Awakening of Faith in the Capital Market: Why Memes are the True Redemption of the Encryption Industry

A year ago, I participated in an online debate on the topic - “Has Bitcoin come this far due to faith or is there capital manipulating it behind the scenes?” After that debate, I fell into a long period of frustration.

Honestly, I think this debate should not have happened.

I believe from the bottom of my heart that the fundamental value of the cryptocurrency industry lies in consensus and culture—or to put it more plainly, faith. Four years ago, I left my job in the traditional industry and fully immersed myself in this field, holding onto that thought. I have made money and lost money in trading, experiencing emotional ups and downs like a roller coaster, but that faith has never wavered.

The year 2025 is a bit heart-wrenching for players in the coin circle. This year is about to pass, but we still have not solved the biggest problem faced by this industry - narrative failure, lack of faith.

As an ordinary industry practitioner, I have seen quite a lot over the past four years and have pondered many issues. Today, I would like to整理这些想法.

Bitcoin is essentially a modern religion

Christianity has Jesus, Buddhism has Shakyamuni, Islam has Muhammad—Bitcoin has Satoshi Nakamoto.

Christians read the Bible, Buddhists recite the Sutras, Muslims read the Quran — Bitcoin enthusiasts repeatedly study the white paper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.”

Behind these surface similarities lies a deeper resonance. Bitcoin has its own doctrine (the modern financial system will eventually collapse, and Bitcoin will become the Noah's Ark of the new era), its own rituals (mining, HODL), has gone through sectarian splits, and ultimately has been incorporated into the strategic considerations of various governments.

But where is the difference between Bitcoin and traditional religions?

First is decentralization. This term is used too frequently in the crypto space, and some even misuse it, but it is indeed the most fundamental characteristic of Bitcoin, this modern religion. Here, it is not about the technical decentralization of the blockchain network, but rather whether the process of 'consensus formation itself is decentralized.'

Satoshi Nakamoto did something divine—he created Bitcoin and then chose to disappear forever. He gave up authority, starting from scratch, without a symbolic religious leader or central power. Bitcoin has grown organically from the bottom up. The phrase “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” in the white paper and the genesis block has never been changed, and anyone can interpret it as they wish.

Satoshi Nakamoto is the most human-like creator and also the least human-like. He possesses Bitcoin worth hundreds of billions of dollars and has the ability to destroy this religion with a single click, just like holding the button to destroy the world. But he just walked away. Think about it, decades have passed, and Bitcoin believers around the world continue to believe in Satoshi Nakamoto's protection, and even governments are starting to recognize this system—how incredible is that?

Secondly, there is the Internet. Traditional religions expand through face-to-face preaching, warfare, and migration, but Bitcoin does not require that. The Internet has removed the limitations of geography and time in the dissemination of information, and meme culture has given Bitcoin a modern sense of appeal, attracting generation after generation of young people.

Finally, the most core aspects are dedication and reward, as well as division and expansion. These two points determine that modern religion is essentially a “faith capital market.”

What is Faith in Capital Markets

If you believe in Bitcoin, you don't need to fast or suffer; just run a full node or simply hold Bitcoin.

When your faith is challenged—whether it’s the big or small block debate, or the emergence of new public chains like Ethereum and Solana—you only need to do this.

Running a full node and holding coins can be seen as religious rituals. However, this ritual is completely different from traditional religions – it does not promise you a fulfilled afterlife, but instead provides believers with dual returns through price fluctuations: material gains and spiritual satisfaction.

Interestingly, what is the final outcome of various debates? The total market value of cryptocurrencies continues to rise. In traditional religions, conflicts of faith often lead to divisions and oppositions, even bloodshed. But in the world of cryptocurrencies, conflicts seem to spark creativity—more and more voices, more and more beliefs, and more and more capital inflows, making the entire market expand infinitely like the expansion after the Big Bang.

The universe is large enough to accommodate countless Earths. The capital market is also large enough to accommodate countless tokenized beliefs.

Bitcoin is a specific modern religion, but from the perspective of “pioneering the faith capital market,” its significance far exceeds that of a single religion; I call it the “religion without a religion.” Just like Christmas no longer belongs solely to Christianity—people enjoy Christmas trees, Christmas gifts, the festive atmosphere, and adding a Santa hat to their profile pictures, but they may not be believers. Bitcoin is similar; it has become a kind of totem, quietly occupying the top of the cryptocurrency market.

Secularization is a double-edged sword

How big is Christmas now? The total retail sales during the holiday season in the US for 2024 is estimated to be around $973 billion, and it is expected to surpass $1 trillion for the first time in 2025. This is just the US market, accounting for 40-50% of global Christmas consumption.

In contrast, the “commercial value” of traditional Christianity—donations from believers, church ticket sales, religious souvenirs, etc.—accumulates to about $1.304 trillion. It's almost the same. However, the secular version of Christmas has far surpassed the traditional religion itself.

Secularization has indeed expanded the influence of Christianity, but it has also diluted the core of the religion.

Bitcoin faces the same problem. More and more people are entering the cryptocurrency market, not for faith, but for speculation. This is not a bad thing; it is inevitable. But the question arises: the Christmas boom did not shake the faith of Christians, but is the speculation frenzy in the coin circle shaking the beliefs of those “true believers of Bitcoin”?

Have you seen that viral post on X - “I wasted 8 years of my life in the cryptocurrency industry”? This is the answer.

Where does the problem actually lie?

To be honest, I am hesitant to draw conclusions easily. But from the intuitive feelings of players in the coin circle, it may be like this: Bitcoin has developed too quickly, and its base of followers is relatively much smaller than that of traditional religions.

But the more fundamental issue is that the cryptocurrency industry has entered a technological dead end.

In recent years, whether entrepreneurs or speculators, everyone has been repeatedly asking a question: “What else can blockchain technology be used for?” Entrepreneurs use this question to determine direction, while speculators use it to choose targets. Everyone is pursuing faster, more efficient, and more practical blockchain technology, which is actually a form of self-castration.

If cryptocurrency is just a second Nasdaq, then it is purely a repeated waste. Wasting money is not a big deal, but forgetting the essence of “faith in the capital market” and the consumption of faith itself - this is the fatal flaw.

Without the Christian faith, there is no Christmas culture. Without a capital market forged by faith, there is no paradise for entrepreneurs and speculators. But what about us? We have ignored this obvious causal relationship and have been struggling to ask, “What new narrative should we create to attract more people?”

This question is fundamentally wrong.

meme coin is the savior

My judgment is — meme coin is the savior of the cryptocurrency industry.

But first, it is important to clarify one point. The foundation of the capital market is Bitcoin, but this does not mean that we need to revive the fanaticism of Bitcoin maximalism. The most fundamentalist believers are often a niche group, and the appeal of the cypherpunk spirit and financial apocalypticism to the new generation of young people has been declining year by year, and it inherently has a high threshold.

What we really need to do is not to revive the specific religion of Bitcoin, but to revitalize the entire “religion without religion” system - a cognition: everyone's belief is condensed in the cryptocurrency market through the internet, which not only allows for material wealth but also releases infinite power.

What is the core value of Bitcoin? “You and I both believe it has value.” This statement sounds like nonsense, but in reality, it is a great decentralization - the authority to explain value has been decentralized from central power to each individual.

Both you and I can take a piece of paper and write “worth one gram of gold,” but no one would believe it. But what about Bitcoin? Without gold backing, without government endorsement, starting from scratch, it has crossed layers of barriers of language, culture, and geography, and in the end, even gained recognition from governments around the world. This greatness is far underestimated.

From ancient times to the present, individual consciousness has been extremely weak and easily trampled upon. We even underestimate ourselves as independent individuals and the value of those thoughts. What is the largest resource consumption in this world? War—a series of wars aimed at invading our consciousness. Political elections, advertising and public relations, and the education system; a tremendous amount of money is spent just to make us believe that something is good or bad.

The internet has changed everything. It allows ideas to cross all boundaries and collide and communicate around the clock. Cryptocurrency has shown us what can be accomplished when everyone is in agreement and scales up exponentially.

The greatness of cryptocurrency is severely underestimated, and even reversed. Building technology is great, but the true value of a house is in providing shelter for people. White papers are great, but the true value of Bitcoin is that people believe it can be used like a currency. Over the years, we have created countless “faster, more efficient, and more useful” blockchains outside of Bitcoin, fantasizing that this would attract more people. It's like thinking that the phenomenon of Christmas can be quickly and massively replicated without religion—thinking we hold the sword, but in reality, we hold no sword, and have no sword in our hearts.

Now let's talk about meme coins. Meme coins have never experienced a complete and mature bull market cycle. Many people still believe that meme coins are nothing but worthless crazy speculation. Last year's pump.fun craze and a certain special person's token issuance further confused the concept of “attention tokens.”

What is the real meme coin? In fact, I don't really like this term. After the early successes of DOGE and SHIB, we habitually look back for reasons, but overlook the power of belief. So we say, oh, it’s because of the global influence of that smiling dog image, so it’s called “meme coin.” Then everyone started to rehash various internet classic memes—Pepe, Wojak, Joe…

Here we must give a thumbs up to Murad Mahmudov. He is the first to systematically explain what a true “meme coin” is, propose quantifiable quality evaluation standards, and speak on a big stage. His “meme coin supercycle” theory has gained wide recognition in the cryptocurrency space.

He has realized a key point - memes are just syntactic sugar for faith assets. True faith assets must clearly inform people what the doctrine is, what we are facing, what needs to be changed, and how to change the world, just like Bitcoin.

So SPX is good because it's clear: we want to mock traditional finance by surpassing the S&P 500. So NEET is also good because it's clear: the 9-to-5 life is a scam, and we want to awaken more people to break free from the shackles of work.

However, minting a true faith asset is by no means an easy task. In this process, the new religion must not only find a clear positioning and strengthen the community internally but also continuously expand its influence externally. This is a long process, and not every step of progress can be immediately reflected in the price.

The reason why meme coin is the savior is that when everyone finally realizes that the term “meme coin” itself is wrong, and that “faith asset” is the essence of the market, people will marvel again - “meme coin is back!” But in reality, faith assets have never left; they are the natural core of this market.

Final Words

The things that the world cares about change every year, every month, and every day. We cannot expect cryptocurrency to always be the most talked-about topic globally. If faith is lost, this industry should also perish.

Greatness cannot be planned. No one can predict why cryptocurrency will once again become the focus of the world; it is a form of苦修. Bitcoin is a sociological model, a cyber religion, a form of religion. Forgetting this, the entire industry devolves into a “business” based on Bitcoin consensus — and business people only care about revenue growth, never about strengthening the consensus.

I cannot change anything, nor do I intend to change anything. I will only adhere to one belief - the belief in the capital market itself.