Would you accept a 30% pay cut for the exact same job just to become an internal employee instead of a consultant? I’m having a deep conversation with a friend about this, and he keeps telling me that job security is more important than money. But let’s be honest, with AI taking over more and more tasks, is there really such a thing as job security anymore? You could be an internal employee today and get replaced by an AI agent in the next round of layoffs. I don’t know, but I find it hard to justify giving up 30% of my salary for something that isn’t even guaranteed. What do you think? Would you take the pay cut for more security, or keep the money?

I just watched the Stanford Prison Experiment on Netflix, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how much it looks like CT and Pumpfun or other launchpads right now. If you don’t know the story, they took 24 normal college students and put them in a fake prison in a basement. Half were assigned as guards, and the other half as prisoners. Within 36 hours, completely normal students had started behaving like monsters. The guards began humiliating and breaking down the prisoners simply because their uniforms and mirrored sunglasses gave them power without consequences. They had to shut down the entire 2-week experiment after just 6 days. While watching it, I started mapping the exact same roles onto Pumpfun. The guards are the insiders, the cabals, the deployers, and your favourite KOLs selling people dreams. Put someone behind an anon handle, a cartoon avatar, and 40% of the supply bundled into sniper wallets, and it works just like those mirrored sunglasses. Normal morality disappears. Dumping on thousands of retail buyers doesn’t feel like stealing anymore. You just call them exit liquidity and launch the next ticker. The prisoners are the degens in the trenches. Sitting in front of Dexscreener for 16 hours a day, staring at 1-minute candles, getting rugged 9 times out of 10, and still coming back for more. And that’s the craziest part of the psychology. In the Stanford experiment, the prisoners supposedly had the right to walk out whenever they wanted, but they became so trapped in their roles that they stayed. On @Pumpfun, the prisoners don’t leave either. Because every degen secretly believes that one lucky 100x will turn him from a prisoner into a guard. Meanwhile, the warden sits at the top, collecting millions in fees from every trade while the guards and prisoners destroy each other. Sometimes I really wonder whether crypto is building a new financial system or whether it has just built the biggest Stanford Prison Experiment in history. What do you think? Are people on CT just playing a role, or does this market show who they really are?

Yes, I know I'm too late to the trend of checking my Kaito Aura, but anyway, I did it and just checked how far I've fallen off over the last few months. But tbh, I was always here to meet new people and find new ways to make money. No smart follower count can give me that. It always comes down to hard work and what you're willing to put into it. Over the last few months, I've spent countless hours learning how to vibe code, build things, and figure out stuff I had no idea about before. And I'll keep doing it because I genuinely enjoy learning new things. It's always funny to look at these statistics and see where you stand, but at the end of the day, numbers on a dashboard don't define your progress. still here. locked in. forever growing.

We need more crypto launchpads. Yesterday at the office, a friend of mine told me we should build a crypto launchpad. I told him the market probably doesn’t need another one. Well, today I saw a tweet from @riowgmi showing how launchpad revenues have changed over the past month, and I think I owe him an apology. Some of these projects were backed and promoted by pretty big names in the industry. Just a few months ago, everyone was convinced they would challenge @Pumpfun and take a significant share of its market. Fast forward to today, pumpfun revenue is up 23%, while almost everyone else is down anywhere from 12% to 99%. Most of them are for nothing. Remember when every new launchpad was supposed to be the next big thing? Apparently, the market has spoken. Clearly, what this industry desperately needs right now is another 20 launchpads competing for the same traders and the same liquidity. Maybe I should call my friend and tell him we start building tomorrow.

Does anyone here have experience with the Tesla Model Y premium? I’m considering getting one, especially with their current offer of 0% leasing, around $400 a month, and 3 years of free charging. Sounds like a pretty good deal, but I’d love to hear from people who actually own one. Is it worth it, or are there things I should know before getting one?

Months ago, we started talking about a possible merger between SpaceX and Tesla, as we assumed that Elon Musk wanted to bring his companies under one roof. And given the fact that SpaceX isn’t really a revenue machine, but rather a company that relies heavily on government contracts, subsidies, and support while developing spacecraft and other technologies, having a partner that could push revenue higher would make sense. Meanwhile, you can now get a Tesla Model Y with 0% interest and even 3 years of free charging. So my guess is that Musk wants to merge the companies because he believes it would create more value for both. And that would be crazy when you think about it. You wouldn’t just be buying into a car company anymore, one that also develops robots, batteries, and other technologies. You’d potentially be buying into an entire ecosystem, from xAI to chips, Starlink, space technology, and everything else connected to Musk’s companies. Something much bigger than what most people currently associate with Tesla. And I think this has been a matter of time for quite a while. Does that mean the merger is already confirmed? No, it isn’t. But I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the direction Musk wants to take. The prices of $TSLA and $SPCX reacting tomorrow. https://t.co/rXFJJygtVs

I know France has a history of revolutions, massive protests, and everything, but looking at what is happening in France right now, I honestly think they have completely lost the plot. We’ve seen armed robberies targeting people in crypto, people’s passports and personal information being sold, and now it feels like the authorities don’t even have control over what is happening in their own country. It’s really sad. And I think if you’re an entrepreneur or involved in finance in France, you should seriously consider keeping a low profile. Don’t go around telling everyone what you do, how much money you make, or what you own. Looking at what these criminals are doing, I get the feeling that the French police are struggling to keep the situation under control. Just look at the pictures of what is happening in France right now.

I’m thinking about getting a badge next to my name on X. I’ve been active on CT for years, writing daily market reports, sharing my opinions, and supporting projects I believe in. I wouldn’t mind representing a serious project that is actually building something and has long-term potential. Not interested in just wearing a badge for the sake of it. I want to believe in what I’m representing. Does anyone know a serious project looking for an experienced CT guy who knows the space and isn’t afraid to speak his mind? My DMs are open.

The more I think about it, the more I realise that in my almost 8 years in crypto, I’ve gained more life experience than almost anywhere else. Yes, I also work a corporate job. I’m pretty high up in the hierarchy, and through the different roles I’ve had at different companies, I’ve learned a lot about human psychology and how people behave. I’ve also washed dishes while taking out a student loan, just to earn enough money to get to where I am today. But to get to the point of what I actually wanted to say. In the last 8 years here on CT and in crypto, I’ve learned so many things that have pushed my inner anger more than anything else. And one of the biggest lessons is that humans are, by nature, liars. Most of the people you meet here are trying to be someone they are not. They constantly show you the best version of themselves, telling you, “Oh, I’m doing this, I’m building that, I’m going to achieve this.” But in reality, many of them have never accomplished anything close to what they’re selling you. And what am I talking about? All these projects that are trying to sell you a dream, convincing you that you’re going to become rich by investing in them. But the sad reality is that neither you nor they will become rich. Because 99% of the time, these projects are doomed to fail before they even begin. Let’s look at the numbers. We know that only a small percentage of startups succeed. Let’s say 1 out of 100. And in crypto, I would argue it’s maybe 2 out of 1,000. And I’m not even counting meme coins, because then we might be talking about 1 out of 100,000. Most of the time, people are trying to sell you their knowledge, which often isn’t even consistent. But I don’t blame only them. I also blame the investors. And who are the investors? Most of us are just here to make a quick buck. Then we hear the same story again and again. “We need to support builders.” “We need to support people who are actually building.” “We need to invest in innovation.” But let’s put that on paper. In my experience, supporting builders often means losing money. What do you actually get from investing $1K, $2K, or $3K into a project when the intentions behind it aren’t always what they seem? And many of the people investing don’t really understand what they’re putting their money into. They think they’ve discovered some golden formula. Maybe now they’re even consulting AI bots, thinking they have finally figured everything out. But most of the time, they’re just wrong. And being wrong in crypto is expensive. Very expensive for the people putting their hard-earned money into these projects. Sometimes I wonder why I don’t just sit down and start making videos about all the failures I’ve experienced over the years. I don’t want to go into specific projects right now, but looking back, I could probably rant about 50 to 100 projects that sold people nothing but dreams. Just look at Cardano, where so much money went into projects that never delivered what they promised, while the chain itself struggled to deliver on its ambitions. Or Polkadot, which sold us a huge vision of the future. And yet, after all these years, Ethereum is still the daddy of everything. And that brings me to my conclusion. Yes, I love the degen side of myself. Yes, I love investing in people and supporting projects I believe in. But I’ve become much more selective. I don’t just throw money into everything anymore because I know how badly that can hurt you in the long run. Looking back at 2023, I invested quite a bit into NEAR Protocol and several projects that later performed extremely well after touching their bottoms. But why did I invest? Because I looked at the people behind them. The same goes for Zcash. While people were telling me it was fake, that it would never achieve anything, or even coming up with conspiracy theories about Mossad and the CIA, I was looking at the people behind the technology. And I thought, okay, this actually has potential. Because there is a difference. If you have people who have already accomplished something meaningful, built successful products, and proven themselves over the years, there is a better chance they can do it again. But if you have people who have never accomplished anything and are just showing you fake results and selling you dreams, you’re probably going to lose money with them. I know this is a long text, and if you’ve made it this far, thank you. I think a lot of this comes from an inner anger I’ve developed over the years. Not necessarily towards other people, but towards myself. Because looking back, I’ve made so many bad decisions. Decisions I could have handled much better. But in the end, I got what I deserved. And what I deserved were life lessons. Very expensive ones, but also incredibly valuable ones. Maybe that’s the biggest thing crypto has taught me. You can make money, lose money, and make it back again, but the experience you gain from all of it stays with you. And I’m still learning. I would genuinely love to hear from you: In one sentence, what has been your biggest life lesson in crypto?

Another one bites the dust. We have Persona NFTs, a project that was hyped up so much that the floor reached around 1 ETH, if I remember correctly. Back in the day, people were calling it the new Azuki, even a better version of it. And yes, the team actually worked and kept building, but now here we are. Liquidation, bankruptcy, and the team announcing that they’re giving up. I mean, after everything that has happened to NFTs this year, with several projects simply giving up, where is the point anymore? It just makes me even stronger in my opinion that if you have really good profits on an NFT, sell it and take your money. Where is the point of collecting in the end if we all end up biting the dust? I’ve been collecting NFTs for years, and it’s really sad to see what has happened to this industry. You support projects, believe in their vision, hold through the worst times, and then one day they announce that it’s over. Just remember, again and again, to take profits. We’ll see where this goes and whether something can still be saved from Persona. Maybe someone will buy the project and continue building. Who knows? But it’s really sad because the team was active. And with Blur also closing down, it just shows that there isn’t enough liquidity anymore to feed the monster behind these projects. The problem is that many teams are no longer satisfied with small profits or normal salaries of $100K a year. They want millions. And if they can’t make a million a year, they would rather shut everything down and launch another project. Because for some of them, NFTs have become nothing more than a cow they can keep milking. Meanwhile, the collectors who actually believed in the projects are left holding the bags. Sometimes I really wonder what happened to the culture we all fell in love with.