It might sound like a random take, but I think there’s a very specific reason why Zcash is doing so well while most other altcoins are struggling.

It’s about belief.

This is my third bull cycle, but in that regard, it feels very different.

Sure, back then we were earlier, valuations weren’t so inflated, altcoins weren’t this hyper-inflationary, and the overall market wasn’t as mature.

And yes, most of the altcoins that performed well in 2017 and 2021 were absolute shitcoins with zero fundamentals, basically no different from today’s memecoins.

But still, it felt like people believed in the vision. People were bidding on these coins as if they were call options on decentralization, disruption, and a technological revolution.

Investors actually put their money into something because they identified with it, they wanted to support it, be part of that potential revolutionary journey.

And because people weren’t constantly overanalyzing market cap vs. FDV ten times a day, comparing P/E ratios, or projecting future growth, they were built differently. They actually diamond-handed what they believed in.

Some of those assets went 100x, and you just kept holding, because in your mind, this thing was going to change the world. The upside felt infinite.

Of course, that also meant a lot of people round-tripped their gains, got wrecked, lost trust, and ended up burned. Also unsurprisingly, value extractors exploited all of this and that’s partly why we are where we are today.

But you get the point.

If you compare that to this cycle, it’s just...very different.

I don’t see many people hunting for the next undervalued gem anymore. People in my own network aren’t even really willing to allocate properly these days.

Visionaries have somehow turned into traders, online casino gamblers, and (the worst of all) farmers.

It often feels like crypto natives don’t really believe in crypto anymore. They’re just chasing the next quick flip, deploying their stables into the next unsustainable airdrop farm, or faking it till they make it on InfoFi.

Even though I’m sidelined on it, $ZEC is giving me those old vibes again, for the first time in a long while. And that, I think, is why it’s outperforming so wildly while the rest of the market feels dead. It’s not necessarily rational, but belief gives people like @0xMert_, @naval, @cobie a reason to ZODL beyond just pure monetary incentives.

Where did all the cypherpunks go? What happened to the days when people actually believed in something?

It’s time to start believing again, before the institutions swoop in, grab all our coins, and we, the natives, end up sitting on the sidelines like fools (again).

Maybe sometimes you should actually hate the player, not the game.