Later, I often thought.
The kind from Stephen Chow's movies
The little bug that gets stepped on, knocked away, yet can still crawl back up,
might be talking about someone like me.
That more than two hundred thousand.
Already,
basically reached the bottom.
It doesn't disappear all at once.
It happens little by little.
Like a leaking bucket,
You clearly can hear the sound,
but you don't know where it starts to leak.
I have not lost hope.
Not because I am optimistic.
It's because I have already
lost the strength to despair.
Just at that moment,
the market started to change its play style again.
No longer just a simple street dog.
They started telling new stories.
Chain games.
Gold farming.
NFT.
It sounds,
suddenly very high-end.
No longer "speculating on coins."
But:
"Make money playing games"
"Buying NFTs is an asset"
"This is the future of Web3"
I can’t quite understand.
But I can understand one sentence:
"No need to wait for the rise,
you can earn every day."
This sentence,
for someone whose account is about to bottom out,
is too damaging.
The project side started packaging very seriously.
The white paper no longer writes "hundred times."
Rather than writing:
"Economic model"
"Output mechanism"
"Break-even cycle"
They tell you:
"You are not a speculator."
"You are a participant."
"You are building the ecosystem."
But there is only one premise.
First buy NFTs.
NFT is not an avatar.
is "mining machine."
is "character."
is "ticket."
If you don't buy,
You don't qualify to gold farm.
I was skeptical at first.
But someone in the group started to show profits.
Taking screenshots every day.
How much U.
How many coins.
Someone said:
"I've already broken even."
"Now it's all profit."
I stared at those pictures.
What I'm thinking is not:
"Is this real?"
But rather:
"If it's real,
Am I the last batch?"
I can’t afford to lose anymore.
That year, the Bored Apes under ETH
During that time,
The world under ETH looked like another universe.
Bored Apes,
suddenly became popular.
It's not a little bit on fire.
It's that kind of——
You don't understand it,
but you know you can no longer afford to not understand.
It's being shared in social circles.
It's being discussed in groups.
It's trending on Twitter.
An ape that looks like
a monkey avatar drawn casually,
was sold for hundreds of thousands,
over a million.
The first time I saw the price,
I instinctively thought it was a unit error.
I clicked in to confirm repeatedly.
That's right.
It's just a picture.
But everyone is telling you:
"This is not a picture."
"This is identity."
"This is a ticket to a social circle."
Then,
The stars have arrived.
It's not one.
is a batch.
The athlete's avatar turned into an NFT.
The singer is showing off the ape on social media.
Actors, rappers, streamers,
Announcing one after another.
They don't talk about technology.
They don't talk about blockchain.
Just say one sentence:
"I'm playing too."
This sentence,
is more useful than any white paper.
Because it instantly told everyone:
This thing,
is no longer a geek's toy.
The sports circle exploded first.
The athlete's avatar changed,
The price moved immediately.
Someone started to count:
"Which one did a certain athlete buy."
"What's the floor price."
"Is it the same series."
The entertainment industry followed closely.
When a star shows off,
The comment section is full of:
"How much is this?"
"Where to buy?"
"Can I still get in?"
NFTs started to truly go viral.
Not because of a technological breakthrough.
It's because
identity has been openly priced.
In the past, you had money,
Others didn't know.
Now you just need to change an avatar,
everyone can see it.
I realized one thing for the first time:
This is not the asset rising,
it's the "desire to be seen" that is rising.
When the stars come in,
the market sentiment is completely out of control.
No one asks anymore:
"Is this thing useful?"
Everyone only cares about:
"Did I buy in early enough?"
That moment,
NFT is no longer NFT.
It has become a kind of
public identity label.
And we ordinary people,
standing on the other side of the screen,
suddenly feel:
If you don't participate,
it's as if you were named by the era
to skip over it.
I started to not understand.
But I started to be afraid.
What are you afraid of?
I'm afraid to stand at the door of the era again, but didn't dare to enter.
They started telling stories.
Saying Bored Ape is not an NFT,
is a brand.
Saying it stands behind capital.
Stars.
VC.
Saying as long as you own one,
it equals entering a certain upper circle.
I saw one screenshot after another.
Someone bought an ape,
the avatar changed,
the whole person changed.
Someone private messaged me.
Someone added me to a group.
Someone called me boss.
I realized one thing for the first time:
It turns out that money,
is not just for spending,
but can also be used to "elevate status."
This for me,
So fresh.
The price of ETH is rising.
The floor price of NFTs is skyrocketing.
Chain games, gold farming, NFTs,
seemed to be strung together by a thread.
They tell you:
"ETH is the underlying."
"NFT is an asset."
"Chain games are cash flow."
This sounds,
much more advanced than a native dog.
No longer a gamble.
It's "participating in the new economy."
I started to fantasize.
It's not a fantasy of sudden wealth.
But rather fantasizing about a
feeling recognized by the times.
If I also had an NFT like this.
Even if it's not Bored Ape.
Even if it's just "the next Bored Ape."
Am I just
Finally stood in the right line?
So on the market,
a large number of "Bored Ape-like" started to appear.
Various animals.
Dog.
Cat.
Bear.
Alien.
They said:
"Bored Ape is too expensive."
"But the model is the same."
"Copying can lead to success."
The price is much lower.
One or two thousand.
Three to five thousand.
Just right,
is the money I can still take out.
I told myself:
"I can't afford Bored Ape."
"Then I'll buy the next one."
I didn't realize:
I'm not participating in innovation,
I'm catching the emotional wave.
When Bored Ape has become a "symbol",
we who came later,
see only the price.
I opened my wallet.
ETH is still here.
NFT is still here.
They look like,
still "valuable".
But I never thought about one question:
If there is no next person,
Who else can they be sold to?
That year,
The world under ETH
looked brilliant.
And I,
standing in the light,
the shadow is getting longer.
