After the tide goes out, let's talk about the differences between the Meme and Build routes

2025-10-12 19:10:00

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The market has once again experienced a historic downturn, which is precisely the moment for Build's value to shine.

Author: Liao Liao, OdailyNews

With the overall market plummeting, the Meme frenzy that had been ongoing for the past week has abruptly come to a halt. The noise is gradually dissipating, and retail investor sentiment is returning to rationality. It’s time to calm down and discuss the recent clashes of ideas and differing viewpoints in the industry.

Perhaps due to lingering idealism, I personally find myself unconsciously leaning towards the "Build" faction in the debate between Meme and Build. While I do not oppose the Meme concept and acknowledge that Meme can serve as a collective spiritual symbol in the post-Internet era with its objective significance, I do not believe that many of the so-called "Meme" phenomena that have emerged recently, which clearly cater to the upper echelons and exhibit blatant profit-seeking desires, align with the core definition of Meme. Furthermore, I do not think these "Meme" possess sustainable value expectations—because the maintenance of such sentiments requires continuous positive feedback from both the targets they flatter and the returns on their positions, rather than relying on spontaneous emotional expression from the community like classic Memes do. This inherently makes such "Meme" vulnerable in terms of value.

Disguising speculation as innovation, similar stories have played out multiple times in the industry over the past decade.

Speculation Diverts Attention, But Industry Development Relies on Builders

From the Bitcoin white paper to Ethereum introducing smart contracts, to various Layer 1 + Layer 2 solutions breaking performance barriers, and then to DeFi, NFT, GameFi, Meme, and other use cases unlocking the application layer… various forms of speculative stories have never been absent in the evolution and iteration of the cryptocurrency industry.

The Bitcoin era also saw a flurry of bizarre mining coins; while the ICO boom of the Ethereum era birthed some future seed projects, it also created more "air coins"; the explosion of DeFi made permissionless finance a reality, but it also faced the undeniable fact of frequent Rug pulls; NFTs need no further elaboration, as many people still have numerous worthless images in their wallets today; Meme is the latest case, where although some Memes have proven their consensus resilience through market trials, many more are essentially just short-term harvesting tools…

Sadly, such speculative activities often end with the success of conspiratorial groups and losses for retail investors, even leading the industry to bear the stigma of "wild fluctuations" and "widespread fraud," objectively hindering the expansion of cryptocurrency and the popularization of decentralization concepts.

Fortunately, such speculative behavior has never been the "cause" driving industry development; rather, it is merely a "result" accompanying technological breakthroughs and narrative upgrades—Bitcoin has ingrained the concept of decentralization in people's minds; Ethereum and Solana have made on-chain programmability a reality, gradually enhancing the application capacity of blockchain; protocols like Aave, Uniswap, and Hyperliquid have eliminated boundaries in the financial world; OKX Wallet, MetaMask, and Phantom have broken down barriers in the on-chain world; Tether and Circle have gradually popularized stablecoins, bringing them into mainstream view…

While speculative fervor attracts more attention and recklessly damages the industry's reputation, a group of visionary platforms and builders are quietly reversing biases and rebuilding trust through continuous building, promoting ongoing iteration of underlying technologies and continuous innovation in ecosystems.

A Year of Industry Breakthroughs: What Has the Mainstream World Seen?

2025 is destined to be a memorable year in the history of cryptocurrency. During this year, the cryptocurrency industry has achieved breakthroughs in both regulatory compliance and mainstream acceptance—BTC and ETH ETF products have become new stars in traditional financial markets; DAT has attracted a wave of capital; stablecoins have received legislative support for the first time; "coin stocks" and "stock coins" are heading in both directions.

The mainstream world’s gradual attention and willingness to embrace the cryptocurrency industry is clearly not due to the loud hype and speculation, but rather because they see the value of cryptocurrency and blockchain in reshaping the future of finance: DeFi brings unparalleled transparency and freedom compared to traditional finance, significantly reducing intermediary costs and improving system efficiency; stablecoins have demonstrated their enormous potential to become the infrastructure for global payments and settlements, potentially altering the competitive landscape of currency sovereignty; RWA has opened up channels between real-world assets and the on-chain world, unlocking new value circulation scenarios.

It is these technological breakthroughs and use case innovations that are pushing the cryptocurrency industry closer to the mainstream world, making more funds willing, even eager, to allocate to cryptocurrencies. This may be the underlying logic behind the continuous new highs in the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies this year.

Long-Termism Is Not Easy; Please Give Builders More Patience

True innovation never relies on short-term noise but requires patience and the accumulation of time. From technological research and development, compliance construction, to user education and scenario implementation, every step requires time and effort to refine.

Although in shorter cycles, the speculative frenzy under the guise of Meme may present an overwhelming advantage in momentum, its so-called wealth effect temporarily captures all users' attention. However, when the tide recedes, people will eventually realize that the vast majority of "Meme" often only exist for a fleeting moment from birth to extinction, and the so-called wealth effect is essentially volatility, just waiting for the story of decline to unfold.

As OKX CEO Star stated on X, guiding a small group of "early birds" to mass-produce Memes is a shortsighted behavior akin to killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, which will harm the long-term health of the entire industry and may even touch the bottom line of compliance and legality. The responsibility of platforms is to create a fair and transparent market environment.

Looking back at the stories of multiple rounds of speculative disillusionment, whenever this "dream-like prosperity" shatters, it is always the teams that adhere to long-termism and continue to cultivate that come to "clean up" for the entire industry, gradually healing the wounds caused by speculative behavior, and one day in the future, using new technological achievements and innovative narratives to rejuvenate the industry, thereby attracting a new batch of speculators… This cycle continues, and the cryptocurrency industry has relied on these true builders to navigate its way to today, with twists and turns yet resilient.

Perhaps these builders cannot provide you with a hundredfold stimulus in a day, but as beneficiaries of industry development, we at least should not hold them to mismatched standards.

The Plunge Has Come, But the Industry's Future Remains Bright

Following the events of March 12 and May 19, the cryptocurrency market today once again faces a historic plunge, with nearly $20 billion evaporating from the contract trading market in 24 hours due to liquidations.

However, even amidst such severe market volatility, we can clearly see the comprehensive upgrade of the entire industry infrastructure. From underlying networks to DeFi protocols, to CeFi services, the performance across all fronts in the face of extreme volatility has far exceeded previous levels—Solana achieved 6,000 to 8,000 transactions per second during the most volatile hour, with gas fees consistently maintaining historical median levels; Aave processed a record $180 million in collateral liquidations within a single hour, with the protocol operating smoothly and no bad debts; the OKX system ran stably, maintaining smooth operations across regions, with all system indicators at normal levels…

This is the power of Build. History has repeatedly proven that short-term noise is merely market clamor, and market fluctuations are just interludes. It is through the continuous efforts and deep cultivation of countless builders that the industry can be reborn from challenges, returning with a more robust posture.

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