Editor's note: The author discusses the poor public image of Cryptocurrency due to scams, speculation, and negative media coverage, analyzes its low trust among the general public, and points out that despite its original intention to revolutionize the financial system, the meme coins and short-term profit culture have overshadowed this vision; the author proposes measures such as self-regulating bad actors, emphasizing practicality over speculation, and reshaping the narrative of BTC and ETH to improve the perception of Cryptocurrency, ultimately achieving a more open and fair ecosystem.

The following is the original content (for ease of reading comprehension, the original content has been reorganized):

Crypto Assets were supposed to be revolutionary, but they are seen as a scam. Can we rectify the situation?

Surprisingly, the impact of Crypto Assets on our lives outside the encryption community is so small. Unless you actively try to participate in Crypto Assets, you can hardly touch it in your daily life.

However, the problem is that when this 'minimal exposure to Crypto Assets' affects people, it is almost always negative. You watched 'Squid Game' on Netflix, where an influencer scamming fans with encryption appeared. He couldn't live without checking the Bitcoin price every moment, demanding to get back his phone. At this point, I can relate.

When you browse the news, you will see the following (almost always negative) headlines:

· North Korea stole 1.5 billion US dollars, completing the largest hacking case in history

"A Ridicule": Trump's new meme coin sparks anger in the encryption world

· Man sued for woman's 154,000 pound loss in BTC scam

· The encryption trader committed suicide during the live stream

Scams, fraud, pump and dump. You name it. The public image of Crypto Assets is terrible. To be fair, even us encryption natives know that Crypto Assets are full of garbage.

But we also know why we are here: to get rich by innovating outdated financial systems. Yes, the desire to get rich quickly is often despised, but I cannot deny that this is a fact. Everyone who invests in anything wants to make money.

However, Crypto Assets is one of the few industries that can still accumulate wealth from scratch. In today's economy, it is very challenging to gradually achieve wealth on a medium salary. Generation Z realized this and (quietly) chose to exit the job market.

If they only knew what Crypto Assets could bring to their lives...

However, I believe that Crypto Assets do a terrible job of emphasizing our mission, why we need Crypto Assets, and why getting rich through Crypto Assets is not evil. Here are some popular comments from the Financial Times summarizing the views of encryption skeptics:

If you read Reddit, you will know how much the general public dislikes Crypto Assets, but I would like to see more positive images of Crypto Assets in the mainstream media. Fairly speaking, the Financial Times has always been skeptical of Crypto Assets, but Bloomberg's reporting has improved over the years, providing great insights. Interestingly, there is a seemingly harmless Bloomberg article 'Getting to Know the Seven Top Personal Finance Influencers in the US', which mentions a Bitcoin influencer. He mainly focuses on meme coins and promotes his meme coin Telegram group, so although I am happy that Bloomberg wants to incorporate Crypto Assets, I am surprised that they actually shared @cryptomasun.

People really hate Crypto Assets

As this is still a 'research' blog, here are some noteworthy research data about the emotions of Crypto Assets. Many surveys show that non-investors consider Crypto Assets to be high-risk speculation rather than legitimate finance. In the UK, 64% of consumers who are familiar with Crypto Assets believe that 'investing in Crypto Assets is basically gambling'.

In 2024, a Pew survey found that 75% of Americans lack trust in its reliability and security due to fraud and market volatility.

In the Edelman 2023 Global Survey, Cryptocurrency is mistrusted in every age group, with its trust even lower than the banks we are trying to innovate.

Of course, FTX damaged the reputation of Crypto Assets in 2023, but this year's meme coins didn't help either.

Consensys releases excellent research reports every year, and their 2024 report shows the decline of the narrative of 'The Future of Money' in the Cryptocurrency space. The sentiments of speculation, fraud, phishing, crime, and money laundering are as prevalent in Cryptocurrency as in 'traditional financial alternatives.'

The message is clear: outside the encryption community, there is widespread skepticism about whether digital assets can be trusted as secure financial instruments.

When writing this blog post, I saw the following tweet, which nicely summarized the public's emotions towards Cryptocurrency:

Why is encryption culture so important

Our public image may seem unimportant, because the general public "just doesn't understand". They are afraid of being rescued from the nine-to-five and influenced by mainstream media's anti-encryption propaganda.

Nevertheless, the concept has changed, and there are more people willing to purchase Crypto Assets than before. I believe that the changing encryption concept can add millions of new members to the community.

I believe we can and should do better. We need to make people believe in the vision and mission of Cryptocurrency.

Crypto Assets envision a decentralized financial system where individuals have full control over their assets, free from the restrictions of intermediaries such as banks or governments. It aims to create a borderless, censorship-resistant, trust-minimized ecosystem that allows anyone to trade, store value, and build economic systems without relying on centralized authorities.

Our vision is being drowned out by meme coins and speculative noise.

Even worse, the public no longer sees Crypto Assets as a revolutionary way to improve the financial system. As stated below: 'The BTC ecosystem has become just like everything you despise.' Wealth is being extracted from those who are economically desperate, with money and power concentrated in the hands of a few.

In addition, due to Trump's public endorsement, people now associate Crypto Assets with the MAGA movement, which is not popular outside its circle. Unsurprisingly, the EU considers Trump's support for Crypto Assets a threat to European monetary sovereignty.

Don't get it wrong - the regulation before the suspension by the U.S. government is bullish. However, the encryption industry is treading on thin ice under the current Trump administration.

How to change the perception of Crypto Assets

The reputation of Crypto Assets will not repair itself. If we want mainstream adoption, we need to reshape the narrative.

It's easier said than done, but it must start from within: even the indigenous people of encryption have lost hope for Crypto Assets.

I think we need to focus on three key points first:

1. Make Crypto Assets Great Again

In previous cycles, newcomers to Crypto Assets could make money. However, meme coins have been distorted by low circulation and high FDV projects supported by small groups and venture capital, leaving newcomers with no room for growth.

In this cycle, we managed to resist low circulation, high FDV, but fell into the trap of the meme coin clique.

Legion and Echo have made progress by adopting a fairer financing model, but they are still too exclusive. We need to create and promote games that create value rather than destroy value, so that early entrants can benefit together. Kyle provides a detailed plan on how to rise more powerfully from market chaos in the 'first principles'.

But due to extreme short-termism, a culture of maximizing extraction, and low integrity individuals, we have fallen into a self-inflicted cycle of eternal financial nihilism. When everyone thinks it's a good idea to 'get out before he cheats me,' the collective decision is to continue blindly investing in random scam coins.

We need to self-regulate bad actors. The industry must do more to expose scams and hold influencers accountable for their misleading promotions. ZachXBT used to do this, but the level of criminality got out of hand, and even he eventually dumped the meme coins he was given.

I also need to do better in this respect and stay away from value extraction activities. People need to truly make money while expanding the encryption cake. Now, newcomers are ultimately financially destroyed. Or worse.

2. Shift the narrative from speculation to utility

Crypto Assets are not just gambling - they offer real-world benefits. We need to focus on use cases such as remittances, financial inclusion, and transparent governance, rather than meme coin culture.

DeFi is expanding, with new social networks like Lens, Abstract, and Farcaster emerging with innovative monetization models. In addition, the increasing adoption of stablecoins and Real World Assets (RWA) helps preserve and grow wealth, rather than destroy it.

KOL on X may not care about these, but encryption X is just a small part of a wider encryption culture.

I am glad that Bitcoin performs well as the 'digital gold', but Ethereum and Solana are seen as speculative chains rather than the foundational platforms of the open digital economy.

If we promote Crypto Assets culture by using encryption, I bet Pudgy Penguins is the strongest output from Web3 to Web2, rather than importing Crypto Assets (Doge, Pepe, etc.) from Web2.

3. Narrative of reclaiming Bitcoin and Ethereum

Cryptocurrency is not a single unified culture, but contains multiple subcultures. The most famous of which are Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The view that 'BTC 'has become everything it was supposed to destroy' makes me very angry. Only those who store BTC in a cold wallet truly understand the peace of mind brought by self-custody and detachment from the system.

ETFs are beneficial to our wallets, but they are a double-edged sword because ETF buyers do not experience the sense of freedom brought by self-custody.

I also hope that BTC can keep a distance from the MAGA movement. BTC is global and should be neutral.

This is why I like Ethereum. Many people criticize the Ethereum Foundation for not getting close to the Trump team, but in the long run, this will prove to be a winning strategy.

In a world where privacy and democracy are being eroded, AI blurs reality and illusions, and digital ownership is not guaranteed, Ethereum provides a safe haven.

ETH uncompromisingly:

· Trusted Neutral

· Non-political

· Decentralization

· Globalization

People outside the Crypto Assets industry don't know about these, so our job is to spread this information and build products that truly showcase the value of Ethereum.

Optimistic Future

Today, the total market value of the entire Crypto Assets market has just reached 2.7 trillion U.S. dollars. But do we deserve it?

Since Vitalik's post in 2017, Cryptocurrency has evolved, not just speculation and negative games.

As I wrote in my previous post, 1.4 billion people globally do not have bank accounts. Even in the United States, this proportion is 4.5%. The Federal Reserve's own research found that high-income earners see Cryptocurrency as an investment, but poorer people use it for transactions. 60% of those who use it for transactions have an annual income of less than $50,000, and 13% do not have a bank account.

In 2023, Venezuela ranks 40th in the Chainalysis encryption adoption index. Stablecoins are a lifeline against severe inflation. Similar to Argentina, as the national currency plummets, the purchase volume of stablecoins surges - a sign of widespread adoption of Crypto Assets.

Cryptocurrency is used not only to combat inflation, but also to resist oppressive regimes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cryptocurrency was used to directly aid doctors and nurses in Venezuela, free from interference by corrupt authorities. Ukraine raised $225 million through Cryptocurrency at the start of the war.

The TVL of DeFi has reached 880 billion US dollars! DEX is now challenging CEX, and Maker and other projects are bringing RWA on-chain.

Non-speculative decentralized social applications are also growing in popularity. Farcaster and Polymarket have thousands of users daily, with numbers still increasing. We now have real dApps that can be used.

But all these progress seems to have been lost on the X timeline, we have done a terrible job in spreading this mission.

Nevertheless, I believe this market downturn will help the encryption industry heal, and progress will continue. We need to clean up our own mess first and then focus on the positive side of outputting Crypto Assets.

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