1confirmation founder: The crypto industry needs to integrate both "belief builders" and "traffic speculators"

Odaily reported that Nick Tomaino, founder of 1confirmation, published an article discussing the marketing challenges faced by long-termists in the crypto industry. He believes that true builders must maintain authenticity while understanding and attracting Degen users, rather than standing above and criticizing speculative culture. For the past 15 years, he has been trying to solve this problem, experiencing multiple failures along the way. He admits that if users hold different asset positions, they may see him as “condescending,” but he participated heavily in speculation in his youth and suffered losses, so he does not underestimate the Degen community.

Nick Tomaino believes that many of the truly predatory participants in the crypto industry actually exploit Degens because they look down on them, making it easier to arbitrage their actions. He states that current participants in the crypto market can be divided into two major camps:

The first type: True believers, represented by Ethereum and certain exchange leadership teams. These teams have experienced multiple market cycles, continually build new products and infrastructure, and focus less on short-term traffic and capital, prioritizing long-term value instead.

However, this camp is sometimes overly idealistic, failing to engage fully in high-heat scenarios like Memecoin trading and perpetual contracts, and they are relatively lacking in marketing and user acquisition.

The second type: Hype men, including some altcoin project teams, executives, and KOLs. This group is skilled at creating attention, attracting Degen users, and capturing market trends.

Tomaino believes some of these participants focus more on short-term capital and traffic, lacking real innovation—merely wrapping themselves in industry narratives without truly pursuing long-term value. Hype men are better at grabbing attention and trading demand, while true believers possess stronger authenticity and long-term credibility, yet both sides have shortcomings. Ultimately, these two cultures will merge in the future. The key is whether long-term builders can better understand and attract Degen users, and whether traffic-driven players can shift from short-term hype to creating genuine long-term value. The future direction of the crypto industry depends on which side can impact the other—whether long-termists can push more speculative users toward building, or whether traffic players gradually move toward a healthier, positive-sum ecosystem.