Believing in the Capital Market — The Essence and Core Value of Cryptocurrency

The core value of the cryptocurrency industry is consensus and culture, or in other words, faith. When I quit my traditional industry job four years ago and dedicated myself fully to this industry, I held this mindset. Along with the successes and failures of trading, my mood has experienced countless ups and downs, but my conviction has never changed.

2025 is expected to be a more disappointing year for crypto players. As this year comes to an end, we still haven’t solved the biggest problem facing the current cryptocurrency market—narrative failure and lack of faith.

As an ordinary participant in the crypto industry, although my work is very mundane, over these four years I have seen and thought about many things. I have always had a vague feeling that one day I would systematically write these ideas into an article. Now is the time.

Bitcoin is a modern religion

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

Christianity has the Bible, Buddhism has the Tripitaka, Islam has the Quran, and Bitcoin has “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.”

If we want to compare in more detail, we will find that beyond the above levels, Bitcoin also shares many similarities with traditional religions. For example, Bitcoin has its own doctrines (the modern financial order will eventually collapse, and Bitcoin will become Noah’s Ark when the modern financial order’s end times arrive), its own religious rituals (mining and HODL), and during its development, it has experienced splits and has grown into a tool used by governments for specific purposes, etc.

But if we call Bitcoin a “modern religion,” we must discuss its differences from traditional religions.

First, “decentralization.” This term has developed a somewhat ironic tone in the current crypto industry, but undoubtedly, it is the most fundamental characteristic of the modern religion that Bitcoin represents. What I emphasize here is not the degree of decentralization of a blockchain network’s operation, but whether “the consensus formation process is decentralized.”

Satoshi Nakamoto, the “creator god” of Bitcoin, chose “self-exile.” He relinquished his authority, creating a brand new world. Bitcoin has no central deity symbolizing authority, nor a person or entity with actual divine power. It grows in a bottom-up manner, contrary to traditional religions. The Bitcoin white paper, and the phrase in the genesis block “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks,” has never been altered. If you’re interested, you can interpret them in any way you like.

Satoshi is the most human-like “creator god,” but also the most inhuman, because he exhibited non-human moral standards—or rather, ideals. Satoshi possesses not only Bitcoin worth billions of dollars but also the power to destroy this religion with a single hand, like holding a button that could destroy the world, yet he disappeared just like that. If you think more deeply, after so many years of Bitcoin’s development, Bitcoin believers still believe that Satoshi is guarding the world he created, and even today, governments around the world have begun to believe this. You will find that all of this is incredibly astonishing.

Second, “the internet.” This makes Bitcoin unlike traditional religions that rely on face-to-face evangelism, conquest through war, or immigration to attract followers. The internet not only makes Bitcoin’s dissemination less linear and geographically constrained but also enables modern meme culture to attract the younger generation with its infectiousness.

Of course, there is also “dedication and reward,” as well as “splits and expansion.” These two points are very important; they determine that modern religions are essentially “faith capital markets.”

Faith Capital Market

If you are a believer in Bitcoin, you don’t need fasting or asceticism; you only need to run a full Bitcoin node or hold Bitcoin.

When your faith in Bitcoin is challenged—whether by debates over small or large blocks, or by smart contract chains like Ethereum, Solana—you don’t need to participate in holy wars. You still only need to run a Bitcoin full node or hold Bitcoin.

Whether running a full node or holding Bitcoin, both can be regarded as religious rituals of this religion. These rituals do not promise you a good life or an afterlife of bliss, but they provide tangible material and spiritual rewards through price performance.

Similarly, debates over small or large blocks, or the emergence of new chains like Ethereum and Solana, ultimately lead to the continuous rise of the total market cap of cryptocurrencies. In the crypto world, conflicts of faith no longer result in physical destruction or spiritual conquest. Instead, they present a situation completely opposite to traditional religions—while traditional religions conflict to explain the world and end up dividing it, crypto conflicts resemble sparks of creation, like the universe expanding infinitely after the Big Bang, growing larger and more vigorous.

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

Of course, Bitcoin is a specific modern religion. But from the perspective of pioneering the “faith capital market,” its significance far exceeds that of a specific modern religion. I call it “the religion without a church.” Today, Bitcoin has undergone a process similar to secularization, manifested in religious rituals—from running full nodes, to HODL, to almost no crypto user emphasizing its specific meaning, but rather it quietly sits atop the pyramid of the crypto market like a totem. Just as Christmas is no longer a Christian religious holiday in today’s world, we enjoy Christmas trees, gifts, the festive atmosphere, and even wear Christmas hats on social media avatars, but we may not be Christians.

You could say Bitcoin is just cryptocurrency because if Bitcoin collapses, the entire crypto market will cease to exist. The value of all cryptocurrencies is fundamentally based on Bitcoin’s value. But I am reluctant to define Bitcoin this way—what is Bitcoin’s core value? Digital gold? Tokenized energy? Fiat currency killer? In my view, Bitcoin’s core value is that it established a form of modern religion, namely the faith capital market.

Secularization

Whether it is traditional religion or Bitcoin, secularization is a double-edged sword.

Taking Christmas as an example, the global commercial output generated by Christmas (such as holiday retail, gifts, travel, decorations, and related consumption) has significantly surpassed the commercial output of traditional Christian institutions (such as donations, church tickets, sales, and related income). According to estimates from Statista and the National Retail Federation (NRF), the US holiday retail total in 2024 is about $973 billion, expected to break $1 trillion for the first time in 2025. This is only data from the US, which accounts for about 40-50% of global Christmas consumption.

In contrast, the traditional “commercial output” of Christianity—such as tithes, offerings, church tickets (like tourist church sites), sales (books, souvenirs), and related income—is estimated at about $1.304 trillion, according to the “Global Christianity Status 2024” report by Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

If we exclude contributions from non-Christian tourists and souvenirs, this $1.304 trillion needs further discounting.

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

The same applies to Bitcoin and the entire faith capital market it has created. Just as many people around the world only see Christmas as a joyful day, more and more crypto market participants are entering solely for speculation.

This is neither right nor wrong; it is an unstoppable inevitable process. But the question we need to raise here is: does celebrating Christmas shake the faith of traditional Christians? And does the massive wave of speculation shake the faith of traditional Bitcoin believers?

Similarly, in secularization, the joyful atmosphere of Christmas does not cause Christians to doubt their faith, but the speculative atmosphere in the crypto market causes crypto believers to feel nihilism and frustration. One of the best recent proofs is the viral Twitter post “I wasted 8 years of my life in the crypto industry.”

Where is the problem?

Myth

I dare not draw a hasty conclusion on this issue. From the intuitive experience of a crypto enthusiast, I would cautiously say that it might be true, but more likely, Bitcoin has developed too quickly, and the fundamental base of Bitcoin faith is much smaller compared to traditional religions.

More importantly, the crypto industry has gone too far in the “technological myth.” For a long time, whether industry practitioners or speculators, have been repeatedly seeking an answer to a question—“What else can blockchain technology be used for?” Practitioners use this to determine their entrepreneurial direction, speculators use it to identify their targets. When everyone pursues faster, more efficient, and practically applicable blockchains, it is undoubtedly self-destructive.

If the crypto industry is just the second Nasdaq, then it is merely wasting money on repetitive tasks. And wasting money is a trivial matter; the more serious harm is the dilution of the understanding of the “faith capital market” and the consumption of faith itself.

Without Christianity, there would be no pop culture Christmas. Without the faith-formed capital market, there would be no paradise for entrepreneurs and speculators. If we ignore this obvious causal relationship, we will naturally keep asking, “What new narrative can we create to attract more people into the crypto market?”

Whether traditional religion or cryptocurrency, they inevitably face this question—“In different eras, how to attract young people with different cultural preferences?” Bitcoin has given a new answer, astonishing the traditional religions in less than 20 years. Now, it’s the turn for Bitcoin and the entire crypto industry to face this challenge.

The Savior

Meme coins are the saviors of the crypto industry.

First, the foundation of the faith capital market is Bitcoin, but this does not mean we need to re-enthusiastically promote maximalism for Bitcoin. The most fundamental and fanatic elements of religion are often niche—whether it’s the cypherpunk spirit or apocalyptic predictions of the collapse of traditional finance, the novelty they bring to the younger generation is gradually diminishing, and they are inherently difficult to understand.

In another way, revitalizing Bitcoin as a specific religion actually underestimates Bitcoin, because what we need to revive is a “religion without a church,” a cognition that every individual’s faith can be凝聚ed through the internet in the crypto market today, which not only can bring material wealth but also unleash infinite power.

The most core value of Bitcoin is “you and I both believe it has value.” This may seem like a trivial statement, but it is actually a grand delegation of the decentralized value interpretation right. You and I can write “value of one gram of gold” on a piece of paper at will, but we cannot persuade anyone to accept its value. Without any anchoring or endorsement from central authority, starting from zero, crossing language, culture, and geographical barriers, and ultimately gaining recognition from institutions and governments—this greatness is vastly underestimated by the masses.

Throughout history, individual consciousness has been extremely weak and easily trampled, so much so that we have underestimated ourselves as independent, living individuals—each idea’s value. In fact, most resources in this world are spent on war—the war invading your and my consciousness. Political elections, advertising, even some of the most basic education—everything consumes enormous amounts of money, all just to make you and me believe that something is good or bad.

The internet is great; it allows our ideas to cross all barriers, to continuously exchange and collide around the clock. Cryptocurrency is great; it vividly shows us what can be achieved when we understand each other’s ideas, reaching a large scale with exponential growth.

The greatness of cryptocurrency is not only underestimated but even misinterpreted. Building technology is indeed great, but the core value of a house is to provide a place to live. “A peer-to-peer electronic cash system” is an ingenious concept, but its core value is that people recognize Bitcoin as a valuable, usable electronic cash, like currency. Over the years, we have created countless blockchains claiming to be faster, more efficient, and more useful, fantasizing that this will attract more real people into the market.

It’s like thinking that, apart from religion, phenomena like Christmas can be easily copied and replicated. We think that holding a sword makes us a dominant swordsman, but in reality, we have neither sword nor heart.

Second, meme coins have never truly experienced a complete and mature bull cycle. Even today, many still believe that meme coins are valuable only because of reckless speculation with no intrinsic value. Since last year, the popularity of pump.fun and Trump’s coin issuance have polluted the true definition of “attention tokens” and meme coins.

What is a true meme coin? Actually, I don’t even like the term “meme coin.” The reason for this term is because early successes of **$DOGE ** and $SHIB were achieved when people thought they were useless. We are used to looking for reasons after success but ignoring the value of faith. So, okay, their success is because that smiling dog picture has a huge influence worldwide, so we call it a “meme coin.” Then, let’s continue to carry on the classic meme culture symbols of the internet—Pepe, Wojak, Joe…

Here, I must pay tribute to Murad, who was the first to systematically explain what “meme coin” really is, proposed a set of quantifiable quality standards, and delivered speeches on a large stage. His “meme coin supercycle” theory has gained significant influence in the crypto circle.

He insightfully grasped a very critical point—meme is merely a syntax sugar for faith assets. True faith assets must, like Bitcoin, clearly convey their doctrine, tell us what we are facing, what we need to change, and how to influence or even change the world.

Therefore, **$SPX ** is good because it is clear, clearly telling people that we want to mock traditional finance by surpassing the actual value of the S&P 500. So, **$NEET ** is good because it is clear, clearly telling people that the nine-to-five life is just a scam, and we want to wake more people up to free themselves from the slavery of work.

Just as Bitcoin believers practice asceticism amid price fluctuations, creating true faith assets is also no easy task. In this process, new religions outside Bitcoin must find their true clear positioning and meaning internally, unite and consolidate a large community, and externally expand their influence. This is destined to be a long process, and not every small progress will be reflected in the price.

Meme coins are the saviors of the crypto industry. This is because when everyone realizes that “meme coins” are just a misleading term that doesn’t touch the essence, and “faith assets” once again shine brightly in the crypto market, everyone will exclaim, “Meme coins are back!” But in fact, “faith assets” are the essence of this market. I wouldn’t say they are indispensable because they are inherently present.

Conclusion

What the world cares about every year, month, day, and even hour is constantly changing. We cannot expect that cryptocurrency will always be one of the most watched topics in the world. If we lose faith, then this industry should die.

Greatness cannot be planned; we cannot predict what will cause the next wave of cryptocurrency to become a top global topic again. It is a form of asceticism. Bitcoin is a sociological model, a cyber religion, a religious form. If we forget this, the entire crypto industry is nothing more than a “business” based on Bitcoin consensus. And what businesspeople want is never the continuous strengthening of consensus but always increasing revenue.

I cannot change anything, nor do I intend to. But I will stick to my faith—faith in the faith capital market. **$POWER $SWEAT