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The Circle of Greed
Louis Low
May 12, 2025
A Baroque-style oil painting depicting the retail investor at the center, clutching a phone and token, surrounded by seven crypto archetypes
In the dawn of Crypto Kingdom, a promise shimmered on the horizon: decentralised technology but no decentralised trust. Like Icarus, the realm flew on wings of code—yet for every act of innovation, a darker impulse lurked beneath.
1. Project Owners: The Architects of Gold Mines
They arrived cloaked in optimism: whitepapers in hand, visions of a fairer world. Yet behind every “genesis block” lay token allocations—vast reserves to be unlocked at just the right moment. As TVL climbed, so did their portfolios. When the code froze, they toasted to their gains; when it cracked, they watched retail bleed.
“Innovation without alignment is just a tax on believers.”
Blame: They built gold mines in the desert, sold the shovel, then blamed the caravans for the mirage.
2. Venture Capitalists: The Phantom Patrons
In velvet chairs around mahogany tables, VCs whispered about 100× returns. They seeded dreamers with capital—only to reap the harvest as the sun rose. When projects wilted, they collected management fees and carried interest, unscathed by the bodies of failed teams.
“A river of dollars carves deep canyons—many will drown, but the fund manager stays dry.”
Blame: They spawned bubbles to time exits, baptizing every dud as “next-gen” before ghosting the capital-starved founders.
3. Retail Investors: The Sisyphus of Speculation
Retail arrived hopeful, armed with dollar-cost averaging spreadsheets and yield-farming calculators. They climbed the price mountain, only to watch it crumble beneath them during unlock cliffs or FUD storms. Each rebound felt like redemption—until the next trapdoor swung open.
“Chasing the tail of a rocket rarely lands you on the moon.”
Blame: They mistook volatility for opportunity, turning every meme token into a lottery ticket and every airdrop into a siren song.
4. Exchanges: The Gatekeepers of Illusion
At the city gates stood gargantuan towers—Binance, Coinbase, Kraken—welcoming pilgrims with promises of liquidity. But inside, the floors were slick with hidden fees, wash trades, and preferential order flow. When the tower creaked, they blamed technical glitches, not the weight of their own greed.
“Liquidity is the perfume of trust; once you dilute it, the scent never returns.”
Blame: They sold access in exchange for seven-figure listings and cloaked their dark pools in the language of compliance.
5. Institutions: The Titans with Paper Hands
On Marble Hill, Institutions surveyed the carnage below. They dipped toes for diversification, then recoiled at drawdowns. Their block trades moved markets; their risk committees moved headlines. When the macro winds shifted, they abandoned ship—leaving smaller hands to salvage the wreckage.
“Size breeds power, but fear begets inaction.”
Blame: They treated crypto like an exotic garnish on a balance sheet, not the main course—then wondered why the markets turned sour.
6. Market Makers: The Invisible String-Pullers
In shadowy alleys, Market Makers danced between spot and perpetual futures. Spreads vanished, rebates flowed, and arbitrage profits stacked like bricks. But when the tempest hit, they vanished too—liquidity evaporating in the crucible of a crash.
“True liquidity shows its colors in the darkest hour.”
Blame: They engineered depth by day and ghosted the order books by night, profiting from every bid they left unfilled.
7. Influencers: The Digital Sirens
From neon-lit studios, Influencers sang hymns of price targets and “moon missions.” Sponsored shouts drowned out due diligence. They peddled tokens they’d been paid to pump, and signed affiliate links they’d wagered their reputations on. Their followers rode waves of hype—only to crash on the reefs of reality.
“Attention is currency; integrity costs too much to spend.”
Blame: They sold hope in exchange for referral bribes, abandoning the altar of trust when the chart turned red.
8. Hackers: The Outlaws of Opportunity
Beneath the surface, Hackers scanned every contract for a crack. They were both scourge and unsolicited auditors: white-hats earning bounties, black-hats draining millions. In their wake, protocols patched holes—but users patched nothing for their shattered confidence.
“Every exploit is a sermon: code talks, but security listens.”
Blame: They turned decentralised nodes into loot boxes, reminding us that code without care is just an invitation to chaos.
Epilogue: A Kingdom’s Reckoning
Crypto Kingdom was built on a grand paradox—boundless, permissionless innovation shackled by endless profit motives. In a world of decentralised technology but no decentralised trust, blame became the coin of the realm. Each group—from founders to hackers—played their part, driven by the same force: financial incentive.
And so the question remains: can a new generation of builders rewrite this story? Or will Crypto Kingdom collapse under the weight of its own contradictions, remembered not as utopia, but as a cautionary fable of unbridled greed?
“We chase progress in code, but only ethics can anchor the soul of a system.”
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