A year ago, I participated in a debate on Twitter Space: "Has Bitcoin's development to this day relied on belief or capital manipulation?" Deep down, I felt this debate should never have happened, and for a while after the debate, I fell into deep frustration.

I have always believed that the core value of the cryptocurrency industry is consensus and culture—or rather, belief. When I quit my job in the traditional industry four years ago and fully immersed myself in this field, I held this mindset. Through countless ups and downs in trading success and failure, my emotions have fluctuated wildly, but my conviction has never wavered.

For cryptocurrency players, 2025 has been a year of disappointment. As this year is about to end, we still haven't solved the biggest problem facing the cryptocurrency market today—narrative failure and a lack of belief.

As an ordinary practitioner in the cryptocurrency industry, although my work is very mundane, over these four years, I have witnessed some things and pondered some issues. I always had a faint feeling that one day I would systematically write down these thoughts. Now is the time.

Bitcoin Is a Modern Religion

Christianity has Jesus, Buddhism has Buddha, Islam has Muhammad, and Bitcoin has Satoshi Nakamoto.

Christianity has the "Bible," Buddhism has the "Sutras," Islam has the "Quran," and Bitcoin has "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System."

If we delve into more detailed comparisons, we will find that Bitcoin shares many similarities with traditional religions in these aspects and beyond. For example, Bitcoin also has its own doctrine (the modern financial order will eventually collapse, and Bitcoin will become the Noah's Ark when the apocalypse of the modern financial order arrives), its own religious rituals (mining and HODLing), has experienced schisms during its development, and has, after reaching a certain scale, become a tool used by governments for specific purposes.

However, if we call Bitcoin a "modern religion," we must discuss its differences from traditional religions.

First, "decentralization"—a term that has even taken on a slightly mocking tone in the current crypto industry—is undoubtedly the most fundamental characteristic of the modern religion represented by Bitcoin. What I emphasize here is not the degree of decentralization in the operation of a blockchain network, but whether "the凝聚 of consensus is a decentralized process."

Bitcoin's "founding god," Satoshi Nakamoto, chose "self-exile." He relinquished his authority, thereby creating a brand-new world. Bitcoin has no god symbolizing central authority, nor does it have a central individual or entity possessing divine power. Instead, it grew and thrived in a reverse, bottom-up manner compared to traditional religions. The Bitcoin whitepaper and the phrase in the genesis block, "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks," have never been altered. If you are interested, you can interpret them in any way you desire.

Satoshi Nakamoto is the "founding god" most like a human, but also the least like one, because he demonstrated a superhuman moral standard, or rather, an ideal pursuit. Satoshi Nakamoto possessed not only Bitcoin worth tens of billions of dollars but also the ability to single-handedly destroy this religion, like having a button that could end the world, yet he simply disappeared. If you think deeper, after all these years of Bitcoin's development, Bitcoin believers have trusted that Satoshi Nakamoto would forever guard the world he created. Even today, when governments around the world have begun to believe, you realize how incredible all of this is.

Second, the "internet" enables Bitcoin to attract followers without relying on face-to-face preaching, conquest through war, or immigration, as traditional religions do. The internet not only allows Bitcoin's propagation to be non-linear and non-geographical, unlike traditional religions, but also gives Bitcoin the modern infectious power of meme culture to attract the new generation of young people.

Of course, there are also "devotion and回报" and "schism and expansion." These two points are crucial, as they determine that modern religion is essentially a "belief capital market."

The Belief Capital Market

If you are a Bitcoin believer, you do not need to fast or practice asceticism; you only need to run a Bitcoin full node or hold Bitcoin.

When your belief in Bitcoin is challenged, whether it's the block size debate or the emergence of smart contract公链 like Ethereum and Solana, you do not need to engage in a holy war; you still only need to run a Bitcoin full node or hold Bitcoin.

Both running a Bitcoin full node and holding Bitcoin can be seen as religious rituals of the Bitcoin religion. These rituals do not promise you hope for a better life or the prospect of happiness in the afterlife but provide believers with tangible material and spiritual returns through price performance.

Similarly, whether it's the block size debate or the emergence of new公链 like Ethereum and Solana, various disputes ultimately lead to the continuous rise of the total market capitalization of cryptocurrency. In cryptocurrency, conflicts of belief no longer lead to physical annihilation and spiritual conquest but instead present a situation completely opposite to traditional religions—traditional religions conflict to explain the world, ultimately divide it. The conflicts of cryptocurrency, however, are like sparks that create the world, like the universe expanding infinitely after the Big Bang, growing larger and more vibrant.

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

Bitcoin is certainly a specific modern religion. But, from the perspective of pioneering the "belief capital market," its significance far exceeds that of a specific modern religion; I call it the "religion without religion." Bitcoin has developed to this day, and like traditional religions, it has undergone a process of secularization,具体表现在 religious rituals evolving from running a Bitcoin full node to HODLing, to the point where almost no cryptocurrency players emphasize its specific meaning. Instead, it sits quietly at the top of the cryptocurrency market pyramid like a totem. Just as Christmas in today's world is no longer solely a Christian religious holiday—we enjoy Christmas trees, Christmas gifts, the Christmas atmosphere, and put on Santa hats for our social media profile pictures during Christmas, but we may not be Christians.

You could say that Bitcoin is cryptocurrency, because if Bitcoin collapses, the cryptocurrency market will cease to exist. The value of all cryptocurrencies is grounded in the value of Bitcoin. But I am reluctant to define Bitcoin this way—what is the core value of Bitcoin? Digital gold? Tokenized energy? A fiat currency killer? In my view, the core value of Bitcoin is that it established the form of modern religion, namely, the belief capital market.

Secularization

For both traditional religions and Bitcoin, secularization is a double-edged sword.

Taking Christmas as an example again, the global commercial output brought by Christmas (such as holiday retail, gifts, tourism, decorations, and related consumption) has significantly exceeded the commercial output of traditional Christian institutions (such as信徒 donations, church tickets, sales, and related income). According to estimates from Statista and the National Retail Federation (NRF), the total U.S. holiday retail sales in 2024 were approximately $973 billion, and are expected to exceed $1 trillion for the first time in 2025. This is only data from the U.S. market, which accounts for about 40-50% of global Christmas consumption.

In contrast, the traditional "commercial output" of Christianity, such as信徒 donations (tithes, offerings), church tickets (e.g., tourist attraction churches), sales (e.g., books, souvenirs), and related income, according to the "Status of Global Christianity 2024" report by Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary,累计约为 $1.304 trillion.

If we exclude the contributions of non-Christians to Christian-related tourist attractions and souvenirs, this $1.304 trillion needs to be further discounted.

Secularization has transformed Christmas from a strict religious holiday into a global cultural phenomenon, which has certainly expanded the influence of Christianity to some extent, but has also diluted its religious core.

The same is true for Bitcoin and the entire belief capital market it created. Just as many people around the world simply view Christmas as a day of joy, more and more participants in the cryptocurrency market are flooding in solely for speculation.

This is not a matter of right or wrong; it is an inevitable and unstoppable process. But the problem we need to point out here is: while celebrating Christmas does not shake the faith of traditional Christians, does the huge wave of speculation shake the faith of traditional Bitcoin believers?

同样是世俗化, the joyful atmosphere of Christmas does not make Christians doubt their faith in the slightest, but the speculative atmosphere of the cryptocurrency market has made cryptocurrency believers feel a sense of nihilism and frustration. The viral tweet "I Wasted 8 Years of My Life in the Cryptocurrency Industry" is one of the best recent examples.

Where does the problem lie?

The Misconception

I dare not轻易地下结论 on this issue. From the intuitive feeling of a crypto player, I would say very cautiously that there might be some, but more likely, Bitcoin has developed too fast, and the fundamental base of Bitcoin belief is本身 much smaller compared to traditional religions.

More importantly, the cryptocurrency industry has gone too far down the path of the "technology misconception." All along, both industry practitioners and speculators have repeatedly sought the answer to one question—"What else can blockchain technology actually be used for?" Practitioners use this to determine their entrepreneurial direction, and speculators use it to determine their investment targets. When everyone is pursuing faster, more efficient, and more applicable blockchains, it is actually tantamount to self-harm.

If the cryptocurrency industry is just a second Nasdaq, it is only wasting money doing repetitive things. Moreover, wasting money is just a trivial matter; the淡化 of the essence of the "belief capital market" and the consumption of belief itself are extremely serious damages.

Without Christianity, there would be no popular culture Christmas. Without a capital market built on faith, there would be no paradise for entrepreneurs and speculators. If we ignore this obvious causal relationship, we will naturally keep苦苦追问, "What new narrative do we need to create to attract more people into the cryptocurrency market?"

Both traditional religions and cryptocurrency inevitably have to ponder this question—"In different eras, with what face should we attract young people with different cultural preferences?" Bitcoin provided a new answer, so it took less than 20 years to leave traditional religions目瞪口呆. Now, it's Bitcoin's and the entire cryptocurrency industry's turn to face this difficult problem.

The Savior

Meme coins are the saviors of the cryptocurrency industry.

First, the foundation of the belief capital market is Bitcoin, but this does not mean that we need to重新狂热地推行 Bitcoin maximalism. The most fundamentalist and狂热的存在 in religion are often niche. Whether it's the cypherpunk spirit or the apocalyptic prophecy of the eventual collapse of traditional finance, the novelty they can bring to the new generation of young people is gradually declining, and they themselves have a relatively high barrier to understanding.

Put another way, to revitalize the specific religion of Bitcoin is actually to underestimate Bitcoin, because what we actually need to revitalize is a "religion without religion," a recognition that everyone's belief can凝聚 on the cryptocurrency market through the internet in modern times, not only harvesting material wealth but also erupting with infinite power.

The core value of Bitcoin is that "you and I both believe it has value." This seems like a tautology, but it is actually a great decentralization of the right to interpret value. You and I can随意拿一张纸, write "worth one gram of gold" on it, but we have no way to convince anyone to accept its value. Without any value anchor or central authority endorsement, starting from scratch,跨越了 language, culture, geography, and other重重阻隔, even eventually gaining recognition from institutions and governments—this greatness is vastly underestimated by the public.

Since ancient times, individual consciousness has been extremely weak and can be随意践踏, to the extent that we all underestimate the value of our thoughts as independent and living individuals. In fact, the world's most resources are consumed on war—the war to invade your and my consciousness. Political elections, advertising, public relations, even some of the most basic常识教育—everything spends astronomical amounts of money just to最终 make you and me think something is good or bad.

The internet is great; it allows our ideas to交流与碰撞 across一切, 24/7 without rest. Cryptocurrency is great; it allows us to see very具体地 that when we know each other's ideas are aligned and grow exponentially to form a huge scale, what we can actually achieve.

The greatness of cryptocurrency is not only underestimated but even本末倒置. Housing construction technology is固然伟大, but the core value of a house is to enable people to live安居. "A peer-to-peer electronic cash system" is固然 a genius conception, but its core value is that everyone recognizes that Bitcoin确实 has value and can be used like currency as electronic cash. For many years, we have created countless so-called faster, more efficient, and more useful blockchains outside of Bitcoin,幻想ing that this would mean more living people entering this market.

This is like thinking that,抛开宗教, a phenomenon-level holiday like Christmas can be massively and rapidly reproduced. We自以为手里有剑,就可以成为独霸天下的剑客,但其实我们不但手里无剑,心中更无剑.

Second, meme coins have never truly experienced a complete and mature bull market cycle to date. Even today, many people believe that the value of meme coins lies solely in their worthless疯狂炒作. And the popularity of pump.fun since last year and Trump's coin issuance have further polluted the true definition of meme coins with "attention tokens."

What is a true meme coin? Actually, I don't even like the term "meme coin." The reason this term exists is because early $DOGE and $SHIB achieved great success while being perceived as utterly useless. We always习惯在成功之后找寻原因,但又忽视信仰的价值. So, alright, their success was due to the huge global influence of that smiling doge image, so we就叫它 "meme coin"吧. Then, alright, let's continue the搬运 of classic internet meme culture symbols—Pepe, Wojak, Joe...

Here, I must pay tribute to Murad. He was the first to systematically explain what a "meme coin" actually is, proposed a quantifiable quality evaluation standard, and delivered a speech on a sufficiently large stage. His "Meme Coin Supercycle" theory gained significant influence in the crypto circle.

He洞察了 a very key point—meme is merely the syntactic sugar of信仰资产. A true信仰资产 must, like Bitcoin, be able to clearly let people know its doctrine, know what we are actually facing, what we want to change, and how to influence or even change the world.

So, $SPX is good because it is clear—clearly telling people that we will狠狠地嘲讽 traditional finance by surpassing the actual value of the S&P 500. So, $NEET is good because it is clear—clearly telling people that the 9-to-5 ox-horse life is just a scam, and we will awaken more people to摆脱工作的奴役.

And just as Bitcoin believers undergo苦修 through price fluctuations, forging a true信仰资产 is by no means easy. In this process, new religions beyond Bitcoin must not only inwardly seek a truly clear positioning and meaning, unite and consolidate the ideas of a large community, but also outwardly continuously expand their influence. This is注定 a漫长 process, and not every tiny进步 will be reflected in the price.

Meme coins are the saviors of the cryptocurrency industry. I say this because when everyone realizes that "meme coin" is just an erroneous term that doesn't touch the essence, and "信仰资产" once again shines brightly in the cryptocurrency market, everyone will exclaim, "Meme coins are back!" But in fact, "信仰资产" is the essence of this market. I won't say it's indispensable because it naturally exists.

Conclusion

What the world cares about changes every year, every month, every day, even every hour. We cannot expect cryptocurrency to always be one of the most关注的事物 in the world. If we lose faith, then this industry should die.

Greatness cannot be planned. None of us can predict what will make cryptocurrency a top global topic again next time. This is a苦修. Bitcoin is a sociological template, a cyber religion, a form of religion. If we forget this, the entire cryptocurrency industry is无非 based on Bitcoin's consensus as "business"而已. And what businesspeople want is never the持续强化 of consensus, but the永远提升 of income.

I cannot change anything, nor do I intend to change anything, but I will坚持我的信仰,信仰信仰资本市场.