currency
What is the ecological chain of the circle? This industry is a pyramid, divided into three levels: upper, middle and lower, and each level is divided into three levels. Want to climb up? It's not that easy. If you want to rush from the fourth floor to the third floor, you basically need the boss on the second floor to help you hard.
Squeezing from the seventh floor to the sixth floor? You also need people on the fifth level and above to help you, that's the logic.
Players on the third level
The first level: Wall Street giants, this group of people began to enter the market after 2020.
The second level: behemoth exchanges like Binance and Coinbase, and top incubators like A16Z. A16Z investment projects often cost tens of millions of dollars, or even hundreds of millions of dollars. Why? They have raised money from LPs (investors who provide funds to the fund) and have to spend it to continue to receive management fees, which can only create a bigger problem.
The third level: the top funds we can see, the best exchange in South Korea, and the next level exchange owners like kucoin, as well as some big fund bosses. This group of people is responsible for setting the rules and creating hot spots. Build a DePIN in North America. The entire DeFi in 2020 will be their masterpiece, and then spread through their subordinates.
Middle third floor: microphone
The fourth level: large incubators accessible to everyone, such as Pantera. There are also some second-level top quantitative fund bosses who need at least US$100 million in cash to gain a foothold at this level.
The fifth and sixth floors: basically going down level by level. The fifth level is the younger brother of the fourth level, and the sixth level is the younger brother of the fifth level. They are all incubation series funds, as well as exchanges at all levels.
The sixth level is the final stop for most retail investors' struggles. He may be the director of a large fund, with tens of millions of dollars in hand, some influence in the industry, and his own fan base. These three layers are responsible for passing the concepts above to the leeks below.
Lower three floors: Leek Concentration Camp
It is the general retail investors and C-end users who are responsible for receiving orders. This is how the entire industry works: the upper level creates, the middle level delivers, and the lower level takes over.
The interesting thing about the two worlds of Eastern and Western capital is that the two capitals are simply two parallel universes in this market. Take last October as an example. Eastern capital is engaged in the second layer of Bitcoin and derivatives, while Western capital is engaged in DePIN.
The problem is, these two concepts don’t agree with each other. Bitcoin in the East is second-tier, but Binance is not. Only one MouseBit was listed on Binance, and one Merlin was listed on OK. OK is a notch behind Binance, you know.
Without the support of Western capital, this business would not be successful, and Eastern capital would not be able to take over the business a second time. The same goes for DePIN in the West. In the first two rounds of financing, Eastern capital was not allowed to enter the market at all, and only a small group was allowed in in the third round.
result?
The communication chain is broken, and Eastern retail investors have no way to take over the offer. There are indeed people poaching IO, but few people actually take over the project. If something could be created from the three levels above, it would be the great unity of the world.
In the whole Binance business, I must take over first, and I must be listed on the exchange. How many underlings does Binance have? All over the world. This is called integration and opening up the two channels of Ren and Du.
Arbitrage opportunity? Yes, but if you can break through this information barrier, the money will come. For example, what would it take to move a concept that was poorly played by the Chinese to Korea and sell it? Meet the rich people in Korea. Let them spend money to buy a separate place to play the rest of the concept, and find a batch of local leeks, and it's done.
Sounds simple? In fact, it is as difficult as climbing to the sky. Cryptocurrency industry information is very closed. You see those people attending conferences everywhere, but it is actually of no use. People in the same circle play with people in the same circle, and outsiders cannot enter at all. How to insert it? It depends on your ability. So, this industry looks flat on the surface, but is actually hierarchical.
It is not difficult for you to make tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions here, but how about making money while lying down? Then you have to climb up and cross the hierarchy. This process is painful and requires you to leave your comfort zone. Want to do well in this industry? Don't just get to know a lot of people, drink some wine and listen to a few truths. The key is to establish deep connections with a small number of people. Everyone's logic for making money is different, so you have to find what suits you.
How to learn and enter the crypto?
To do well, you must first be interested in this industry. Don't just do it to make money. This will lower your upper limit. The industry is huge and you are sure to find a part that interests you. If you find it, rub it. This is an industry with a long board effect. You find what you are interested in, then find a big boss who can make money in this area, and get in touch with him. People like to help people who follow them.
I am on the fourth floor and know many big guys on the second and third floors. None of them are pretentious, and I don’t even pretend to be on the fifth, sixth or seventh floors. Everyone is young and can talk about anything. This is the best thing about this industry. There are many directions. People are pragmatic, passionate and have faith.
If they want to quickly enter the crypto, young people go to offline running activities. Every venue has a conspicuous bag (people who love to express themselves), see if it is positive or negative. Some people know a bunch of people, but they all think they are stupid. There are many such people. Some people can hang out in large and small places and can convey messages. Such people will go far in the future.
If you are looking for a job, it is recommended to go to an important position on the fourth, fifth or sixth floor, or someone who can reach an important position. It is better to go to the fourth, fifth and sixth floors than to go to the marginal positions on the third floor. Those small exchanges and KOL assistants on the seventh floor are not interesting.
When looking for a job, first check with the boss to make sure he is rich and has achieved great results. Those who earn tens of millions and then swell are pure idiots. Being an employee is fine, but they are far from being a boss. No matter which direction you go in, you need to quickly find a big boss with your own model, or a young person like you.
Token model and investor relationship? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
When working on a project, you need to understand that investors are on the same side as you at the beginning. They invest money to exit and make money, and you issue airdrops to achieve operational targets. These are two different things: one is the advancement and retreat at the capital level, and the other is how to do it at the operational level. Why can some projects be airdropped on Binance? Because they have the resources to take care of Binance! You need to understand this money and relationship.
They first secured Binance and then designed the airdrop model after building a huge user base. They did not first attract users through airdrops and then list them on major exchanges. This logic is reversed. You have to think clearly. So moving forward, what is the conclusion? As long as powerful people recognize you, the project is not far from success.
So what do we do? Put the interests of early investors first! Make sure the people who support you make money. Remember: In the movie "Let the Bullets Fly", the money of the wealthy gentry is divided into 30 and 70, and the money of the common people is returned in full. This is your first principle. How to do it? Mobilize the enthusiasm of investors, tie them to your chariot, and expand your influence. It’s not just airdrops, you also have to be able to draw cakes. Painting pie for investors and pie for users depends on your ability level.
Learn to draw cakes
You need to practice your operational capabilities or find a good operator. After drawing the pie, let more unknown capital come in. But remember the rules: people who directly vote for you cannot cut it, but people who introduce it can cut it as they please. This is an unspoken rule and must be followed. Mutual cutting between introducers has nothing to do with you, because there is no interest related. Even if I introduce a friend to you, my friend will not blame me. He won't give you money just because of my face. He must have invested in it after in-depth investigation.
You have to figure out who can and cannot be cut. When your business grows bigger, take care of everyone around me, and then only cut off retail investors. Do you know retail investors? Does he know you? Does it matter to you that people who have nothing to do with you lose money? People who play Crypto all have spare money. For example, if you have 10 million and use 1 million to play, or if you earn 10,000 a month and use 1,000 to play, it doesn’t matter if you lose. After all, there are only a few people who are bankrupt. If you want to cut them off, just cut them off and don't touch the first level of relationships around you.
In short, this is: Try to ensure that the people around you are in the best interests, make more rich friends, and cut off the people around them. This is the right way.
Client relations and investor strategy?
The customer relationship is not handled well, and no one cares about it once the coins are issued. Like those AI coins and mining coins, the airdrop expectations were not handled well, no one bought them when they were launched, and they were shipped very quickly, so even the father, the early investor, could not be satisfied. I’ll take the project on Binance as an example, I don’t understand the others.
For example, BounceBit, our company attaches great importance to the Restaking track and has invested a lot of money in it. But the ratio BounceBit gives us is pitifully small. One Bitcoin only gives us an airdrop equivalent to about 100U per month.
What does this mean? The project team did not spend a lot of money on receiving airdrops, so they definitely still have money on hand. What will retail investors think? I think the project team is stupid and gave you too little, so I won’t play with you anymore, so I just smashed the airdrop tokens. But we insiders know that the project side has the money to take over the order, and when the mood is in place, we buy in large quantities at the low point.
What do early stage VCs get? We can know exactly how many chips the project team has lost, how much cash it has in hand, and which of the published tokenomics (Tokenomics) are fake.
VC Insider Tips
As a VC, you will definitely prepare more money to buy at the buy the dips of the secondary market and know when to buy. Let’s talk about TIA and TICO. We have invested in both. If TIA reaches 3U+ in the OTC market, retail investors will definitely lose money.
Why? The price in the first round was only 0.015, which is too different. Where will the price be? It is probably around 1~2U of the OTC market benchmark price. If it is lower than 2U, we will increase our positions like crazy and buy millions of dollars. Later, it rose to more than ten yuan, making tens of millions of dollars. This was called an explanation to the project team.
The investment thing is coherent. If you don't vote, you don't know that the first round is 0.015 and the second round is 0.5. Only by voting can you get inside information. Mature investors should know where to make money, and it doesn’t have to be doubled in six months. The key is how to make a profit when going online. If retail investors don't take orders, it must be a problem with the marketing department, either because of poor operation or insufficient resources. It cannot be that there is a problem in the investment process, and it is difficult for retail investors not to take over.
The standard configuration of large incubators is to invest in media companies, have dozens of KOLs under their control, have funds they can control, and be LP funds. Those of us on the fourth level must definitely become LPs of third-level funds. Invest 5 million US dollars for a five-year period, be able to read financial reports, and have the right to make suggestions. This is what a large incubator should do.
If you have a small stake or are a newcomer, you can only deal with retail investors. You need to explore layer by layer and go through enough pitfalls to find the methodology. Then use this methodology, take your money and team to socialize upwards, and find a powerful brother to guide you. This is the correct positioning.
Don't go looking for KOLs one by one and spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars. If you spend all the money on publicity, you will have no money to pull deals. How will you explain it to investors? If you take money from people around you when you are immature, you will definitely overturn.
How do young people break out of the siege?
Most of today's college students think: "I have to work hard and try my best to complete the tasks assigned by my supervisor." But in fact, it is very different from that era of ours. When we first came out, how could we have any money? It costs 3 yuan to take the MRT and 1 yuan to take the bus. I would rather get up an hour earlier just to save these two yuan. To save money, I can bear not to eat.
Your generation has never experienced this kind of suffering, so you cannot bear so much suffering. Today's college students will think: "My family's financial situation is not bad. I can find a job in the financial industry and earn 20,000 to 300,000 yuan a year. Why should I be so angry and suffer so much?" This kind of trend Ah, it affects everyone's motivation to move forward. So how do young people break out of the encirclement? Just a little bit better than others in every aspect.
The first is cognition, you know more than your peers. Especially for boys, the most important thing when they are young is not money and status, but how much of the world they have seen and how much they have personally experienced. Your vision determines your future height.
Then there is emotional intelligence, which does not mean making the supervisor happy every day. The real emotional intelligence is to let the leader see how much benefit you can bring to him and feel comfortable getting along with you. What leaders need is to see how much benefit you can bring in the next five to ten years, as well as your loyalty and kindness. After that comes professional skills, learning ability and so on.
Emphasizing character and creating sentimental value
To put it bluntly, people with normal IQs and good education have similar learning and comprehension abilities. After being trained in our company for one month, they will basically learn how the entire industry operates. The most important thing is actually character.
In our industry, including my brothers, what everyone values is character, whether they can create friendship value and profit value. As for when to go out on your own, there is actually no conflict between following your elder brother and doing it yourself. People who are really good to you will definitely give you a chance if they see that you are capable. You will be more confident if you have someone behind you.
For example, if I take you to a dinner party to meet people, you may be able to attract investment in your project within just one meal. This relationship is mutual. You are my resource and I am your resource. There are outstanding young people around me. Others will think that I am a good person, can be recognized by young people, and have not been abandoned by the times. In this way, I can gain a greater advantage in business negotiations. I hope to find employees or collaborators who I can trust and can bring a win-win situation.
Today's young people are indeed different from before, maybe because their family conditions have improved and they are not so hungry. Do you know what kind of young people venture capital likes the most? The family conditions are not very good, middle class or even worse. Why? Because this kind of entrepreneur can stay hungry, hunger will force them to constantly pursue success.
However, if you are looking for employees, you must ensure that they can bring a win-win situation. Everyone wants their employees to become better. But the most important thing is to trust your employees and believe that they can give back to you when they are great.
You are right, this industry has been a grassroots team since the beginning, relying on seniors to guide juniors. The person who guided me back then told me that when I become great, don’t forget to guide others, and do it with a sincere heart, just like he did with me. This was what he expected from me, and I feel like I did it. It’s more like a master-apprenticeship.
How to balance the work of web3 and web2 and improve the field on web3?
I not only have web3 industries, but I also have many web2 industries, even more than web3. And my achievements in web2 are actually greater than those in web3. It’s not that I don’t work, it’s that I don’t work in web3, because I have many brothers in web3 who are helping me complete these tasks, but I still need to struggle for a long time in web2. To judge whether a person is good or not, first look at energy. I sleep only 4 to 5 hours a day for more than ten years.
You must not give up Web2, but also pursue Web3. Let your Web3 grow step by step, so that you can constantly encourage yourself: I am strong and I can be stronger. You can make four to five thousand U a month in Web2, which is actually pretty good. If you give up, your mentality will change. In case Web3 doesn't make so much, you will feel painful giving up your stable job. It's easy to make mistakes in a hurry.
Remember, slow is fast, and you can fragment your time. Sleep 1 to 2 hours less every day, play less, work more, and set yourself a goal for one or two years. For example, what achievements are to be achieved in Web3 in two years? There must be clear plans in terms of money, awareness, and connections. If you want to achieve success in Web3, you must consider all aspects.
For example, when you go out to play, you need to meet industry friends from all over the world to entertain you. Many young people say they want to make money, such as making 1 million or 10 million, but you have to figure out how to make it. Assuming you want to earn 5 million a year, you can plan like this: just live in the first 10 months, start in the 11th month, and earn 4.9 million in the 12th month. Then think clearly about what to accumulate in the first 10 months, what to study, who to know, how to push yourself, and whether making money by doing investment research does not conflict with your studies.
I suggest you go to the company for an internship first. Why? This will give you a systematic understanding of how the industry works and what you can and cannot do. You will know whether it is useful to invest in research and study those bad news. You may have random thoughts, and what you see are posted by others, and you don’t know whether they are reliable or not. If you join a company as an intern, even if it is just for a month or two, you will be able to deeply bond with your colleagues. Bring your leader and maintain long-term contact in the future. After you finish college, then go to graduate school, and when you come back a few years later, if he becomes a senior executive, wouldn't it be great if you go to him again?
This is the case in this industry. Anyone who has helped you will continue to help you as long as you have no problems. It’s not that the people you helped will help you back, that’s not the case. Therefore, go to the company and get to know more outstanding and active colleagues. Even if you get in through HR normally, you still have to find a way to make your boss appreciate you, so that your future path will be much broader.
What skills and knowledge areas are focused on to enhance Web3 employability?
From my perspective, improving social skills is very important. No matter how high your research level is, if you don’t have a strong social network and resource acquisition capabilities, it will be difficult for you to make substantial progress in this field. For example, when we invest in fund projects, we do not completely rely on investment research results, because even if we are optimistic about a project, it will be of no use if we do not have the opportunity to enter. Moreover, if your resource acquisition capabilities are insufficient, you may only see the public financing news of the project and miss out on early investment opportunities.
I used to be an I (introvert) person, you may not believe it. I used to study hardware programming and participated in various robotics and ACM competitions. However, when I was a junior in college, I started minoring in finance, which made me realize that economics and resource management are the core. I respect people who work on technology, but I will not be such a person.
In this industry, many things rely on relationships to advance. This is my strength and expertise. So, when you ask what skills should be improved to enhance employment competitiveness, I think that in addition to technical skills, social skills are equally important. Unless you are the CTO of the company you are applying for, few bosses only value technical skills.
How to effectively build a professional network in the crypto space?
At first, I also established my own social network through various channels. Because I had no money but wanted to make money, I called and asked one by one, joined some top groups to see who was the more powerful person in the group, and then added their contact information. Basically, I ask them how they make money and if they can bring me along to do it, I tell them about my college experience and the value I can provide, and ask them if they can give me some pointers. That's it, I contacted these people like a "licking dog" every day, which lasted for about half a year.
At first, we had no resources, so we had to put down our posture. We have to finish it even if we don't want to. We need to find every way to seize the opportunity, get to know more people, and then build our own social network step by step. As a young man, especially a young man in his early 20s, you are the most handsome when you put down your dignity. When others see you putting down your airs, they will think you are sincere and respectable. Try more, keep learning, and grow from it.
sum up one sentence
In the layered ecological chain of cryptocurrency, personal growth and success not only rely on technology and professional knowledge, but also depend on social skills, access to resources, and deep connections with influential figures in the industry.
