From Big Tech to Encryption: A Crypto Degen's Journey in Meme Coin Investing

After resigning from the internet giant, Justin devoted himself fully to the encryption field. As an entrepreneur and encryption enthusiast, he not only achieved substantial gains in popular projects like PEPE, Degen, and TRUMP, but also accumulated valuable experience amidst market fluctuations.

In this exclusive interview, Justin shared his story of transitioning from traditional tech companies to the encryption world, delving into the investment strategies, market conditions, and future trends of Meme coins. Whether you are a newcomer to Meme coins or an experienced player, you can find inspiration in this.

Part One: Tech Elites Leap into the Encryption World

How is the decision to fully immerse oneself in the encryption field? What is the reaction of family and friends?

Justin stated that he is more of a cryptocurrency enthusiast rather than just someone who "quits a big company to start a business." Before joining, he had already decided to delve deeply into the cryptocurrency field for the long term, but felt he needed to accumulate more technical skills and teamwork experience. At that time, the company also had a cryptocurrency team, with many industry experts in it. However, with the arrival of the bear market, the company cut all blockchain-related businesses.

During his employment, Justin converted most of his income and stocks into encryption, and in his spare time, he explored various DeFi, NFT, SocialFi, and Meme projects. In 2023, they held the first large-scale conference on blockchain and artificial intelligence in New York, inviting several star projects. These experiences provided valuable support for his subsequent entrepreneurship.

The family's attitude towards the encryption field is "somewhat understanding but fully supportive". Justin's father even takes the initiative to follow related news, and whenever he sees popular projects gaining attention, he will ask his son if he is involved.

Giving up a stable job to enter an uncertain industry, do family members support?

At first, his family was a bit hesitant, after all, there is a risk in giving up generous benefits to enter an industry full of uncertainties. But Justin believed that life is about choices; one cannot seek stable income while also trying to seize scarce opportunities. He explained the long-term certainty of the encryption industry to his family, and in the end, he gained their understanding and support. His father even asked him to help buy some bitcoins.

How is the profit and loss situation of Meme coin investment? What do people around think?

Justin stated that overall it is profitable, but the number of losing Meme coins is greater than the number of profitable ones. His core strategy is to place heavy bets when he is optimistic about a certain Meme, such as Pepe in 2023, Degen in 2024, and Trump in 2025. This way, even if most projects go to zero, the few that hit will be enough to turn the tide.

He observed that many friends adopt a "broad net" strategy, participating with small amounts in every popular meme. Although it might hit a hundred times coin, due to the dispersed positions, the final returns are generally average, and instead, a large number of zero-value coins are accumulated.

What lessons are there before entering the Meme track?

Justin believes that meme investment is an interdisciplinary subject that requires understanding various aspects such as trends, emotions, culture, and investment, as well as having a clear self-awareness. His biggest takeaway over the past two years is realizing that the ways in which the market can cause losses are far more numerous than one might imagine.

Part Two: Discussion on Meme Coin Market

The founder of a certain trading platform shares a dog, sparking an on-chain Meme craze. How do you and those around you view this?

Justin analyzed that the founder noticed the trend of on-chain transaction volume and hoped to take the opportunity to enhance platform activity, but the community's response was poor. Because it did not clearly indicate which version was officially recognized, a large number of counterfeit products suddenly appeared in the market, leading to serious phenomena of cutting leeks, while also dispersing liquidity.

This operation has indeed succeeded in marketing, driving up the enthusiasm of the ecosystem. However, the problem lies in the fact that retail investors' sentiment is mainly determined by profits and losses; many people will naturally complain after losing money. This model creates topics in the short term, but it may damage user trust in the long run.

Does the platform's ecosystem still have explosive opportunities for Memes?

Justin believes that opportunities still exist, but the road is long. The infrastructure of the platform's ecosystem cannot keep up with the demand for Meme trading, as aspects such as transaction speed and stability need improvement. Other public chains have also undergone multiple iterations to achieve the smooth experience they have today, and this time the preparation was clearly insufficient, resulting in severe lag in several core tools, affecting the user experience.

In addition, the platform needs to find its own breakthrough rather than simply copying the successful experiences of other public chains. Justin believes that artificial intelligence could be a direction, especially AI applications. If it can incubate the "leading tools" of the AI era, it may invigorate the entire ecosystem.

What do you think about the project running away after a certain country's president promoted the Meme coin?

Justin speculated that the president might have seen the popularity of other celebrity coins and wanted to leverage encryption to boost the national economy while financing private enterprises. The project team may have also promised some profit sharing. However, he estimated that he did not anticipate the subsequent collapse, which led to an explosion of public opinion on social media, and thus quickly distanced himself from the situation.

How do insiders evaluate this event?

Justin stated that many on-chain experts and founders have suffered heavy losses, totaling at least 10 million dollars. Everyone is angry about the president deleting related tweets, as the endorsement from a national leader emboldened them to enter the market aggressively. However, the encryption market is like a casino, where every piece of information can affect decisions. The key is whether one can predict and respond to new information, such as whether to cut losses or increase positions when tweets are deleted.

Most importantly, traders should not develop a "loss aversion" mentality due to losses, thinking about bottom fishing to recover losses, but should calmly analyze whether to increase their position or cut losses, just like they would when seeing good news. The essence of trading is to be responsible for one's own decisions.

"Will "National Level Shouting" Become the New Norm for Meme Coins?

Justin believes that if multiple national-level Meme coins adopt the "launch and surge - plummet to zero" model in the short term, this approach will be hard to sustain. Those who have lost money will not be fooled again, and later countries will treat it with caution.

To exist in the long term, it is necessary to find a sustainable economic model and gameplay; otherwise, it will collapse like NFTs, which experience a brief surge before crashing.

Part Three: How Ordinary Users Can Participate in Meme Investment

Many investors "know it's gambling but can't help but participate". What do you think of this mentality?

Justin analyzes that Meme coins give people a sense of "grassroots counterattack" excitement, which is similar to the mechanism that attracts people to casinos, but the fluctuations of Meme coins far exceed those of casinos, making gambling seem a bit dull. Although most people ultimately incur losses, the stories of hundredfold and thousandfold wealth will still make people believe that "the next lucky one could be me." Even if they incur losses, they will continue to participate because the fear of missing out is at play.

However, participating is one thing, strategically participating is what allows one to survive longer in the market. True traders carefully select targets with a high win rate, rather than going all in just because they see a Meme. At the same time, setting clear take-profit and stop-loss strategies will prevent being swayed by market emotions.

How can ordinary investors assess the potential of Meme coins?

Justin stated that due to time constraints, he rarely can continuously focus on newly launched Memes and participate in the initial stages. Therefore, he prefers to choose Memes with a longer lifecycle, which requires judgment on the narrative, chip structure, profit and loss ratio, and whether it has the potential for social media virality.

In terms of narrative, the key lies in the number of people covered and the depth of resonance. It is important to see whether this narrative can reach enough people and whether it can evoke strong resonance. Although a niche narrative is not necessarily bad, it has limited potential and is difficult to spread widely. Moreover, some well-known IPs may not be suitable as memes, as people’s resonance and sense of identification may not be high.

In terms of chip structure, it is necessary to determine whether the project shows signs of being controlled by a market maker. Usually, the market maker's wallet will appear among the top 100 holders, so these addresses can be analyzed in depth, especially during the second stage of sideways movement, when the market maker is most likely to enter the market to accumulate chips. The market-making wallet mainly looks at the number of transactions, its role is to cash out and distribute at high positions, accumulate chips to protect the market, and gradually raise the bottom while harvesting the retail investors' cut-loss chips, transferring the chips to long-term holders and large investors. Trading volume is also a good method to determine the market maker's strength. Justin usually uses the ratio of trading volume to market cap to judge; if this value remains above 1 for a long time, it indicates that the market maker of this project is still strong. In addition, he saves the discovered market maker addresses for future reference, similar to tracking smart money.

In terms of the profit and loss ratio, it is necessary to set a target price for this token based on the narrative judgment. For example, a certain project may have a narrative at the level of 1 billion dollars, while another may have a narrative at the level of 100 billion dollars. Based on the current market value and target price, one can determine whether it is worth investing and how much position should be allocated.

In terms of social dissemination explosiveness, it is necessary to quickly assess which individuals are paying attention to this token on social platforms and deduce their dissemination relationships, analyzing which potential circles or opinion leaders might focus on it in the future. This requires a certain accumulation of value regarding the opinion leaders in the Meme core circle. Some tools can be used to analyze the influence of calling opinion leaders to assist in judging their dissemination potential.

How would you evaluate a Meme project yourself? What are some profit-taking or stop-loss strategies?

Justin's evaluation process is divided into several stages: information gathering → assessment → investment → profit taking/stop loss.

Gathering information: The information channels should be as numerous as possible while ensuring the quality of the information. He will discuss in groups of some core chain players and also pay attention to the social accounts of quality opinion leaders to ensure he can be the first to know about quality projects. In addition, he will also monitor signals on the chain to avoid missing potential targets.

Quick assessment: After discovering a potential Meme, it is crucial to make a rapid judgment. Shared attention on social platforms is a very helpful dimension for judgment, which requires your attention list to be well-trained, focusing more on quality opinion leaders and continuously accumulating high-quality information sources. This is the key to assessing project quality. Next, evaluate the narrative, chip structure, and risk-reward ratio according to the methods previously discussed, then decide whether to invest and the size of the investment position.

Profit-taking and stop-loss strategy: Justin's strategy is to recoup the initial investment first when doubling or tripling, and then take profits in stages based on ideal valuations for the remaining part. Meme changes rapidly, so he does not set rigid profit-taking and stop-loss standards, but adjusts them in real-time based on market sentiment. For example, certain unexpected events cannot be predicted in advance, and when such situations occur, it is essential to stop-loss immediately without hesitation.

What are the three survival tips for Meme investors?

1. Learn to assess the emotions, virality, persistence, and whether it has periodicity in the topic. Whether a Meme can go viral depends not only on the narrative itself but also on whether its emotions can continue to ferment.

2. If you are optimistic about Meme in terms of narrative, chip structure, and profit-loss ratio, you must be bold enough to increase your position and not blindly diversify your investments. Over-diversified investment strategies may cause you to miss out on significant gains, ultimately resulting in "working hard for a long time, only to earn pocket money."

3. Loss is a part of success. Analyze the reasons for every loss carefully, summarize deeply, and apply it to the next investment. True experts do not avoid losses; rather, they learn from each loss and continuously optimize their strategies.

Part Four: The Future Development of Meme

Do you think the hype around Meme coins has peaked, or will there be even crazier plays in the future?

Justin believes that there will definitely be crazier ways to play in the future. Meme culture runs through the entire history of humanity. Before the emergence of blockchain, people were already good at playing with memes and culture, which is one of the indispensable joys of life. Blockchain has given memes a more efficient way of creation and dissemination, making it possible for an IP to become popular rapidly, something that traditional cultural dissemination efficiency cannot achieve.

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