Post-00s are flooding into this blue ocean.
Written by: Pzai, Foresight News
From contracts to MEME, from exchanges to on-chain, a new generation of college students are diving into the crypto field in different ways. In terms of career choices, they no longer yearn for the stable path of traditional internet giants, but view the crypto field as a "digital blue ocean" for individual value leapfrogging. In this wave, young people are not only technical explorers but also cultural interpreters and economic model experimenters.
As more and more college students flock in, how to find a suitable entry point in crypto has become a question many students are pondering. During my time operating a college association, I participated in numerous activities each semester. After a meeting, I received a soul-searching question from a junior student. His confusion was not an isolated case, and his question represented the bewilderment most beginners feel about the crypto field:
What is the significance of Web3 for college students? Are we just catching up with trendy events, or participating in an unregulated electronic casino? With these questions, I communicated with several college students, and in their stories, I found the "demystified" truth of Web3.
Max: Finding Meaning in K-lines
On a weekend in April, Max and his blockchain association partners chose to team build at a seaside inn. Away from the crowd's noise, he spent the night in deep conversation with several seniors. As a sophomore in financial technology at Shenzhen University, Max had been deeply involved in the school's blockchain association since entering. Shenzhen's unique advantages gathered many people, and Max became a backbone of organizing association activities. The next day, there was a project event to be held at Shenzhen University, and he was busily arranging everything from community distribution to event promotion and venue organization. The moonlight reflected on the beach complemented the casual conversation and Max's busyness in the living room.
Max was born in the Chaoshan area of Guangdong, where the local "adventurous" atmosphere influenced him from a young age. His father took him to visit a Bitcoin mining farm when he was young and introduced him to the crypto market after his high school graduation. Influenced by this, Max was curious about blockchain concepts. With the gradual landing of US crypto-compliant ETFs, he also saw potential market opportunities.
In university, as a pure novice, he tried all possible tracks, from airdrop farming, secondary markets, to even technical directions... but the results seemed unsatisfactory. "I didn't receive any positive feedback, only negative feedback, which made me increasingly frustrated. Seeing many people achieving results in these areas created a painful sense of disparity."
A turning point came on an ordinary afternoon. On October 25, 2024, when the banana from Italian artist Cattelan's tape + banana series "Comedians" was to be re-auctioned by Sotheby's, the MEME BAN token emerged from numerous AI-themed tokens, with its market value soaring to $20 million within 24 hours of going online. "When I discovered this opportunity on X, I rushed in without hesitation." This prompted Max to engage in on-chain MEME trading and make his first multi-fold profit.
The dazzling array of tokens gave him an unprecedented sense of novelty and impulse, motivating him to become a "P junior". "After trading MEME, I discovered that MEME is my sweet spot." While chatting, he opened his laptop, watching the jumping K-lines, calmly clicking buy and sell. "You can see many tokens at once, which really tests your attention."
From on-chain to off-chain, Max continuously met on-chain DEGEN partners and built his influence network. "My advantage is my internet sense, and the MEME track precisely needs people with internet sense, which perfectly aligns with my strengths." Now, he has over 6,900 followers on X and has achieved certain results on multiple tokens. "I've always been enjoying trading MEME."
Max explaining to classmates
As a player across multiple tracks, Max believes the crypto field is still a blue ocean for college students: "Compared to traditional fields, crypto offers many more opportunities. Traditional positions are already occupied by old money, with fewer chances of value misjudgment and underestimation. For crypto, the industry is not yet mature and is in a strong upward trend, with many opportunities for value misjudgment and underestimation. Opportunities are more abundant in emerging industries. So I've always felt entering crypto is the right choice."
Regarding educational qualifications in the crypto field, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen stated on X, "This industry doesn't worship academic credentials; we worship ability. The ultimate winners are those who can transform cognitive differences into execution." Max believes academic qualifications can sometimes become a burden. "Sometimes, high educational qualifications aren't good for a person because being highly educated can make you look down on practical work. If you insist on doing only glamorous things, you might miss many opportunities."
[The translation continues in the same manner for the rest of the text.]Andy: Diving Deep into Research
In 2023, the University of Hong Kong Blockchain Community (0xU) held a series of courses at multiple local universities. At that time, Andy, a college student majoring in marketing, knew nothing about blockchain concepts. After being introduced to the community by his peers, he felt that the knowledge system he encountered on campus was vastly different from the complex ecosystem of the crypto field, which sparked his initial interest.
"At first, it felt fresh, like encountering something different every day, similar to watching a movie for the first time." In the crypto wave, his experience was "sometimes boring, sometimes exciting." "The boring part is that many things are repetitive games, while the excitement comes from seeing certain innovations."
At the time, DeFi nested mechanisms were widely discussed in the market. Andy sensed the "arbitrage space" brought by cognitive differences: "DeFi isn't necessarily like Lego, but token economics or mechanism design has some complexity, and you need certain cognitive understanding to figure out the highest return method." Through such arbitrage experiences, Andy realized that cognitive differences in the crypto field require extensive practical experience to bridge.
Afterward, Andy went through a period of internship hopping, progressing from initial half-understood project models to skillfully handling various work tasks, with his professional capabilities rapidly improving. Finally, with solid professional skills and rich internship experience, Andy successfully entered a top-tier venture capital (VC) institution through a friend's recommendation, opening a new chapter in his career.
Meanwhile, as content management on Chinese platforms like Weibo increased, crypto KOLs on X were rising. As an introverted person who "didn't like expressing opinions," Andy was inspired after seeing Kill Wolf (杀破狼) publish data analysis content on X. Encouraged by predecessors, he actively operated Twitter, noting, "My full-time job already involves data analysis, so doing X operations data-driven is relatively simple for me." A year after graduation, Andy gradually gained recognition from industry veterans.
Over the years, Andy's biggest insight for college students entering the industry is "having someone guide you, preferably a senior/friend, which at least reduces the probability of being scammed." In his view, the crypto field is complex, and having familiar people lead the way not only helps avoid detours but also prevents potential traps. "Don't be afraid to experience; without experiencing, you won't know the specifics."
Like other college students intersecting with the crypto field, Andy, a year after graduation, is also shedding his college naivety and embracing his own crypto brilliance.
