Consensus split in the crypto industry

After chatting with many crypto professionals, I found that regardless of how the secondary market is performing, everyone’s “confidence level” in the industry has become extremely pessimistic. If I were to summarize the “crime and punishment” of the crypto industry’s current predicament in four words, it would definitely be: consensus fragmentation.

Upon closer reflection, the overall environment of this crypto cycle since 2023 has changed drastically, with many new rules emerging and a lot of old empirical knowledge and survival methodologies being broken one by one. The root cause can be traced to one thing: new forces are constantly trying to “redefine” the old order:

1. The industrial assembly line issuance of MEME coins is redefining VC coins;

2. BN’s internalization strategy that made the bull market happen on BSC is redefining exchanges;

3. KOLs leveraging traffic and attention dividends are redefining media and VCs;

4. Quantitative algorithms using liquidity manipulation and initiative are redefining market makers (MMs);

5. Traders who see altcoins as having zero intrinsic value and focus purely on speculation are redefining Degen culture;

Of course, the old order is destined to be broken, but breaking it in such an aggressive and fragmented manner forces the entire industry to pay a huge price for maturity. The “hardship” felt by every crypto native is a direct manifestation of the fierce clash between new and old consensus.

What’s even more worrying is that the great crypto vision—which originally needed the combined efforts of builders, VCs, exchanges, media, communities, and more—is slowly being dissolved through ongoing division, bloodletting, and alienation.

Perhaps there’s no right or wrong in how the market evolves. But for the crypto industry, which was built on consensus, if the unified foundational consensus disappears, whether there is a future left has become an open question.