Did you miss out on the famous events of 2023, such as Ordinals, Solana Phone, PEPE meme, and the surge in mining company stocks? As we face the new year, let’s take a look back at the mindset mistakes of the past year and welcome the bright future of 2024.
(Keywords: Disdain)
The Disdained Wizard – Ordinals
Since January 21st, the Ordinals protocol has officially launched on the Bitcoin mainnet. Due to the upgrade of the Taproot protocol, the cost of data packaging in the Bitcoin system has been significantly reduced, allowing Ordinals to start their experiment. At that time, the generated wizard image NFT was as large as 3.96 MB, almost filling the entire Bitcoin block. This led the Bitcoin core community to consider it as junk message attack.
No one expected that these junk messages would be worth millions today. The first Ordi even attracted many exchanges and ecological funds, becoming the biggest surprise project of the year.
(Read more: Bitcoin’s Largest Block Ever! “Taproot Wizard NFT” Criticized for Resource Consumption)
The Treasure Found in the Garbage Dump – Solana Phone
In 2022, Solana introduced a new user interface – Saga Phone, which was set to be released in early 2023. However, due to the market’s skepticism, considering the past failures of HTC Exodus 1 and the like, the market’s reaction to this phone was dismissive. As a consumer electronics product, it was severely underwhelming. The Saga, equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, appeared awkward in the market dominated by the next-generation flagship chip, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
But everything didn’t go as predicted. This phone, as a symbol of Solana’s most loyal users, finally became a symbol of a windfall after Solana skyrocketed at the end of the year. No one at the beginning of the year expected that buying a Saga phone would come with a bonus from Solana and countless future airdrops.
(Read more: Solana’s Saga Phone at a 40% Discount! Original Price $1,000 with No Demand: Get It for $599)
The Power of Mockery – PEPE
In the cryptocurrency industry, myths and the same patterns usually don’t succeed a second time. For example, when everyone thought that dog-themed viral memes like Doge and Shiba couldn’t continue, the mainstream meme PEPE emerged from Reddit and 9GAG, becoming a new meme force. It even led to a surge in meme coins on Reddit. In April, PEPE had a market value of only $29 million, but it had already surged by 1000%. Today, PEPE has a market value of $581 million, and at its peak, it reached $1.5 billion. Those who once mocked this green ugly frog are now full of anxiety.
(Read more: Wall Street Profits from PEPE! Alleged BlackRock Fund Address Exits with “10x Profit”)
The Resurgence of POW Mining and Surging Mining Companies
As Vitalik called for proof of stake (PoS) for environmental friendliness and faster transaction speeds, the whole world seemed to abandon PoW projects, and funds and venture capitalists poured into Layer2 to pave the way for Ethereum’s dominance. However, looking at the list of biggest gainers within a year, several shining PoW newcomers, such as Kaspa, Dynex, and Alephium, achieved annualized returns of over 1800%. Yet, the public still looked down on PoW.
(Read more: Dark Horse in POW Mining: Kaspa Coin Price Hits New All-Time High, Up Over 1000% this Year)
In addition, as Bitcoin mining difficulty increased, many mining companies went through bankruptcy and restructuring. But in just a few months, the mining industry quickly turned from bankruptcy to a popular financing project. While mining companies were increasing leverage to buy mining machines at the end of the year, those who bought mining company stocks at rock bottom had already made profits far exceeding the increase in Bitcoin’s value.
(Read more: Is It a Signal of the Bottom of the Bear Market? Bitmain Acquires Bankrupt Mining Companies, Buying $54 Million Worth of Core Scientific Shares)
Other Honorable Mentions
Apart from the above, there were many other moments of making a fortune in 2023, such as Friend.tech, the collapse of a US bank causing the delinking of USDC, etc. However, these occurrences seemed more like coincidences and black swan events. Other long-planned topics included GBTC’s negative premium, Celestia airdrop, the DePin race on Helium, and Helium Mobile. We believe that there will be many projects with untapped potential in 2024.
(Read more: What is DePin’s Helium Mobile? $20 for Unlimited 5G, Token’s Value Surged 2400% in 2 Weeks)
Looking at these experiences, we can see that whenever something new emerges in the cryptocurrency industry, people in the bear market are always skeptical and don’t believe in the opportunities brought by builders and innovators. Therefore, we should approach things with a more open mindset and not underestimate the possibilities of anything.
Remaining open and not predicting the future success or failure based on past experiences is important. However, it is crucial to be cautious as the cryptocurrency field is still filled with many scams. With the upcoming bull market, there is a possibility that our limited funds may still miss out on opportunities. Therefore, establishing a bottom line and principle to protect our assets is the only way. Even if we don’t make a profit, it is better than losing everything.
Instead of feeling anxious or having FOMO just because others are making money, we should set limits for each impulse.
While technology can never be predicted, we can still find some rules by looking at the legends of the cryptocurrency industry. These rules will continue to exist and provide many profit opportunities. Some rules that cannot be generalized, such as meme coins, may still exert their influence. We should not underestimate the underlying power of any community consensus.
Finding the eternal rules in the field, such as the immortality of PoW, is important. Memes are always unscientific, so we should not underestimate the underlying power of any community and should start understanding it with community consensus.
Looking ahead to 2024, it is believed that just like in 2023, some people will seize opportunities while others will regret missing out. As humans, we have the ability to reflect on ourselves, adjust our attitudes, understand gains and losses, and embrace the countless opportunities in the future. Compared to 2023, as long as we are prepared, we will have a year full of rewards. Let us remain humble, open-minded, and boldly embrace this hopeful year. We also wish all readers of the platform a happy new year and a fruitful year of the Dragon.
(Read more: Insights into 2024 from Cryptocurrency VCs: When Will the Bull Market Begin, Which Track to Bet on for Profits?)
(Note: The news article contains images that cannot be translated. Please refer to the original article for the images.)