1confirmation Founder: The Crypto Industry Needs to Fuse "Faith Builders" with "Hype Speculators"

According to Odaily, 1confirmation founder Nick Tomaino recently discussed the marketing challenges faced by long-termists in the crypto industry. He argues that true builders need to understand and attract Degen users while maintaining authenticity, rather than criticizing speculative culture from a high horse. He has been trying to solve this problem for the past 15 years, often with little success. He admits that users holding different asset positions might perceive him as condescending, but he himself engaged heavily in speculation and suffered losses in his youth, so he does not look down on the Degen crowd.

Nick Tomaino believes that many truly predatory participants in the crypto industry are precisely those who look down on Degens, making it easier for them to arbitrage these users. He suggests that current crypto market participants can be divided into two main camps:

The first group: True believers, represented by the leadership of Ethereum and Coinbase. These teams have weathered multiple market cycles, continuously building new products and infrastructure. They do not chase short-term traffic or capital, but focus more on long-term value.

However, the problem with this camp is that it can sometimes be too idealistic, failing to fully participate in high-heat scenarios like Memecoin trading or perpetual contracts, thus showing relative weakness in marketing and user acquisition.

The second group: Hype men, including some altcoin project teams, executives, and KOLs. This group excels at generating attention, attracting Degen users, and capturing market hotspots.

Tomaino believes that some participants in this group are more focused on short-term capital and traffic, lacking genuine innovation. They merely package themselves with industry narratives without actually practicing long-term value creation. Hype men are better at capturing attention and trading demand, while the faithful have stronger authenticity and long-term credibility—but both have shortcomings. Ultimately, these two cultures will converge. The key lies in whether long-term builders can better understand and attract Degen users, and whether traffic drivers can shift from short-term hype to creating genuine long-term value. The future direction of the crypto industry will depend on which side can influence the other—whether long-termists can steer more speculative users toward construction, or whether hype players can gradually transition to a healthier, more positive-sum ecosystem.