The Dilemmas and Reflections on Community Building for Crypto Projects

In the current cryptocurrency market, many new projects face the dilemma of launching immediately below their initial offering price. Tokens encounter significant selling pressure right after they go live, lacking effective buying support. To address this issue, some project teams have adopted various strategies, such as controlling the supply in advance, locking up collateral, or limiting airdrops, in an attempt to maintain initial price performance.

However, these practices reflect a deeper issue: the project team seems to equate the community they have worked hard to build with potential selling pressure. This raises the question of why the community, which has taken so much effort to cultivate, ultimately becomes a source of selling pressure rather than a solid support for buying.

In fact, many project teams have a misunderstanding of community building. They often see community building as a necessary condition for listing coins or as leverage in negotiations with exchanges, rather than as a cornerstone for the long-term development of the project. This has led to "community" becoming a string of cold numerical indicators, with project teams pursuing rapid growth and large member numbers while neglecting the true value of the community.

A mature community rapid expansion model has formed in the market, which includes the use of various task platforms, social media tools, and influencer promotions. These methods attract a large number of users through low-threshold participation and airdrop incentives, achieving what is known as "organic growth." However, this practice often attracts a large number of speculators who aim to "game the system" rather than genuine supporters who care about the project's development.

If the project's goal is merely to quickly list a coin and exit, then this approach is indeed efficient and direct. However, for projects that wish to develop in the long term, this method is tantamount to digging their own grave.

The fundamental reason for the community becoming a selling market rather than a buying market lies in the project's initial positioning and growth strategy for the community. When the project views community members as data contributors, and the main purpose of members' participation is to earn airdrops, there is a lack of genuine value recognition and long-term consensus between the two parties. In this case, the tokens distributed essentially become the project's debt rather than assets.

Therefore, when the tokens are officially issued, these airdrops naturally turn into selling pressure. To change this situation, the project team needs to rethink the essence of community building, focusing on cultivating genuine project supporters and long-term value creation, rather than short-term digital growth and speculative behavior. Only in this way can a healthy community ecosystem be built that provides ongoing support during the project's development.