The Twilight of KOL: Narrative is Dead, Suckers are Awakening

Original author: TM

Original compilation: Luffy, Foresight News

Original Title: Crypto KOL's Narrative: Our Era Has Come to an End

I have no personal grudges against the people I am about to mention, even though most of them hate me for daring to speak the truth. That's okay, this is not about personal grudges, it's about the truth.

Before "blaming" others, let me talk about how I became a KOL.

How I Became a KOL

I started trading cryptocurrencies in 2017 and became active in the crypto Twitter community in 2020.

During the last bull market, the situation was quite simple: on one side were voices of true insight, and on the other side were "traffic players" focused on increasing interaction volume. However, at that time, no one paid much attention to these, because the mainstream approach was to hype altcoins. Influential individuals could not solely rely on their own power to elevate a particular cryptocurrency; what truly mattered was sharing investment logic and core viewpoints.

For me, becoming a KOL was once a dream job where I could earn money by talking about the technology I love.

But after the bear market devoured most of my net assets, I started to think about actively making money instead of holding on to a pile of "positions" and hoping for fate's favor.

From this moment on, everything changed.

KOL of the bull market in 2021

The Rise of Meme Coin KOL

In the winter of 2023, the first influential Solana ecosystem meme coin WIF quickly gained popularity, and its market capitalization once soared to several billion dollars. They had promised to host a major marketing event: projecting the WIF logo onto the Las Vegas Sphere, but this never materialized. The 3 million dollars raised from the community is still frozen to this day.

Even so, issuing Meme coins at that time was not easy. This changed in the summer of 2024 with the emergence of Pump.fun (a Meme coin issuance platform), where Mitch was the first person to issue the token Xiwifhat on that platform.

There is a pattern here: KOLs always manage to catch trends a step ahead and become the focus. But you might want to ask yourself: Are they seizing the opportunity because they truly have unique insight, or is it because they have direct connections with platforms and funds?

Taking Mitch as an example, he uses his public wallet to "harvest" fans, as people will really copy trade his positions. He carefully selects coins, builds his position first, and after fans follow suit to buy and drive up the price, he sells half of his position when it doubles. For him, this is a zero-risk operation.

He is not an isolated case; he just does it on a larger scale.

Before this, promoting Meme coins was seen as pure fraud. But overnight, these "fraudsters" became popular.

Next to appear is Murad. He was a banking practitioner and knows well how to package himself: creating slides, presenting seemingly credible investment logic, and dissecting "fan psychology," all wrapped in a layer of professionalism.

He also built his own copy trading platform and released a "selected coin list", while manipulating the token supply behind the scenes. Coincidentally, one of the coins he "recommended", SPX, was listed on a certain centralized exchange a week later. Is this really just a coincidence?

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At that time I realized: in this cycle, if I want to make money, I can only be a Meme coin KOL. I sold out my principles and paid the price for it.

Why do I only talk about Meme coin KOLs? Because for the past two years, KOLs in other areas have basically become irrelevant. If you miss an entire cycle, your opinions won't carry much weight.

) The Rise of New Faces

By October 2024, I suddenly encountered some new faces: Orangie, Rasmr, and Mika. Their follower growth was astonishing, with no warning, and they moved in perfect sync, typical "industry promoters."

Fairly speaking, Threadguy does not belong to this category of people. He has built his influence step by step by posting long articles and freely expressing himself in X Spaces.

Faze Banks is back in the game, and he has brought along the "Los Angeles Vape Circle" - a group of scammers banding together with the goal of "harvesting". There's no need to elaborate on what happened next.

After that, Orangie once became a huge sensation across the internet, attracting a large number of young fans who loved "Fortnite" and "Friday Night Funkin'", and these fans easily developed a sense of identification with him.

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The moment Adin Ross realizes he has been scammed

) KOL's No Man's Land

In today's crypto space, there are no longer any true "key figures." People no longer listen to KOLs' opinions and even feel disgusted by them.

I asked everyone in several communities "Who is your favorite KOL?" The answers I got were all: "None. These people all deserve to die."

There is no clear "mainstream gameplay" now; it feels more like the "endgame" of meme coins—there is no practical use, only the issuance of tokens itself. Each project is vying for the attention of the same group of small-cap traders with funds.

The "harvesting attribute" of this market has reached its peak, and most traders are suffering significant losses. The mentality of "no crying in the casino" forces people to invest their last bit of money into those coins with a "one in a thousand chance of skyrocketing, and nine hundred ninety-nine in a thousand chance of disappearing."

This is a sad market. KOLs survive in this environment and make the situation worse, but we can't blame them entirely. It is us who have elevated them to this height, or rather, it is us who have enabled their growth.

![]###https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-77507b483a4c66c00c31584206b4a1b4.webp(

) They are "playing chess," while we are just watching the excitement.

When 99% of people in this field don't even have their own opinions, the term "KOL" itself is a joke. They are like feathers in the wind, pushed along by wave after wave of traffic, completely lacking in opinion.

When was the last time you saw a sincere suggestion of "no hidden interests, no interactive brushing"?

Every KOL mentioned in this article has blocked me.

Why? Because I can think independently and dare to speak the truth, which threatens their "game."

In my experience, people would rather block you than face the truth. Only by not seeing the harm they have caused can they continue to scam with a clearer conscience.

But karma truly exists, and "on-chain spirituality (referring to the fact that on-chain behaviors will leave traces, and good and evil will be rewarded)" is not just empty talk. Whatever causes you plant, you will ultimately reap the corresponding fruits.

At this point, there is no point in saying more.

The Future of KOL

In the crypto world, nothing will repeat itself, whether it's narratives, scam tactics, or absurd farces. Sometimes history may be similar, but it will never be an exact replica.

What will the future hold? I believe the market will shift towards "practicality". In the next cycle, merely talking won't be enough; KOLs must truly take action and invest real money. This way, power will return to the real builders, rather than those "pretentious people".

I have noticed that the income from paid communities is declining. People are waking up and no longer want to be exploited. In the future, there will be even more resistance against KOLs.

In the past, developers who ran away would receive death threats. I'm not saying this extreme method is good, but it certainly made developers think twice. We may not return to such extreme measures, but the market will definitely move towards a "reputation-based system." And this will change everything.