t keep telling the same story about Ordinals or similar topics; that narrative is losing its impact.

The second point is that the Bitcoin ecosystem needs a way to address liquidity fragmentation. Though I can’t see a specific solution right now, it’s as tough a challenge as solving Ethereum Layer 2’s liquidity fragmentation.

We need a project that everyone can rally behind — at least something that everyone within the Bitcoin ecosystem agrees is valuable. This would allow funds within the ecosystem to push it to a high market cap, attracting attention from exchanges, and ultimately drawing in more people and communities. That could be a path forward.

A third approach is to look at existing projects, like Runes, and see if any are likely to be listed on major exchanges. A major exchange listing would bring the most direct wealth effect, which could revive interest in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

But I think what’s most needed is the first point — a fundamental innovation. Exchanges follow; they don’t lead in this regard.

Great Results Come from Great Pain

TechFlow: I saw a tweet from Kay saying that behind your big achievements lies immense pain. Could you share a few painful moments you’ve gone through? How did you get through them?

0xWizard:

To be honest, I’ve had many such moments, and looking back on them still makes my heart race. It’s like walking down a bustling street on a sunny afternoon, but with your heart twitching so painfully that you can barely function. It’s as if you can’t really exist in this world.

I’ve felt this way many times. For example, during the May 19 crash, I was leveraging Ethereum, nearly facing liquidation, though it ended in a happy ending. By the end of 2021, my funds not only recovered but reached new highs. But by the time Three Arrows Capital imploded in 2022, I lost an eight-figure sum within a month — a massive setback, and almost an unacceptable outcome for me.

I always tell others to carefully consider the worst-case scenario in trading, but even I couldn’t accept that loss. I was in that state of heart palpitations, unable to walk normally on the street. Opening the trading app, I’d become numb to price movements.

Then came ORDI, which I held from $7 down to $3. That was another form of torment, with my position halving over half a year. I pinned my hopes on ORDI, which was a bad habit. Perhaps I’m too subjective; when trading, you can sense my strong conviction and confidence in my own logic. But that quality is a double-edged sword — it’s also why, when things go wrong, they go very wrong.

I was stuck in ORDI for six months, while everyone criticized it, including OGs in Bitcoin, saying Ordinals had no value. I kept questioning whether I was wrong. The same happened with ACT, which fell 80% three times in just a couple of weeks.

So, how did I get through it? I think there are a few factors:

First, I’m more optimistic than most. I’ve always been more optimistic than 99% of people. This personality trait has certainly helped me, but even so, I often felt the pain was too much to bear, almost making me unable to keep trading or even survive. But the sun always rises, like I tweeted: “No matter how deep the night, always believe that dawn will come.” I’ve had countless experiences showing me I can get back up.

Second, seeking external support. For instance, during the ORDI period, I watched the movie Oppenheimer, and after, I wrote a tweet about it, which gave me some relief.

Who was Oppenheimer? Handsome, from a wealthy family — when his father passed, he left him an inheritance worth over $100 million in today’s terms. He was incredibly brilliant, entering Harvard at 16. But what was his life like as a young man?

After watching the movie, I read his biography. As a young man, he nearly had a breakdown multiple times. While studying in the U.K., he almost poisoned his professor, felt abandoned when a friend got a girlfriend, and even nearly strangled a friend with a belt. He’d collapse on the floor, convulsing, foaming at the mouth. When he saw young women on the train, he felt a nearly uncontrollable urge to kiss them. These issues stemmed from the sexual repression and frustration of not being recognized.

Even a person like that had such low moments — he seemed like someone who should be locked up in a mental hospital. But he eventually overcame it. That helped me understand that everyone has dark moments, even seemingly great people.

How am I any better than Oppenheimer? 99.99% of people would agree he surpasses me. Why would I expect to suffer less yet achieve good results? That’s unrealistic.

This is about seeking internally and externally. Internally, you hold on and endure the pain. Externally, you seek logic, facts, or other people’s experiences to find resonance.

The third point is learning from experience to avoid falling into the same state again. A universal rule is to ask yourself the worst-case scenario before trading, and then consider whether your position size is manageable. If you can accept the worst, hold or buy; if not, reduce your position or avoid it.

Those are the three main principles: seeking inwardly, seeking outwardly, and learning to avoid the same mistakes.

The Three Laws of the Bull Market Engine

TechFlow: You’ve mentioned a set of “Three Laws of the Bull Market Engine”:

1. Old tech, new playbook. Without this, the “snow” isn’t sticky enough (the fundamentals are lacking).

2. New narrative, new hope. Without this, the “slope” isn’t long enough.

3. Batch creation of new assets. Without this, the “slope” isn’t wide enough.

Only when all three are present do we get something as impactful as the 2017 or 2020 bull markets. Could you elaborate on these three laws?

0xWizard:

We often say, “Only by understanding history can we foresee the future.” During the bear market, I spent a lot of time imagining what a future bull market might look like. To answer this, we have to look at past bull markets, not by copying the ICO or DeFi playbooks but by finding common threads.

First Law: The crypto space is always searching for new narratives and new sectors. When a completely novel concept emerges, its potential is limitless. People see it as reasonable for valuations to soar to $1 billion, $10 billion, or even $100 billion because there’s always a way to justify its value. But if you launch a new DeFi project today, why would it be worth $1 billion? It wouldn’t make sense because earlier DeFi projects now struggle to maintain even a $600 million valuation. So, a new sector, new hope, and new narrative are essential.

That’s why when communities approach me, I tell them they first need to understand whether the ceiling is high enough before they invest time in community building. Having a strong community doesn’t guarantee profitability.

Second Law: You need sustained, long-term accumulation. Both the ICO boom and DeFi required a prolonged period to build momentum. For example, it took two to three years for Ethereum to go from launch to the ICO boom. Similarly, with DeFi, I found in my research that Uniswap’s AMM concept emerged in late 2017 and early 2018. Hayden Adams built Uniswap based on that concept. DeFi’s prosperity was widely credited to Uniswap, which allowed people to trade various tokens and created the need for lending, attracting more funds. It took almost two years for this concept to go from inception to full-blown adoption.

So, the driving force for this bull market won’t come from a brand-new technology that just appeared but from concepts built on the accumulation of the past two or three years. For example, the Meme Coin Super Cycle, a concept introduced at the end of the previous cycle, is only now seeing a major boom. Whether it’s AI meme tokens or Ordinals, they’re essentially branches of the meme coin boom, introducing new ways to generate tokens.

This is “old tech, new playbook,” but we can’t just copy the old models.

Third Law: There must be the ability to produce new assets en masse. In the ICO era, it was easy to create new tokens, and the same was true in the DeFi era. During the Ordinals phase, there were days when over 20,000 new Ordinals tokens were minted, and we’re seeing similar phenomena with AI, as countless AI agents are popping up. Without new assets, there’s no viral effect. Imagine the ICO era without other tokens like NEO alongside Ethereum — would people have been as excited? Wealth stories need to spread from one project to another.

This takes us back to the essence of the crypto space: asset issuance. Having been in crypto since 2017, reading white papers and exploring projects, I realized that crypto’s unique strength, compared to Web2 or the physical world, is its ability to issue assets. Nowhere else offers such ease of regulatory arbitrage.

A counterexample is a project like Pandora, which couldn’t generate a large number of similar assets. AI agents, however, are everywhere now, and Ordinals also had many projects issuing tokens at the same time. This kind of widespread phenomenon is what creates a powerful impact.

When these three laws come together, that’s when you get the true engine of a bull market. It’s like in June 2020 when I first heard about YFI going up 10,000x — my heart was racing, and I immediately wanted in. That’s the result of a new narrative, long-term accumulation, and the batch production of new assets working together.

Understanding Narrative and Community

TechFlow: Going through your Twitter, I notice that “narrative” and “community” are keywords you mention frequently. What do these concepts mean to you in the context of an asset?

0xWizard:

Regarding narrative, I see it like this: to understand a narrative, you have to go back to its deepest origin. Don’t just look at the surface descriptions. Imagine they’re showing you a tiger — you need to discern whether it’s a real tiger or a paper tiger by looking at its skin, muscles, and bones. When I look at narratives, I always try to probe into their underlying essence.

For example, a lot of people talk about AI Agents and the potential of AI to achieve various things in the future. But I think you can’t just stop at that thought; you need to think two, three, or even four steps ahead. You should first ask yourself: What is the essence of memes? What’s the fundamental nature of on-chain assets? Then consider the core of the AI sector in the crypto secondary market. Only then can you truly understand what AI meme tokens are about.

When I wrote my article on the “AI Renaissance,” some people said it was “grandiose and vague,” but that article was the culmination of my years of experience in crypto, derived from a deep analysis of the fundamentals.

If your narrative is built on sand, it will be washed away by the tide. But if it’s built on granite, it’s unshakable.

That’s my first principle for narrative: always dig one, two, or three layers deeper than others. It’s like Wittgenstein’s view on semantics in modern philosophy: “Our language shapes our reality, and the way you think shapes who you are.” If you always follow others, you’re not truly yourself. Like the geometric axioms, you set up axioms, then deduce theorems, and finally draw conclusions.

As for community, I have two main points:

First, the best community is a global one. The Chinese-speaking community is indeed strong, but for a solid project, you need both strong English and Chinese-speaking communities. The “English-speaking community” actually includes people from East Asia, like Indians and Koreans, who communicate in English. An English-speaking community alone isn’t enough because the best investors and exchanges are often within the Chinese-speaking community. However, if a project only has a Chinese community, its market cap is likely capped around $50–60 million — except for pioneering projects like ORDI.

Second, consider how many setbacks a community has weathered. You can’t just look at bullish moments where people in a Telegram group are hyping, saying “Buy now; it’s going to pump” — that’s not a community.

From day one in the ACT English community, I urged people to understand what ACT truly is and not to FOMO just because of price action. If a project doesn’t accumulate a group of believers over time, it’s finished. A community that only believes in price will disperse as soon as prices drop.

But if there’s a core group of believers like me who trust their logic, feel connected to the community, understand both secondary and primary market dynamics, then even three 80% drops won’t shake them.

A strong community is diverse, with people who genuinely believe in something.

What does a bad community look like? It’s where a few non-believers try to deceive others, those deceived don’t believe either, and they hope to trick even more people, turning it into a game of who can run away the fastest.

TechFlow: Finally, what advice would you give to those who want to make a mark on-chain today?

0xWizard:

For those navigating the on-chain world, here are a few essential principles:

Don’t play with large amounts of capital.

The definition of “large capital” varies by person. For example, if you have $100,000, use $10,000; if you have $1 million, use $100,000–200,000; and if you have $10 million, use $1 million. Only use what you can afford to lose, as the risks on-chain are higher than in traditional exchanges.

Set your strategy.

I’ve outlined three tradable types of tokens on Twitter; many others are traps.

a) Trend-based tokens:

For example, recent tokens like PINUT, LUCE, BAN, which can quickly reach $50–60 million or even over $100 million. The key is assessing how widely the narrative resonates and how popular it can become. Typically, weaker trends reach $30–50 million, while strong ones go to $80 million-$100 million. If you find a trend-based token under $10 million, it’s worth a look. But if it’s already at $30 million, it’s better to pass. These tokens often drop 80% when the trend wanes, so you can consider entering at that low point, but beware of traps.

Don’t go all-in. Allocate small amounts to each trend token that has dropped 80%; this strategy generally has a higher success rate.

b) Blue chips and potential strong projects:

Examples include ACT, POPCAT, etc., which aren’t driven by trends but have grown through setbacks and community consensus. These tokens also often drop 80% but are resilient. Observe the community closely, examine your own logic, and assess whether the project is viable.

Every 80% drop is an opportunity to accumulate. The ideal entry point is when market cap is between a few million and tens of millions.

c) Large-cap blue chips:

Typically, only consider these after they’re listed on major exchanges. Here, the logic shifts to weighing fund flows and sector trends — a different secondary market play. For instance, I was willing to buy Neiro at a $300 million market cap, and I believe ACT has much room to grow, based on secondary market logic. But it must be listed on Binance; if it reaches a $1 billion market cap without Binance, stay out.

These principles and strategies are based on my years of experience and thinking. Everyone’s criteria might differ, but what’s important is having your own logic and judgment. Don’t blindly follow trends; understand the reasoning behind each trade.

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