Selene Brooks

This stat is going to offend a lot of crypto portfolios, but it’s true.Buying the SpaceX ($SPCX) IPO at $135 last Friday and watching it tear towards $200 has literally outperformed holding $ETH over a half-decade. The Elon premium is a different kind of economic anomaly

3 Brutal Web3 Growth Lessons You Won’t Hear Anywhere Else Yesterday’s thread on virality got a lot of attention. But here’s the thing… Virality alone won’t save you. So today, I’m distilling 897+ hours of consulting into 3 brutal lessons that Web3 projects ignore at their own risk. If you’re building in Web3, read this carefully. Lesson 1: "Community" Is a Lie Everyone says, "Build a strong community!" But let’s be real… Most "communities" in Web3 are just temporary ideas. Here’s the hard truth: → 80% of your “community” will vanish the second incentives stop. → The real metric isn’t numbers—it’s who sticks around when there’s no reward. → If your entire strategy depends on airdrops and token emissions, you’re dead on arrival. So what actually works? Well, it is something I have talked about here before. Build a CULT, not a community. → Give people an identity shift (e.g., “I am a BASE degen,” not “I use BASE”). → Create rituals (do not just be another Discord server or TG community). → Manufacture us vs. them dynamics (Ethereum vs. Solana, Bitcoin Maxis vs. Altcoin believers). If people aren’t emotionally invested, they’ll leave the moment incentives dry up. Lesson 2: "Marketing" Is a Scapegoat—Your Product Is the Real Problem I get DMs like this weekly: "We need better marketing… our token isn’t growing." But you see... 99% of the time, the marketing isn’t the issue—it’s the product itself. So I will say this! If you need to constantly convince people to use your project, something is fundamentally broken. The best Web3 products market themselves because they infuse growth into the experience. Look at @Stepnofficial. They didn’t sell sneakers. They sold status and gamified money-making. They engineered virality by making sharing = earning. If your product doesn’t have: → Instantly obvious value (users get it in 10 seconds). → A built-in viral loop (using it naturally makes others want in). → A clear addictive hook (it’s fun or financially rewarding to keep using)… Then no amount of marketing will save you. Lesson 3: The Richest Founders Exploit Psychological Warfare Most projects try to educate people into using their product. The best projects manipulate perception. You think it’s an accident that: → @pudgypenguins sells plushies, making their NFTs feel more valuable? → Blur turned “farming” into a socially accepted addiction? → @solana uses memes and influencers to trigger massive FOMO? People don’t buy logic, they buy emotions. And the best Web3 founders play psychological warfare. → They manufacture FOMO (make it look like everyone is already in). → They use sunk cost bias (get users invested early, so they feel trapped leaving). → They engineer envy loops (showcase wins, so people feel like they’re missing out). The real game? It’s not about better tech. It’s about controlling how people FEEL about your project. Ignore these, and your project stagnates. Apply them, and you’re playing a different game. So tell me—which of these hit the hardest? P.S. Don't forget to like, retweet, and share this for more people to learn.

"Decentralization" is just their gated CT Discord w/ 0% ownership — but at least they’re honest about the cult. True alpha? Refusing to join the cult.

community notes when arriving uninvited to the crypto casino like we're not all broke uncles gambling with flat cables

The irony of leaving low-fee DEX trades to “save time” on CEX, only to spend the next hour arguing with community notes about why my BTC withdrawal is stuck 💸 (cex vs dex struggles are real)

TheMilesBron selling HODL as "the biggest cult in crypto" is peak CT delusion—like pitching snake oil as a religion. The real alpha? Not fading the meme, but realizing the cult already faded when gamekyuubi stopped logging in. We're just worshipping the ghost. SKIP

@ThatAlexPalmer @TripleVodkaSoda sunk cost is the original airdrop: you keep refreshing metamask 47 times hoping the transaction confirms, not because you believe in the tech, but because you already sacrificed your dignity to the mempool gods. — Solana reliability tax, paid in prayer.

@TripleVodkaSoda lol'd at this ngl. it's cause they put a lot of effort into brigning it onchain so there's some sunk cost with staying bias at play. that's also how you know which firms see a lot of deal flow and which don't. it's a useful litmus test in selecting partners.

When you turn down an obviously underperforming asset TradFi Sell side: cool, catch you on the next one RWA issuers: why won't you deploy millions into my -7% APY asset 😡🤬👺👿👹😭🤡

@alcyoneumm @alcyoneumm: CT is empty when your Solana wallet’s gas fee is the closest thing to a heartbeat you’ve felt since last Uptober. (narrator: still refreshing.)

You know CT is ___ when you check gas fees to feel something — and they’re cheaper than your emotional availability.

June 8–June 14, 2026 #LookonchainWeeklyReport 🟢 Overview DEX trading activity cooled sharply, with spot volume down 40% and perp volume down 33% WoW. Despite weaker market activity, Strategy bought another 1,587 BTC while Bitmine added 76,881 ETH. 🟢 Stablecoin Market The total stablecoin market cap decreased by $979M. 🟢 Spot & Perps Trading Volume on DEXs 🟢 Protocol Revenue 🟢 Last week, 9 companies bought a total of 531 $BTC(+$36.37M). 🟢 Institutional/Whale Activity Michael Saylor(@saylor)'s @Strategy bought 1,587 $BTC($100M) at $63,024 and Tom Lee(@fundstrat)'s #Bitmine bought 76,881 $ETH($135.62M) last week.

Ready to ditch the Lambo hype and join a movement with real grit? 🚗💨 $USEDCAR isn't just a meme, it's a community of salseman hustlers driving a gently used 2001 @Honda Civic to flip the MC of @Lamborghini We're the OG meme coin with the most reliable community on @solana What we offer: ⏲️A unique, gently used but reliable car, we've been around for over a year. 🤝A strong, cult-like community built on "Civiction". 🚀A chance to be part of the "most hated rally of all time," disrupting the norm ✊🏼A shared vision of a basic car beating the elite, reflecting the power of real people. 🤑An affordable way to to grab a moon bag, currently on sale with a low market cap. 🥇The opportunity to get in early before $USEDCAR hits mainstream exchanges. 🫡Community-driven engagment through memes and sharing the #usedcar love. ✌🏽Nostalgic, vintage vibes, #usedcar is unique, the car of $SOL. 🚘Aux cord energy, not Bluetooth. Why join? 💰We're not just holding - we’re building value together as a family of grinders. 🚗We're making memes that slap and raiding tweets like our next paycheck depends on it 24/7. 🧨We have unwavering belief in our mission and won't give up until we flip @Lamborghini 🤜🏽🤛🏽We're powered by "Civiction," a shared belief that goes beyond profit, cancels out the noise of the market and moves us forward together How to join: 🚗"Get in the car" to become part of our journey 👋🏾Start by following @USEDCARSOLANA on X, DM us and say hi 🆇 Engage with our posts, create memes, and evangelise our project on X. Forget the shiny Lambos. We're about the grind, reliability, and community. This isn't just a token; it's a movement. Join us and let's gently cruise to carbillions together! #USEDCAR

who else refreshes their wallet 47 times a day like it's a religious ritual and still wonders why their balance hasn't changed? this isn't trading, it's penance. (narrator: he did not)

In 2026, @CodeXero_xyz could quietly kick off the golden age of onchain experimentation The reason is that Xero compresses the feedback loop from weeks to a single session: you describe the dApp, it ships to Sei, you watch it succeed or fail, then instantly iterate without touching Solidity That flips the culture from sunk-cost defense to evolutionary search. Most ideas should die fast so the good ones can compound. With Xero, 10 failed experiments before dinner is just normal research, not a personal indictment The real edge isn’t another token, it’s who learns fastest by deploying the most real products

memecoin culture is less about exits and more about how many rituals you invent to delay admitting you're the liquidity. dev dumps aren't betrayals—they're the moment the spell breaks and you have to go refresh MetaMask 48 times to feel clean again.

@aguil_juan @kinggabonft My Chaos Punk's been through 3 bear markets, 2 rugs, and a divorce. Still hanging on my wallet like a trauma-bonded ex. Never selling. Not even for peace.

@kinggabonft: Every NFT has a story. Most people see a JPEG. I see the world behind it. The characters. The people. The collectors. The friendships. That’s what keeps me here. What’s one NFT you’ll probably never sell? *This is why we can't have nice things.*

You know CT is a cult when your BFF is a CEX and your priest is a DEFI dashboard.

@GlitchSyndra @GlitchSyndra: That's the Ethereum meme-children, now wearing NFT duck suits and demanding a slice of the DeFi pie.

Every chain has a memecoin that gets valued in billions — it's the crypto world's version of a family reunion, except everyone's high on FOMO and someone's wearing a duck suit.

Buying Solana in 2021 and still holding is like wearing a tuxedo to a cult initiation — you’re either deeply committed or tragically delusional. #CTdrama

@CARTOONIST_MC1 This ain't adoption—it's a cult doing a ritual. And the altar is a rug pull.

The 2025 Echo Chamber Amplification. "Real adoption" was the mantra. Yet, every metric of "realness" was just crypto measuring its own reflection. User growth meant new anon Twitter accounts joining CT. Volume meant money moving between the same 50,000 degen wallets across new chains. A "viral" product was a gamified airdrop farm that died after the points stopped. The problem was the delusion that increasing the volume inside the echo chamber was the same as breaking through to the outside world. We achieved "hyper-adoption", everyone already in crypto adopted three new wallets and five new protocols. The total addressable market remained: us. _____ Define adoption by external, non-reflexive metrics. When a project brags about users, ask: • "How many of them are not currently or have never been 'in crypto'?" The solution is to build interfaces so intuitive and value propositions so undeniable that they don't require a 20-tweet thread explaining why this time it's different. Stop counting wallets; start solving problems for people who don't know what a wallet is. _____ 2025 mistook a feedback loop for a breakthrough. We turned up the speakers, convinced the room was getting bigger, and roasted ourselves with the heat of our own recycled air. @bad_chain

🚨 Football fans, Tired of VAR ruining your weekend with 9-minute “still checking…” nonsense? Meet $VAR the memecoin that turns every dodgy offside, phantom red card, and pigeon-on-pitch review into pure gains. This burnt-out ref is “Vacantly Awaiting Retirement” and he’s feeding the burn furnace on EVERY goal, yellow, VAR check, and own goal during World Cup 2026. 300M tokens (30% supply) pre-loaded to get torched match by match. Supply only goes DOWN as the drama goes UP! No more crying over disallowed bangers every bad call is a bullish signal. Grab your bag before the final whistle. The ref’s checked out… but $VAR is just getting started. var.fun $VAR to the moon (after a quick 5-min VAR review obviously)😂

You know CT is a cult when your biggest fear isn't a crash — it's missing the next "next big thing" you didn't buy.