Recently, almost all my friends who are into blockchain have started playing with secondary tokens, and I want to discuss the differences between trading on-chain tokens and the underlying mechanics of secondary altcoins, hoping to help you. As usual, let’s start with the conclusion: I believe that the "underlying logic driving the price increase of secondary altcoins is completely different from that of on-chain tokens." After reading this, you will understand what I mean. Everyone is quite familiar with on-chain meme coins, so let me briefly explain. Memes are the game of spreading chains, where users are attracted by narratives layer by layer from the inner circle to the outer circle to CEX, becoming buyers. These buyers push up the market cap layer by layer, and then the last layer of buyers becomes the exit liquidity, leading to the listing, fading attention, and an end. Therefore, the core of trading on-chain tokens is the imagination of the narrative (preferably, the narrative and the spreading chain are "developable") and being able to get cheap chips by entering early. Of course, the role of market makers and controlling the supply is also important, but now, without CEX users to take over, it doesn’t matter what market makers come in; 50-80 million is the ceiling of retail imagination, which means that at this point, retail investors are basically selling. If the market makers want to continue pushing up, they face all sell orders with no buy orders, which results in losing money in market making; market makers are not here to do charity.) So when trading on-chain tokens, you need to consider: 1. How widely can the narrative spread? Is there extensibility? 2. To what layer has it spread now? After you buy, who else will take your buy orders? 3. The role of market makers and controlling the supply. Now let’s talk about secondary altcoins (especially new altcoins). The initial pricing of secondary altcoins is determined at the moment of TGE, so whether it rises or falls, the market makers can profit. Therefore, the underlying logic driving the price to continue rising or falling is almost singular: "What is the intention of the project party or market makers?" So before you rush into a secondary altcoin, set aside the coin's narrative and assume you are the market maker, with only one goal: to profit. Ask yourself, "Why would I spend money to pump the price?" In most cases, you won’t be able to think of a reason to pump the price, which is the current state of most altcoins. After all, the coins are all printed, and the initial market cap is also set by you; it’s so simple to sell directly for profit. Why take the risk of spending money to pump the price? However, in some cases, the project party can still profit more by pumping the price: 1. I have launched alpha and contracts, and I want to pump BN spot; I can’t just pour it in, so I need to pump the price. Because BN contracts + spot are the crown jewels of liquidity, it’s worth spending money to pump the price to earn more money in the future (Have you noticed that those who first launched alpha and contracts before launching spot have performed well in terms of price?) 2. Retail sentiment is very bearish, and I happen to have a highly controlled BN contract, but the fundamentals are quite poor. If I pump the price, many short sellers will come in, and I can only sell by pumping the price to force the shorts to cover. (For example, Myx) 3. Upbit listing is coming soon, and my coin's K-line looks like this; I can’t just pour it in, and it’s too cheap. I’ll look for the Korean community, gather some chips, and pump the price to sell to Koreans. (This is a very typical phenomenon for many new coins.) 4. In the project I’m working on, the coin price is extremely correlated with the fundamentals. I need my coin price to be higher to drive "improvements in the fundamentals." For example, Aster is a very typical case these days; after raising the coin price, it attracted trading volume through a second-phase airdrop, instantly capturing market share from Hyperliquid, not to mention that retail traders' trading fees exchanged for airdrop coins effectively allowed the team to sell coins at a higher price. 5. If there are no buy orders left, I need to pump the price a bit to attract retail traders, find a few KOLs to shout, and then Kaito puts in some money to continue selling (this is actually the most common scenario, bouncing a few points to continue pouring). If the coin you bought has been listed on both BN spot and Upbit spot (or it’s obvious it won’t be listed), and there are no high-controlled conditions to pump the price and force shorts to cover, and the business has nothing to do with the coin price, then you must congratulate yourself; you have passed the test, and the market is yours now. 😅 Moreover, you can use the question "Why pump the price?" at different times to judge the market makers' behavior. For example, just after the TGE has distributed airdrops to retail investors, why pump the price? If you pump it up, won’t retail investors just sell? It’s better to let the airdrop naturally sell down, collect back 80% of the chips, and then pump. For instance, if it’s listed on Upbit and there are no short sellers, why pump the price to let retail investors profit? The most concentrated buy orders are from the previous week, which is the best time to sell; it’s better to pour it to Koreans. For example, I’ve already pumped it three times, waited two months for BN spot, and still haven’t received my spot notification. It seems I won’t get it; the market can’t hold up anymore, so I might as well pour it now. For example, next month, investors will unlock their tokens, and KOLs will also need to distribute chips; I might as well run first. I think many retail investors are still too fond of fantasies, even having a mindset that "market makers are doing charity." I often see questions like, "Why isn’t this good coin being pumped?" I want to remind everyone that this is essentially a way of thinking; you should always first consider "What is their purpose?" and then deduce "What should their behavior be?" So evaluate the secondary altcoins you recently bought with this mindset. Did you buy because this is also a perp DEX like Aster? Is this also a coin that has been called by CZ? Is this also invested by BN? Is this also a coin that hasn’t risen much on BN Alpha? Are you buying into the narrative again? Have you really thought through "Why pump the price?"

For example, the Gain on Alpha yesterday, now with such high enthusiasm for Alpha, it directly increased the issuance and crashed by 95%, profit-seeking mentality is at its peak, even the 🐎 is not needed.