Foreword
None of the core questions that make cryptocurrencies truly interesting have been truly answered to this day.
"Digital gold" is not the answer for Bitcoin. It represents a religion in a religious sense, and is facing the dual challenges of regulatory co-optation and stablecoins (US dollars).
"Altcoin have zero value" is not the answer to the question of Altcoin. Altcoin are already a practically obsolete concept.
Meme Coin is not just air; it is an assetized form of human faith. It has the power to shape cultural symbols, define a new generation of aesthetics, and even reshape public thinking.
Although Attention Coin has experienced wild price swings and significant losses, it is essentially an attention search engine that people bet real money on.
The previous wave of "Autonomous Worlds" has clearly pointed in one direction: only AI can truly overcome human nature and build a truly autonomous digital world. The rise of AI will inevitably be driven by cryptocurrency. If, along this path, the currency in circulation remains fiat currency rather than cryptocurrency, then we might as well call it a day.
As for the project's revenue, profits, and the tug-of-war and controversies surrounding equity and tokens, after so many years, the self-deprecating view of the cryptocurrency market as the stock market should come to an end.
For so many years now, the understanding of most of us remains trapped in the narrow framework of "value" as defined by VCs. If we cannot establish a set of value judgment standards independent of the traditional stock market and VC valuation systems, then we have not truly revolutionized the capital market at all—at least so far, this is a complete failure.
But failure is never the end, but the process. Cultivation is an eternal struggle of failure, and eternal failure comes from eternal resistance. This is also the greatest potential of cryptocurrency, which has yet to be fully realized—its vitality lies in challenging, disrupting, and reconstructing.
The true crypto movement should be about evangelism, the tokenization of everything, and a series of cultural and value-based battles fought globally. VCs and pure speculators will never appreciate this, because they don't believe in it.
The following article was published at the end of December last year, but at a time when Bitcoin was crashing and people in the industry were leaving and losing confidence, we hope this article can bring confidence to everyone.
Bitcoin is a modern religion
Christianity has Jesus, Buddhism has Buddha, Islam has Muhammad, and Bitcoin has Satoshi Nakamoto.
Christianity has the Bible, Buddhism has Buddhist scriptures, Islam has the Quran, and Bitcoin has Bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.
If we were to make a more detailed comparison, we would find that Bitcoin, in addition to the aspects mentioned above, shares many similarities with traditional religions. For example, Bitcoin has its own doctrines (the modern financial order will eventually collapse, and Bitcoin will become Noah's Ark when the modern financial order comes to an end), its own religious rituals (mining and HODL), it has also fallen into division during its development, and after reaching a certain scale, it has become a tool for governments to use for certain specific purposes, and so on.
But if we call Bitcoin a "modern religion," we must discuss its differences from traditional religions.
First, the term "decentralization," in the current crypto industry, has even acquired a slightly sarcastic connotation, but it is undoubtedly the most fundamental characteristic of the modern religion represented by Bitcoin. What I'm emphasizing here is not the degree of decentralization in the operation of a blockchain network, but rather "whether the formation of consensus is a decentralized process."
Satoshi Nakamoto, the "creator" of Bitcoin, chose "self-exile," relinquishing his authority to create a new world. Bitcoin has no god symbolizing central authority, nor a central individual or entity actually possessing divine power; it grows and thrives from the bottom up, in the opposite direction to traditional religions. The Bitcoin white paper, and the phrase in the Genesis Block,"The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks," have never changed. You can interpret them however you like, as long as you're interested.
Satoshi Nakamoto is the most human-like "creator god," yet also the least human, because he exhibited non-human moral standards, or rather, idealistic pursuits. Satoshi Nakamoto possessed not only Bitcoin, worth billions of dollars, but also the power to destroy this religion with a single hand—like possessing a button to destroy the world—yet he simply vanished. If you think about it further, considering how Bitcoin has developed for so many years, how Bitcoin believers have believed that Satoshi Nakamoto will forever protect the world he created, and how even governments around the world have begun to believe it today, you'll find it all incredibly incredible.
Secondly, the "Internet" means that Bitcoin doesn't rely on face-to-face preaching, war, conquest, or immigration to attract followers like traditional religions. The Internet not only makes the spread of Bitcoin less linear and geographically limited than traditional religions, but it also gives Bitcoin a modern appeal, such as meme culture, to attract the new generation of young people.
Of course, there are also "dedication and reward," and "division and expansion." These two points are very important, as they determine that modern religion is essentially a "faith capital market."
Faith in the Capital Market
If you are a Bitcoin believer, you don't need to fast or practice asceticism; you just need to run a full Bitcoin node or hold Bitcoin.
When your faith in Bitcoin is challenged, whether it's the debate over big/small blocks or smart contract public chains like Ethereum and Solana, you don't need to participate in a holy war. You still only need to run a full Bitcoin node or hold Bitcoin.
Running a full Bitcoin node or holding Bitcoin can both be seen as a religious ritual within the Bitcoin religion. This ritual doesn't promise you a better life or a happy afterlife; instead, it provides believers with tangible material and spiritual rewards through price performance.
Similarly, whether it's the debate over large/small blocks or the emergence of new public chains like Ethereum and Solana, all sorts of arguments ultimately lead to a continuous rise in the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies. In cryptocurrencies, the conflict of beliefs no longer results in physical destruction or spiritual conquest; instead, it presents a situation completely opposite to traditional religions—where conflict arises in the pursuit of explaining the world, ultimately leading to its fragmentation. The conflicts in cryptocurrencies, however, are like the sparks that create the world, like the universe expanding infinitely after the Big Bang, growing ever larger and more vibrant.
The universe is vast enough to hold countless Earths. The capital market is also vast enough to hold countless tokenized beliefs.
Bitcoin is certainly a specific modern religion. However, from the perspective of pioneering a "faith capital market," its significance far exceeds that of a specific modern religion; I call it "a religion without religion." Bitcoin's development to this point, like traditional religions, has undergone a process of secularization. This is manifested in the evolution of its rituals, from running full Bitcoin nodes to HODL, and now to a point where almost no cryptocurrency players emphasize its specific meaning, but rather it quietly sits at the top of the cryptocurrency market pyramid like a totem. Just as Christmas is no longer a Christian religious holiday in today's world, we enjoy Christmas trees, Christmas gifts, and the Christmas atmosphere, and we wear Santa hats on our social media profile pictures, but we may not be Christians.
You could say that Bitcoin is cryptocurrency because if Bitcoin collapses, the cryptocurrency market will cease to exist. The value of all cryptocurrencies is based on the value of Bitcoin. But I'm less inclined to define Bitcoin that way—what is Bitcoin's core value? Digital gold? Tokenized energy? A fiat currency killer? In my view, Bitcoin's core value lies in its establishment of a modern form of religion, namely, the faith-based capital market.
secularization
Whether it's traditional religions or Bitcoin, secularization is a double-edged sword.
Taking Christmas as an example, the global commercial output generated by Christmas (such as holiday retail, gifts, tourism, decorations, and related consumption) has significantly exceeded that of traditional Christian institutions (such as donations from parishioners, church tickets, sales, and related revenue). According to estimates by Statista and the National Retail Federation (NRF), total holiday retail sales in the United States in 2024 were approximately $973 billion, and are projected to surpass $1 trillion for the first time in 2025. This data only reflects the US market, which accounts for approximately 40-50% of global Christmas spending.
In contrast, traditional Christian "commercial output," such as donations from believers (tithing, offerings), church entrance fees (e.g., at tourist attractions), sales (e.g., books, souvenirs), and related revenue, totals approximately $1.304 trillion according to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary's "The State of Christianity Globally 2024" report.
If we disregard the fact that non-Christians contribute to Christian-related tourist attractions and souvenirs, this $1.304 trillion figure would be even more significantly reduced.
Secularization has transformed Christmas from a strictly religious holiday into a global cultural phenomenon, which has certainly expanded the influence of Christianity to some extent, but has also diluted the core of the religion.
The same is true of Bitcoin and the entire faith-based capital market it has created. Just as many people around the world see Christmas merely as a day of joy, a growing number of cryptocurrency market participants are flocking in simply for speculation.
This is not a matter of right or wrong, but rather an inevitable and unstoppable process. However, the issue we want to point out here is that while celebrating Christmas did not shake the faith of traditional Christians, has the massive wave of speculation shaken the faith of traditional Bitcoin believers?
While both are secular, the joyful atmosphere of Christmas does not cause Christians to doubt their faith, but the speculative atmosphere of the cryptocurrency market has caused cryptocurrency believers to feel nihilistic and frustrated about their faith. The viral tweet, "I wasted 8 years of my life in the cryptocurrency industry," is one of the best recent examples of this.
Where is the problem?
Myth
I dare not draw a conclusion on this issue lightly. From the perspective of someone who is involved in the crypto, I would say very cautiously that it is possible, but more likely, Bitcoin has developed too rapidly, and the core base of Bitcoin believers is much smaller compared to traditional religions.
More importantly, the cryptocurrency industry has gone too far in the "technology myth." For a long time, both industry practitioners and speculators have been repeatedly seeking the answer to one question—"What else can blockchain technology be used for?" Practitioners use this to determine their entrepreneurial direction, while speculators use it to determine their speculative targets. When everyone is pursuing faster, more efficient, and more practically applicable blockchains, it is essentially self-harm.
If the cryptocurrency industry is just another Nasdaq, then it's simply a waste of money doing the same thing repeatedly. And wasting money is a minor issue compared to the far more serious damage caused by the diminished understanding of the true nature of a "capital market based on faith" and the erosion of faith itself.
Without Christianity, there would be no Christmas in popular culture. Without a capital market built on faith, there would be no paradise for entrepreneurs and speculators. If we ignore this obvious cause-and-effect relationship, we will naturally keep asking ourselves, "What new narrative do we need to create to attract more people to the cryptocurrency market?"
Both traditional religions and cryptocurrencies inevitably have to consider this question: "How can we attract young people with different cultural preferences in different eras?" Bitcoin has provided a new answer, leaving traditional religions astonished in less than 20 years. Now, it's Bitcoin's and the entire cryptocurrency industry's turn to face this challenge.
Savior
Memecoin is the savior of the cryptocurrency industry.
First, while Bitcoin is the foundation of the capital market, this doesn't mean we need to fanatically promote Bitcoin maximalism again. The most fundamentalist and fanatical elements in religions are often niche. Whether it's the cypherpunk spirit or apocalyptic prophecies about the eventual collapse of traditional finance, the novelty they offer to the younger generation is gradually fading, and they inherently have a high barrier to entry for understanding.
To put it another way, to say that we want to revive Bitcoin as a specific religion is actually underestimating Bitcoin, because what we actually want to revive is a "religion without religion," a kind of cognition that everyone's beliefs can be united in the cryptocurrency market through the internet in modern times, not only to gain material wealth, but also to unleash infinite power.
The core value of Bitcoin lies in the fact that "we all believe it has value." This may seem like a trivial statement, but it represents a remarkable decentralization of the power to interpret value. You or I could easily pick up a piece of paper and write "worth one gram of gold," but we couldn't convince anyone else of its value. Without any value anchor or central authority backing it, it started from scratch, overcoming numerous barriers such as language, culture, and geography, and ultimately gaining recognition from institutions and governments. This remarkable achievement has been far underestimated by the public.
Throughout history, individual consciousness has been extremely vulnerable and easily trampled upon, to the point that we have underestimated the value of our thoughts as independent and living individuals. In fact, the world's greatest resources are consumed in war—wars to invade our consciousness. Political elections, advertising and public relations, and even some of what we consider the most basic common sense education—all of these consume enormous sums of money, just to ultimately make us believe that something is good or bad.
The internet is great; it allows our ideas to transcend everything, communicating and colliding endlessly, 24/7. Cryptocurrency is great; it allows us to see very concretely what we can do once we know each other's ideas, reach a consensus, and grow exponentially to a massive scale.
The greatness of cryptocurrencies has not only been underestimated, but even its essence has been distorted. While house-building technology is undoubtedly impressive, the core value of a house is providing shelter and security. Similarly, the idea of a "peer-to-peer electronic cash system" is ingenious, but its core value lies in the acceptance that Bitcoin is indeed valuable and can be used like currency. For years, we have created countless blockchains outside of Bitcoin, claiming they are faster, more efficient, and more usable, fantasizing that this will mean more people entering the market.
This is like believing that, setting aside religion, a phenomenal holiday like Christmas can be replicated rapidly and on a large scale. We think that having a sword in our hands makes us unrivaled swordsmen, but in reality, we have neither a sword in our hands nor a sword in our hearts.
Secondly, Memecoin has never truly experienced a complete and mature bull market cycle. Even today, many still believe that Memecoin's value lies solely in its worthless, wildly hyped speculation. Furthermore, the popularity of Pump.fun last year and Trump's cryptocurrency initiatives have further tainted the true definition of Memecoin as an "attention token."
What is real meme currency? Actually, I don't even like the term "meme currency." The reason it exists is because the early success of $DOGE and $SHIB despite being considered useless, highlights our tendency to seek reasons after success while ignoring the value of belief. So, okay, their success was due to the huge global influence of that smiling dog image, so we call it "meme currency." And so, let's continue our reliance on classic internet meme symbols: Pepe, Wojak, Joe...
Here, I must pay tribute to Murad, who was the first to systematically explain what "meme coins" are, propose a set of quantifiable quality evaluation standards, and speak on a sufficiently large stage. His "meme coin supercycle" theory has gained enough influence in the crypto.
He grasped a crucial point—memes are merely syntactic sugar for faith assets. True faith assets, like Bitcoin, must clearly convey their doctrines, letting people know what we are facing, what we need to change, and how to influence or even change the world.
So, the S&P 500 is good because it's clear—clearly telling people that we will fiercely mock traditional finance by outperforming the S&P 500 in terms of actual value. Similarly, the New Zealand dollar is good because it's clear—clearly telling people that the 9-to-5 grind is nothing but a scam, and that we will awaken more people to break free from the enslavement of work.
Just as Bitcoin believers undergo rigorous self-cultivation amidst price fluctuations, forging a true asset of faith is no easy feat. In this process, a new religion outside of Bitcoin must not only inwardly seek a truly clear identity and meaning, and unite and solidify the ideas of its vast community, but also continuously expand its influence outward. This is destined to be a long process, and not every small step forward will be reflected in the price.
Meme Coin is the savior of the cryptocurrency industry. This is because when everyone realizes that "Meme Coin" is actually just a misnomer that doesn't get to the heart of the matter, and "faith assets" are shining brightly in the cryptocurrency market again, everyone will exclaim, "Meme Coin is back!" In fact, "faith assets" are the essence of this market. I wouldn't say it's indispensable, because it exists naturally.
Conclusion
The world's focus changes every year, every month, every day, even every hour. We can't expect cryptocurrency to always be one of the most talked-about things in the world. If we lose faith, then this industry should die.
Greatness cannot be planned. We can't predict what will make cryptocurrency the world's top topic again; it's a rigorous process. Bitcoin is a sociological paradigm, a cyber religion, a form of religion. If we forget this, the entire cryptocurrency industry is nothing more than a "business" based on Bitcoin consensus. And what business people want is never the continuous strengthening of consensus, but the perpetual increase in revenue.
I cannot change anything, nor do I intend to change anything, but I will stick to my beliefs, my beliefs in the capital market.
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